Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

The other day I was watching a sermon, that lately, the preacher has become my favorite, about idolatry, work as an idol. But this is not what I am going to talk about. I was thinking about idols, yes. But a different kind of idol. Idols that we usually don’t see as such. We don’t see them as such because we can’t call them an idol, I guess. But let me try.   We know what an idol means in biblical terms. An idol is everything that gets more attention than God. Everything that has more importance, that comes first. How do we know that we have an idol? Ask yourself what the most important thing is now in your life which you cannot live without. That is your idol. In the very beginning of Exodus 20, God says, “you shall have no other god before me”. In Matthew Jesus said, “Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”. This is the point that I wanted to get to.   “- An idol is everything that we...

  Where are you going after here? So, some people think that when they die, that is it, Game over. Nothing else.   Some think they will come back to try to make it better. A new chance. The game is not over yet. You die and keep coming back to life forever. Will you ever rest?   Others think that depending on how they have lived this life they can come back as any other form of life, meaning you can come back as anything like an ant, a tree, or a human being.   There are those who think they will have a harem of virgins.   And those who wish to have their own planet.   And obviously, some people believe in accountability, reward, and eternity, heaven, and hell. Let’s see if any of these “alternatives” are good.   n.1 If after this life I cease of existing, I can ask “what is the purpose then?” I could have lived the way I wanted without thinking about the consequences. There ...

Have you ever thought about what kind of person others think of you? I mean, not that I am interested in their opinion, no. That is not it. I mean, what kind of impression are you leaving on people? What would they say behind your back? Of course, we all want to leave a good impression; a person known for being kind, gentle, good, with self-control, selfless, trustful, truthful, etc. But for real, have we?   You know, people say that our true self is only revealed in the chambers of our own houses, especially with family. Also, it is said that we tend to hurt those who we love the most. Weird statements, although I kind of agree with them; there are some people who have nothing to hide (neither good nor bad). But if we rationalize a little bit, we can ask ourselves, why would I hurt my family? I would say not really intentionally, in most of the cases. Yet, we often do hurt them. When we are with them, we can reveal ourselves, if we are ...

  So, there is a little story that Jesus tells when he is in a Pharisee’s house. But before telling the story it is important to know some cultural background of that time. As we can imagine that at that time didn’t have closed shoes to keep their feet clean, hence the washing feet was provided as a gesture of good education and compassion to the guest. Second, women always had their hair tidied up, for whatever reason she unbounded her hair in public it would cause a shock and some misreading about who she was. So now let’s go back to the story.  Luke 7:36-50 ,  tells that there was this Pharisee called Simon who invited Jesus to a dinner in his house. He was interested in getting to know Jesus; however, he didn't provide the washing feet basin to Jesus when he arrived. But suddenly a woman showed up, this particular woman was known as a sinner and knelt at Jesus' feet shedding tears of gratitude and pouring perfume while kissing his ...

  Funny thing when people who live their lives in their own way and suddenly need something from God and ask Him for it. They wait for the answer, but the answer never comes. Then, they get frustrated and have a tantrum against God and everything related to it. But wait a minute. Let’s think now in our human sphere. When a dad has a kid who is pretty much disobedient, and self-centered, to say the least, and asks for something from his dad, something that he really wants but doesn’t really need it. The dad, very conscientiously of the reality, that he loves a lot his kid, however, if he always gives what the kid wants, what sort of person he is educating? So, the dad decides to say no, and several times he says no to his kid. The kid can mature from this if he bothers to ask why he can’t have it or when he will have it, he probably will learn something from his dad. But as we all know that there are some kids that don’t bother asking anything and j...

Tradução: O fruto que você pode ver é sempre o resultado da raiz que você não pode ver. You might be aware of the things that have been happening in Chile it is a very sad and complicated reality. People are doing horrible things the even I that consider myself with a more liberal in left view of politics and stuff, I am appalled. I would say that what is going on in Chile is the terrorism of the people who have no regard for opinion, law and I dare to say, for human life.   My husband is from Chile and sometimes he tries to call those primitive human beings of animals, I say that it is an offense to the animal kingdom. Although we, humans, are part of this Kingdom, usually I think we are at the bottom of the evolutive chain.   I can explain by the word of God why primitive human beings act in a worse manner than other animals. As you might have once wondered, as I have, animals didn't sin. They can't go against God. God made it that ...

I’ve been reading the Lord of the Rings (now I am on the third book – The return of the king), so there is this part when Pippin looked far to the land from a high place in Gondor and he has this glooming feeling where “hope seemed to wither”. And for a quick moment I wonder how many times we feel that way even when we look from a high place and see no good; everything around seems dark, and a war is about to break, and for a second all of our hope vanishes. And if we don’t pay attention, we tend to freeze right in this moment of despair.   But the story didn’t end there, that happened in the very first chapter of the 3rd book. So much is about to happen. And how many times in our lives we forget that too; that our life is just beginning, that was just a chapter. We don’t know what is to come. Sometimes we, I included, just assume that is the end. It might be the end of a chapter or just a full stop.   “Then, suddenly Pippin looked...