Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

I don’t know if I’ve told you about this, but I’m committed to reading the whole Bible during this year again. I really want to make it a habit. Why? Because it is amazing how we change. How the reading changes us, at least it has changed me. And the blessings? Oh man! If only you knew all the blessing that I and my family has received. One can say that I cannot attribute to my readings, but I know I can. And today, I read these three passages Luke 16:10 , Psalm 62: 9 – 10 and Proverbs 11: 18 . All three somehow talk about money. First, in Luke, it says, ‘ One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much’ . If only we knew our politicians before we give our votes to them! It is all about character. When you have a good character, that is what you are: a person who wants to do the right thing, even the opportunity to do otherwise shows up, still you will choose the right thing. Because that ...

This night I lost my sleep for a little while. So, I have nothing else to do, so I started praying. I try to bring to memory the requests I have been praying God lately. I did remember. When I finished, I also remember (or God put it in my mind) that I’ve been reading the book of Number, and I felt convicted about something. Everyone who knows a little bit about the bible, or ever took the time to read, often thinks that this is the most boring book of the bible. Yes, you can think that way but, if you step back a little and try to see the big picture, it represents our life, our Christian life, trying to get to our promised land . Let’s see. It started in the exodus of the people of Israel. They were set free in such a way that is really hard to think that everyone would ever forget about that. They were set free from slavery. My interpretation is that when we turn our lives upside down to follow Christ, we are also set free. Free from the bound of the sin, we wil...

Hoje é um dia triste para a comunidade de Christchurch, na Nova Zelândia. As pessoas têm tanto ódio em seus corações, que nem posso começar a explicar. Jesus disse: "e porque a iniquidade será aumentada (cheque), o amor de muitos esfriará (cheque duplo)". Mateus 24:12 Temos visto muitas dessas coisas ultimamente, mas não vamos nos acostumar com isso. Vamos nos permitir lamentar por eles, sermos sensíveis sobre o que aconteceu. Não vamos esperar pelo próximo ataque. Nós apenas tivemos um tiroteio em uma escola no Brasil esta semana (que não é um evento comum no Brasil), não é um evento comum na Nova Zelândia; então está piorando. Está escrito: "Não se conformem com o padrão deste mundo, mas sejam transformados pela renovação da nossa mente" Romanos 12: 2 . Isso significa que hoje vamos sentir a dor deles. Suas perdas são nossas perdas, que não vamos apenas chorar se isso tivesse acontecido conosco. Não seja tão egoísta...

The day before yesterday I wrote about complaining ( click here ). Here I am again talking about it. Sometimes we don’t know why such disasters come upon us; maybe because it is just random like it is written in Matthew 5:45b “… He causes His sun to shine on evil people and good people. He sends rain on those who do right and those who don’t”. So, we cannot know for sure why some bad things have happened to us. But in the desert, the people of Israel knew why suddenly many serpents, fiery serpents, showed up biting and killing many people ( Numbers 21:4 – 7 ). They knew they have been complaining again about the same thing (water, food, and looking back to Egypt).  However, God had been providing for them ever since. Nothing had ever lacked to them. Yet, they were still complaining. To make it worse before God, they were constantly looking back to slavery, as it was the best thing that ever happened to them! Isn’t that crazy? They rather die in Egypt than go through...

We are generally tempted by pride and wealth. I remember when I was in school, like high school and even before, I was a little bit proud of myself because I didn’t need to study too hard to go well in the exams. And some people liked taking advantage of me because I didn’t care about helping them to cheat. In my mind I wasn’t doing anything wrong “I wasn’t the one cheating!” (I used to say). However, I was helping them to cheat, in some degree back in my mind I knew I wasn’t really helping them at all. I was just trying to keep my status of the intelligent one. When I got to University, I changed. Instead of giving them everything ready, I invited myself to help them to understand the subject, and that would help me also. So we had this study group. I think I did better. My pride wasn’t too big especially because I realized that was few people smarter than me, or at least I thought so. And there was this one girl, she is very dear to me she also had a study group, lu...

Today, in my daily readings, I realized how much God doesn’t like grumblings. There is only one place where God accepts our complaints. It is in the Psalms (for example Psalms 55 ), why? Because there is another kind of complaints, are your complaints like that? Or they have nothing to do with our daily complaints. Where do I get this info? Well, I was reading in Numbers, and since yesterday (my readings from yesterday) people of Israel were complaining about Moses and Aaron and how they were leading them, although they were doing just what God had said to them. Yet, they weren’t happy. So, a group of people gathered together and started some sort of riot against Moses. That displeased a lot of God. Moses and Aaron were chosen by God, and God was in control. So, God warned them, as they didn’t listen, God killed them all at once. He opened the earth, and they fell into a hole. The people got scared, and instead of stopping the complaining, they...

Sometimes we feel alone. Have you ever felt alone, even when you see people around you, and you can’t help having this feeling? Like you have an empty space in your life? Like something is missing? Well, you might know what I’m going to say. Yes, I’ve been there. There was this season in my life that I really felt that lonely. It was horrible, the worse feeling ever. But, how did I turn around? I looked for answers in the right place. Now I’m fine, not because I’m married and have a cat, but because I have surrendered all those bad feelings and empty spaces to Jesus. You don’t know how to do this, right? It is easier than it looks like. All you have to do is believe He can. It doesn’t hurt. You know, believing. It might be hard at the beginning, but I’m sure you will succeed. Why? Because He wants it too. Because He is waiting for you to take the first step. It is all you have to do, take the first step, which is: belief. Believe in your heart, deep in your mind, ...