Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

What are you afraid of? Death? Bankruptcy? Starvation? Darkness? Embarrassment? Shame? Loneliness? The death of a loved one? There are so many things that we can be afraid of. Fear of the unknown, right? Everybody fears what we don’t know. We resist. Sometimes, we even resist the things we do know too.  What do you do when you are afraid? Who do you call? Mom? Dad? The police?  But there are things that we are afraid of, and apparently, there is no one that can help us, isn’t there? I know one thing that everybody is afraid of, I mean, almost everybody. Because I am not afraid of it. I see it as a door to be in a better place with Jesus, of course. Who else were you waiting for me to say? Let’s say you resist this fact. And you are afraid of death. Let’s rationalize a little bit here. Have you thought about why you are afraid of death? Is it because you don’t know what is on the other side? Is it because you haven’t done everything you wanted? Or because you aren’t ready? What...

I liked a lot this text from a devotional that I have been doing these last few days. That I decided to share it with you.   The Power of Prayer in Thanksgiving By Danny Saavedra   "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 (NKJV)    In life, there will always be things to worry about, things that cause anxiety. There is no shortage of troubles in this world. And despite the English translation of this verse, Paul did not tell the Philippians that they were prohibited from caring about worldly matters, that they couldn't be concerned with things like providing for their families, preserving their property, or any trial they may be experiencing. Instead, what the Greek word (merimnate) expresses is that we should not be so overly anxious that we fall apa...

  What can you be thankful for? Look around, don’t you see anything? I’ll tell you what I am grateful for.  None of these would be possible if God did not provide for us, all of us, for free.   Thank you, Lord, for the sun and the rain; without them, the crops wouldn’t grow, and I wouldn’t have food on my table. Thank you, Lord, for the air I breathe. Thank you, Lord, for the body you have given me; with it, I can walk, I can work. And most of the time, I take it for granted. Thank you, Lord, for the birds that make me smile every time I see them flying and playing in the air. Thank you, Lord, for the moon and stars that make my nights worthy of looking at. Besides the gravitational force that makes everything possible on Earth.  Thank you, Lord, for the 4 seasons. With them, I have learned that everything has an appropriate time to come, and everything also goes. With them, I can appreciate the beaches, the flowers, fruits, and vegetables, the colors of the fall, an...

  What is the good news that every Christian talks about? Well... I am a Christian, and sometimes I wonder about it myself. Why? Well, I guess because I am not Jewish and have always been taught about Jesus' teachings, which is good news. But... what exactly is the Good News of Jesus? What did Jesus do so differently that it is called Good News?   If you are in jail, the good news is that you are free. Jesus makes you a free person. But let’s understand why Jesus came.   So, God had given his people, called  Israelites, the Law.  This Law was and is what makes the Israelites a different people. They differentiate from everybody else because they uphold the Law, let’s say, very tight. And that was (and is) very burdensome. Because the Law is massive and had a lot of things, they (I guess) couldn’t possibly remember them all.  Which means that they were (are) constantly breaking the Law. And they always seek forgiveness even when they don’t know what the...

  There is One God. Half of the Earth can agree on that.  One God. One Creator. The same one who created everything keeps everything in its place. The sun is still there in the center. The earth is still spinning around on its own axis. The ocean still holds its place. The seasons are still happening. Who commands all that? Tell me, who? Who is the one that has existed before anything ever?? Who, with one Word, brought everything into existence? Who distributed the peoples around the globe? Where can you have all this information? So, how can man demand anything from God? How dare man question God’s creation? God’s actions? God’s decision? How dare man question God at all? If you believe that God, the One, is the Creator of all things. You must bend to believe that God chose from all the earth a piece of land and gave it to one man and his generations, and divided and they remain until today.   I am not talking only about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But also Abraham, Ishma...

  I want to start today with a prayer. Pray with me; this prayer was inspired by Paul, the apostle of Christ when he wrote to the Philippians. (Philippians 1:27-30)   Lord, only let the manner of my life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that when people hear of me, I am standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by those who oppose me. This is a clear sign of my salvation. For it has been granted to me that for the sake of Christ, I should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that I have seen Your people do, and now Your people can hear that I also have.     And Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6”.   We celebrate Christmas, right? Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. We are celebrating the life: a new life, a newborn. Halloween is the celebr...

  You know, in Brazil, we do not have in our culture Halloween. However, we have the Day of the Dead on November 2nd. But I have never been in a cemetery if a person wasn’t in a casket waiting to be buried. And I have never visited any grave. I know many cultures people go to the cemetery to talk to the grave or just leave flowers.   I have an opinion about that, but I’ll keep it to myself for now.  It has been a few years since Halloween became a thing in Brazil. It doesn’t seem right.  I don’t know what people do over there if they just go to parties wearing costumes or do something else.    According to the History Channel website:   “ This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they...