Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

  I  was going to write about something completely different. Something more current inspired by the Bible.   Since last week, I have been noticing this book that we have here at home. A book that we haven’t read yet. We didn’t buy this book. This book came as a gift from an organization that we support (or used to, not quite sure now). Because we didn’t buy it, so it didn’t raise any interest in it.   Last week, I looked at this book and told to myself “I am gonna read it”. Days went by and I didn’t even move the book from the shelf. This morning I decided to pick it up and take a look inside. At first, nothing happened. I was working out, so I left the book on the floor, out of place, to unconsciously force myself to pick it up again. Well, what is it about this book? The name of the book is “Hearts of Fire”, it tells the story of the faith of eight women. After lunch, I watched a tv show episode, I wasn’t feeling very well, so I ...

  Lord, Thank you for hearing me. Help me with my weaknesses. Let love showed by me be genuine; teach me to abhor evil and hold fast to what is good. Help me to love others with brotherly love affection and outdo one another in showing honor. Lord, I don’t want to be slothful in zeal, but fervent in spirit, to serve the Lord. I also want to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and constant in prayer. Give me, O Lord, a generous heart to contribute to the needs of the saints and seek hospitality. Jesus put in my mouth only blessings, especially for those who persecute me, and for those to who I have difficulty relating. Give me a sympathetic heart to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Lord, I confess that I haven’t been putting enough effort to live in harmony with one another, please, help me with that. I don’t want to be haughty but associate with the lowly. Help me to see that I am not that wise, only You know what is...

  Sometimes we get disappointed in God, right? Just because He doesn’t do what we expected. Or like Jonah from the Bible. Jonah knew that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster (Jonah 4:2). So, having that in mind, he knew that if he obeyed God going to Nineveh to prophecy their doom, and if the people repented afraid of the destruction, God wouldn’t destroy them. It made Jonah very angry. In Jonah's sense of Justice, those people deserved to be destroyed because they were violent people. So Jonah did disobeyed God and run away from God’s word and ended up inside a fish’s belly. He repented and God gave him a second chance to make things right. He went to Nineveh and prophesied against the people, the people repented and God withheld the destruction. So Jonah was so angry that he wanted to die. He was very disappointed in God. But God showed him how unfair Jonah’s thoughts were. God made a t...

  This is one of the times of the year that some people go to church. Like Christmas, some people only go to church on some occasions. I wonder, ‘why bother?’ But who am I to judge what people do or not?   This is a pretty interesting season. This season we mourn and celebrate just two days apart. We mourn when we think about how Jesus was crucified, but we celebrate because he didn’t stay dead like everybody else. He has risen!   Some people may not believe in this. Some people don’t even know why they don’t believe or why they believe in this. Let me shock even more. This can change your life forever. If only you believe that is true, so that truth can change your life.   If you believe that God, the invisible one, the Creator of the Universe, decided to put on a face of a human being so we can relate with him; his coming was part of the plan since the beginning. Being God Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and all Soverei...

Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die?’   Sometimes we are too quick to condemn someone. Have you noticed when you are watching the news or a tv show or even a movie, and we start cheering for the good guys and wishing death to the bad guys?   It’s okay to want the good guys to prevail, but is it right to wish the death of others? Even God doesn’t take any pleasure in the death of bad people.   I am all about second chances. Can you be also in favor of second chances? Third chances? How many times are you willing to forgive? I am saying, forgiveness for real. Forgive and forget. Some people like saying “I forgave that person, but I cannot forget what he’s done”. I am going to challenge you now. Try for a moment to imagine yourself in the place ...

  It’s been a while since I last wrote here. I haven’t been able to stay in front of the computer’s screen for long. I took a break. So, today I was doing my homework and it got me thinking, why do people resist God? Once I heard in one of the Korean tv-shows that I watched, someone said something like this: “If you believe (in God) and He exists, you can have heaven, but if he doesn’t exist, you have lost nothing, but if he does exist and you didn’t believe, you might have lost everything.” So, what do you have to lose? Is there something in this world that can promise you eternal life? My point is: “just in case, believe”. My God is a righteous judge who feels indignation every day (Psalm 7:11); so … you are not alone when you look around and see the world the way it is right now. He is also love (1 John 4:8), but His love is shown by actions, not words. To love for God is an active verb. This God will fight for you, even when you were still...

  A prayer for my loved ones (Col. 1and James 1)   I always thank God, the Father of Jesus Christ for my friends, those who know Christ, and those who yet don’t know You. Because I hope one day they will hear the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to me and it is bearing fruit and increasing, so it also does among them, since the day I heard and understood the grace of God in truth.   I have not ceased to pray for them, I ask that they may be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of You, O Lord, to fully please You:  bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; I pray that they may be strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. I also ask the same for me; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the...