Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

Happy New Year! I wish you a blessed new year with lots of joy.   Lately, there is something bothering me about what a person talked to me about. This person is my friend, and we had a good conversation. But there was this thing that stuck in my mind. I started asking God what I should tell people when they use that argument to doubt your goodness and your justice. The answer was a reminder of a story that Jesus told, and it is written in Luke 16: 19-31 . It is about a rich man and Lazarus, a poor practically homeless we could say that. The rich man partied every day, and Lazarus covered with sores was laid at his gate, and he was hungry. But the only thing he got was the dogs coming to lick his sores. Pretty nasty scene, isn’t it? So Lazarus died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. Then the rich man also died and was buried and in Hades, being in torment he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. T...

  Is it possible to have peace with God without having peace with your neighbor? It is written: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23,24.   I want to point out that it is not who offended that must go and reconcile here in this verse. It is the one who suffered the offense that should go to his brother and straighten things out. You might not have anything against your brother but you know that he does, and If the Holy Spirit brought him to your memory, it means that you should be the one going after him, even though doesn’t look fair to human eyes. But it is not through human eyes that we should be living, walking, and loving. We are so incapable to do the right thing with our own strength or will or even with our sense of justice...

  We live in a society that allows us to indulge in everything. Nobody is going to say anything at least directly that you can’t. Today is the day that You can do everything. If you want to eat, there are hundreds of restaurants, fast food, self-services everywhere, and nobody now very seriously nobody is going to tell you to stop eating. But when you don’t fit in with their beauty standards, they certainly will tell you that you can’t.   You can exercise your body up to a point that you are going to look like a dolly. You go to the gym and spend money and hours there training and training and training…(don’t mind me asking you why so much?) feeding some desire of belonging or fitting in some groups, drawing some attention, dress expensive clothes, or simply addiction… You can buy up to you break your credit cards, you go and travel wherever you want, you enter in all places with your money, you even think that people want ...

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 ...