Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

  This week I read 1 Corinthians 14.  It is about spiritual gifts. Every person gets one or more. It doesn’t need to be the same for everybody, as many want me to think. I understand the spiritual gifts are much more for building up the Church of Christ than just for my own benefit (1 Cor 14:6-17). Paul talks a lot about it. I get that thrill, the wave of emotions that comes when you feel the Spirit moving you. But sometimes I think it is more about physiology than purely spiritual. You see, the music, the beat, the chords, and all about the music can be made to excite you or to make you feel sad. Music is made to change your emotions. The wave sounds (I don’t exactly know how, but they do) can change something in your brain and change your behavior and emotions. So yes, you can feel very emotional in the church when you are singing songs of Worship, and also it can be the Holy Spirit. If it were the Holy Spirit, people would leave ...

  Everybody thinks they know how to love. Do we really? First of all, love is not and should not be an emotion. Love is action. You show a person that you love, you don't demand love. Love is not a fleeting thing. You should choose love and stick with it. No matter what. If you say you love, better show me how. You and I should all be recognized by everyone as "a loving person". There is one thing that gets on my nerves. When someone, anyone, doesn’t believe in me. Who really knows me knows that I don’t lie. I hate lies, and I am not fond of liars. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us about what love should really look like. I read this this morning, and I remember that I have in my family someone with trust issues. This person is always doubting others. Whether someone is plotting something against her/him or someone has a hidden agenda. Or even everybody else has a distorted view of reality, and only this person (the one with trust issues, ...

We are born to please someone. Usually, at first, we want to please our parents. We want to make them proud and happy. We get very sad when we disappoint them. We start spiraling down into a pit of self-pity, thinking that we are worthless and that we will never measure up to them or live up to their expectations.   We are wrong and they are wrong. We are wrong because we are not supposed to live up to their expectations or please them. We do that when we are children and have no maturity. As we grow up, we should learn that the only person we should work hard to please is God. And the parents should teach us that.   Thankfully, my parents did that. They taught me that I have only to please God; this is the only way to happiness. God is forgiving and understanding. He knows our limitations, and He is always ready to give us whatever we need to succeed in His plans. He has plans for each one of us. Do we know what his plans are? ...

  I started thinking more about suffering since the pastor is preaching about it. Moreover, I have my own share of suffering myself. I learned to love the book of Job, and learned to observe the troubles the people of God go through in their whole lives. From the beginning until the end of one's life, they have some sort of suffering. There is only one place in the Bible where it is written that suffering will be no more. It is at the very end. When God restores his creation and humanity. But, apart from that, there is none. So, I don’t know where people, including Christians, get the idea that Christians should not suffer. They should not have diseases; God must solve their problems. And so on. They might not have said with all these words, but with their actions and their prayers. Demanding God to solve, to cure, to release, to provide… God doesn’t owe us anything. You got that, right? We, on the other hand, are in debt until we come clean ...

  Should I keep quiet forever? Is silence that bad? Can’t I stand my own thoughts that I need to say out loud? What kind of thoughts come to my mind? Are they generally good or bad? If I choose to speak up, to whom would it benefit? If anyone ever. Let me be clear: It is better not to say a word than say words that will do more harm than good. What if it is the truth? I ask, why would you say it? How would you say it? The truth will come out eventually. You don’t need to lie or be rude. What we must do is to be kind. If I tell you the truth in a harsh way, will you accept, or will you only hear the harsh sound of my voice and ignore completely what I was trying to say? Sometimes, not even the kindest words won’t make it through because the listener isn’t listening at all. The listener doesn’t care about your opinion, doesn’t care about others. The listener just cares about himself. The listener just wants to say w...

Bible Project Podcast Redemption episode   The Bible Project podcast has lately dedicated itself to the theme of Redemption. We all have a plain idea of what redemption in the Bible means, or not. It isn’t an easy subject to talk about; nevertheless, they chose to expand their knowledge and pass it on. I love it. So, the whole Bible talks about redemption. But what does redemption mean? Well, sometimes, we get a coupon, and then what do we do with it? We redeem it, right? We use this word mostly in this sense. We exchange, we give something in place for something else. Back in Genesis, Abraham and Sarah got tired of waiting for God’s timing; they got worried and decided to fulfill God’s promise by their own means. Meaning, they used and abused a foreign slave (an Egyptian slave - ironic: where did they end up being slave?). Remember, God sees all, and no one stays unpunished. What happened after the child was born? Sarah got pregnant. Ops!...