Changes

August 10, 2023·Rapha Abreu

Bury X Plant

There is a big difference between burying and planting. Many times we confuse these two words and take actions that take us off the right path or take us in the wrong direction. What’s the difference? Even if there is nothing in the bible that directly compares “burying” and “planting”, there are several passages that treat each of these concepts in isolation. In Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 we see the following passage: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot” The term “bury” is seen, for example, in the text of Luke 9:60, where it is written: “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Planting is sowing to reap something in the future, burying is linked to burial, the completion of something. In our lives, we need to have discernment and wisdom to understand when to plant and when to just bury. Closed cycles “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 We’ve all heard that life […]

changes cycles follow-jesus growth

May 04, 2023·Rapha Abreu

What is greater than God?

Have you heard of Billy Graham? He was a pastor who was at the forefront of revivalist movements that took place around the world. He was a channel for approximately 2.5 million people to convert. This wise man, who lived the Word of God so intensely, said a sentence that really caught my attention. I always try to remember it when I’m having a hard time. “Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short of God and His will for us.” Billy Graham Change of Measure “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” Proverbs 3:5 When our expectations and faith are focused on things other than God, it is normal for us to be exposed to fear, anxiety, hopelessness, and thoughts of giving up. Understanding that the greatest strength man can achieve would still be weakness before God, is also understanding how He is greater than everything and how we are nothing. If we are so small and fragile close to the Lord, our thoughts and feelings are also smaller than His and that’s why we can trust completely in this love and care from heaven. Just as we […]

change changes courage-of-the-lord depth

April 25, 2023·Ana Julia Luiz

The Cycles of Life

It’s interesting to think about how our life is made of cycles. People come, people go, situations come and situations go. Hardly anything that comes stays forever. There are exceptions, but often that’s not how it works. If you say you’ve never gone through a cycle closure in your entire life, I’m sure I’ll find it very strange. Chapters I love to read and even more to write. I like to think of our lives as a book. At first, for us it is blank, but for God (the Author) it is filled with stories, situations, twists and much more, from our first little steps to the biggest decisions. God sees from the moment we arrive in this world, still in our mothers’ wombs. Closing cycles can often be a very tense chapter in life. Situations or other characters can leave the protagonist (me or you) confused and make him question: “why am I living this?” I was once talking to a friend, venting about a bunch of things that were going on. She looked deep into my eyes and said: “you are in despair because everything got out of your control, but that is normal, it is part of […]

bible changes cycles devotional

January 17, 2023·Ana Julia Luiz

Watch out for distractions!

I’ve been playing a mobile game called Candy Crush for a while now. I like him because he helps me distract my head and even de-stress. I noticed that, as you progress through the levels, the game starts using a new strategy to make you lose: distraction. Each level always has a goal, but it is common for other things to appear so that I focus on them and forget about the target of that stage. Us and the distractions In our lives this is exactly how it happens. We live our days often focused on what is not related to our goals. The Lord may have given you some targets: to dedicate yourself to His work, to do something He ordered, to follow the call He gave you, among others. Anyway, He can direct us to so many purposes to fulfill in Him. But the devil has many ways to divert us from our goals. The main one is distraction. How many times have you seen yourself on a path that seemed to make so much sense in your eyes, but when you turned to the Lord, He showed you that it wasn’t that? It is usually a slow […]

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