Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

    Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. EPHESIANS 4:2–3   I was reading this devotional and I wanted to share it with you. Because I know that sometimes keeping a relationship, whatever kind of relationship that may be, is hard. It requires work from both sides. Otherwise, it won't last long.   "In any relationship, it’s easy to start thinking the other person isn’t necessarily playing on your team. Maybe he has a differing opinion or looks at the task from a completely different angle, and before you know it, it feels like you’ll never be on the same page. The best way to thwart his attempts is to maintain “the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” But what does this mean? It means humbling yourself enough to refocus your individual agendas on what God wants. It means being patient the way you want others to be patient with you. It means ...

  In my last post, I wanted to discuss something, but in the end, I came out with something different. Therefore, now I am going to talk about what I meant for last week.   We see everywhere today people hating religions above everything else. Because they think religion is the root of all evil. Mistakenly, the root of all evil is money, but this is subject to another post.  What I want to say is if you take your time to learn what the religions are about, you will see that there are tremendous differences between them. But you will see in none of them the main character calling people to love one another as oneself. So, the hatred you see today against Christianity is because our God stands against what the world praises the most. The  self, self-sufficiency, and money.  The world abhors the thought of giving up one's life because of others,  putting  others first, or having a  different system of values .    Like marriage. Why are peop...

  Jesus said to his disciples “ Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me . Matthew 16:24”. *My thought – we all can resist a chocolate cake if we want to lose weight, why can’t we put our mind on ‘trying to be like Jesus in order to go to heaven’? The reward seems so much better. To deny a chocolate cake is to deny yourself the indulgence. The cross also teaches this. You can deny yourself things; you just don’t want to deny yourself of anything for Jesus. To leave behind a life of self-gratification, life of the moment, and life of pride for Christ. _____ xx_______xx______xx_______ You know, I come here to talk about the love of God for us. But there are many people who don’t believe in it, and I tell you what – it doesn’t matter. Jesus loves you the same. He would do all ever again if were to save just you, just to let you know how much He loves you.    However, if you really love Him back, you would want to please Him; ...

Do you know what I’ve just realized? God. We can go far away from Him, as far as we want. But his love is far superior to our wish to be far from him. No matter your reasons, if you got disappointed with institutions, family, friends, or whatever… or suddenly you started to believe in something that goes against what his word has to say about it, know this: “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39”  If you are reading this and thinking that you are far gone, that there is no turning back, or even… you have passed the point of no return; you still are in His sight. He is right now talking to you. Otherwise, you would never know this. And I know that there is no such thing as these things when we are talking about the love of God for you and me.  See, nothing in all creation!!  So, everything that w...

  (imagem: Três métodos que você pode aprender sabedoria: Primeiro, por reflexão, que é o mais nobre; segundo, por imitação, que é o mais fácil; e terceiro por experiência, que é o mais amargo. - Confucious) Hi,  Happy New Year! I hope your 2024 will be way better than your 2023. I know mine will.  I also have made some resolutions for this year. I have decided to read, actually read, not listen to the Bible, like I did most of last year. Why? Because reading requires you to sit, take some time apart, and focus. And I need to be closer to God. I need to hear his voice.  You may wonder why some Christians (I wish I could say all Christians) read the Bible, the whole Bible, every year. Isn’t it the same Book? It is, and it is not. It depends on how you read it, your intentions, your will. And who in the world can memorize it?    So, yes. The true Christian reads the Bible every day, and every day, something new may be highlighted for him. It is an adventure t...

  The book of the prophet Haggai tells something interesting that I hadn't noticed before. The main message here is: first, you repent, then work in God’s work. Otherwise, your work won’t be accepted by God.  What matters most to God? Our heart.  What does that mean? It means that He sees even deeper than we see what is going on within ourselves—our thoughts and intentions. We can’t bargain with God. He won’t fall for it. We cannot have both ways with God. In the book of the Prophet Haggai, God calls out to his people that they were more interested in their business than God’s. Later on, God called out on them again, saying, ‘Right, you guys are working in my business now, but your hearts are not in it; you must repent before doing my work'.  God cannot accept anything from us if we are harboring something God disagrees with.   It doesn’t matter if you see yourself as a good person because everything you do is lawful, yet your heart is full of greed, envy, ...