Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

  We often hear people complaining to God, or even doubting God according to their/others' experiences. "It is God's fault for all the wickedness in the world. The hunger, the evilness, the climate change, God should do something about it".  Really? Why would he?   If there are rich people everybody assumes they are blessed. If walking down the street it is easy to think that my problems are the only ones that overwhelm or... I am all alone.   We see injustice all around us. We see bad people doing great at life, and we see good people, faithful-to-God people struggling day-by-day. Is it a lottery? I don’t like to think so.    (Job 21:7 -15) 7 “Why do the wicked live on,     growing old and increasing in power? 8 They see their children established around them,     their offspring before their eyes. 9 Their homes are safe and free from fear;     the rod of God is not on them. 10...

  Two things stood out to me this morning while I was reading my Bible. Mark 12:13 says "And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk". This is the first thing. Who hasn't felt trapped in our own words? Especially when we are trying to talk about Jesus. Later in this chapter (v.24), Jesus says "Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?"   Jesus didn't feel trapped as they wanted. We do feel trapped in our words and feel lost or defeated when that happens. Why does that happen? Jesus said that we don't know the Scriptures or the power of God. If this isn't an incentive to increase your and my readings of the Scriptures I don't know what to say.    The second thing was in Psalm 33. Because I found more reasons to keep reading and studying the Bible. Verse 4: For the word of the LORD is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness.  Verse 11...

  In general people today don’t like churches. I really don’t understand why. I grew up going to church. I admit I was different from most of my friends. So what? I didn’t like to conform, I was kind of rebellious. Maybe I didn’t know what I was rebelling against.  Today I’d like to think I am rebelling against the pattern of the world, like the church. People who say they are atheists, but they are afraid of dying. People say they don’t like the church because it has too many restrictions and laws and things, but they don’t like the mess the world is right now. People say they don’t need God because they can be good people. I wonder why they need to be good if no one is judging them after all; where did their concept of good and bad people come from? where does love come from? Who checks all the boxes below: •          Don’t believe in God •          Don’t need church • ...

When you are in trouble, or worried or even depressed, not knowing what to do… feeling hopeless or tired of this life, what do you do? Where do you go? Who do you talk to? Does it help?    Jesus once said in Matthew 6:34  is “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Don’t you think it is obvious? It is obvious, but why don’t we believe in it? You see, maybe you didn’t understand it well. Tomorrow will worry about itself, which means that tomorrow or in a month or a year the problems of today will be gone, it will be solved. Isn’t it true?    For better or worse something will happen. Tomorrow another set of problems will come… What Jesus wanted you to know is, why worry about tomorrow? It is inevitable. You have already enough problems today. So, why spend time worrying about something you don’t even know if it’ll happen?    Like the AA preaches: “one day at a time”. We ...

(1) o poder de fazer escolhas livres sem restrições de agências externas; (2) a característica de julgar com sabedoria e objetividade ; (3) saber como evitar constrangimento ou angústia; (4) refinar o gosto, o tato. It is very good to read the Bible first thing in the morning. Jesus did, and Juan does… so I am giving it a try. For me, it is not the very first thing, because I have this cat, called Joy that insists on waking me up very early… because she thinks she is starving to death, and I am to blame for that.    Anyway… getting to the point. I was reading 1 Chronicles 22:12-13 “Only, may the LORD grant you discretion and understanding, that when he gives you charge over Israel you may keep the law of the LORD your God. Then you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the rules that the LORD commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Fear not; do not be dismayed”.   I’ve just realized that only in these two verses I can talk a lot about...