Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

You know, I really like, better, enjoy listening and learning Pastor Skip Heitzig from Calvary church Albuquerque, NM (may God keep blessing him and blessing others through him). There I was  Saturday afternoon, Skip and I in my living room. I was first watching him talk about 1 Corinthians 10, then I watched he talking about Joshua 3 and 4. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul started remembering a little bit of the Jew’s history; which made Skip talk about how awfully grumblers they were; especially those people who just had left Egypt after seeing all the wonders God had done for them. They really should have been more thankful. But as humans, as they were like we are too, we quickly forget the blessing and start focusing only on the problems. They became professional complainers. I am certain that you too know a lot of those professionals. There are these kinds of people that always manage to find something to complain about. It doesn't matter if

  For a long time, I considered myself a person with a very short fuse, as they say. But the more we get to know the word of God, there is no need to stay being that way, since being a “short fuse” didn’t bring me any benefit. Besides, we can’t use that justification to God, “I am this way”, “God made me like that, therefore He might want me to be this way”. Really? Is there no space for improvement? We are condemned to be a fool, rude, short fuse, stubborn, arrogant, prideful, ignorant… for the rest of our lives, that is what many people want to believe. Because they believe that it is just not possible for to someone change.   How many times I have heard someone saying that people don’t change. Guess what? They do, and they do a lot. They either can change for good or for bad. There are some things that are very hard to change, especially habits. Very hard doesn’t mean impossible. It is written in the Bible that with God nothing is impossible

  The Bible on many occasions says, “Fear of the Lord”. For so many years I struggled with the meaning of this phrase. First, I couldn’t accept the idea of fearing something we love. The most important commandment that Jesus says is: ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Mt 22:37); I kept thinking how is possible to fear and love at the same time? Then I thought, ‘would it mean that fear is like being in awe for God?’ I still wasn’t convinced. Then I was in awe of the beauty of nature and God’s creation when I finally got it. Can you imagine something so big that it can’t be contained inside the Universe? Just because the Universe was created by him. The bible says that God created everything that has ever existed (Col 1:15-17). So, God is unimaginably big, he is eternal without beginning or end, he is not in the realm of time, atemporal, he is not made of any matter, spirit, that is why he c

A graça de Deus! Graças a Deus que você não precisa ser merecedor. Another day my husband was telling me about a woman who he met in one conference, and because he was wearing a cross on his neck, they started talking about religion. At some point, she said, ‘I don’t believe in Him, I just know that I am going to heaven when I die’. (It was something like that). After that, he didn’t want to engage more in the conversation. She had made up her mind. Why am I telling you this? Because we need to let the people know a lot of things regarding the subject. First of all, if you believe that all good people are going to heaven when they die, you are so wrong. Second, some people refuse to believe in hell and in judgment. That doesn’t uncreate them just to please you. And if you believe in heaven, obviously you must believe in hell. Just to be coherent. Third, dude! Just decide what you are going to believe and stick with it. People are mixing all up

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. The r

  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 that we