Grace

June 23, 2020·Léo

Help me to seek You!

I would like to say a brief prayer with you, to ask for the Lord’s help! We often lose the incentive and the will to seek the Word of the Lord and His presence! You do not need to repeat this prayer exactly as I am going to leave it here, not least because each of us has a specific way of communicating with the Lord! So if you want to accompany me, it will be a pleasure, but feel free to speak your way! “Lord, I came here again today to open my heart and ask you for help! I have been having difficulties to seek You. I confess that I no longer have the same desire to talk to you, read Your Word and spend time in worship, as it was before This has been bothering me! I want to seek you with all my heart and worry about what really matters, which is pleasing You! So I ask you for mercy. Give me strength, give me hunger, give me thirst. of the Lord and without You, I cannot survive, without His Word, I have no strength to continue this journey! I ask you Lord to guide my […]

devotional faith follow-jesus grace

June 19, 2020·Léo

A sincere heart!

I would like to bring a brief and simple message, to analyze our hearts! Have we done things from the heart for the Lord? Did we fall into the routine and end up praying or reading the Bible out of obligation? Do we worship the Lord in spirit and in truth? Shall we talk about? Routine compliance It is true that we all have a routine and that, regardless of how busy the routine is, we need to have time for our spiritual life. Time for prayer, reading the Word and worship is sorely needed. However, we often fall into the routine and start doing things out of a simple obligation and do not think about the real reason we are doing that. Unfortunately, this often happens in our spiritual lives. We started to pray simply to pray, to fulfill the table. Read the Bible to fulfill the table. Is this right? With absolute certainty, it is not right at all! The Lord wants us to be whole, wants us to do things with our understanding. What does the Lord seek? “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts […]

bible devotional faith follow-jesus

June 18, 2020·Léo

God is in the smallest details

Have you been paying attention to every detail of your life? Can you see God in all things and realize that it is He who does everything? Or do you seek only the great miracles and supernatural experiences? Today, on the day I’m writing the text, I talked to a friend of mine and she helped me to realize that I haven’t seen God’s hand in the little things! Therefore, I would like to talk to you about it! Come with us! See the Lord in everything! “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139: 7-12 We are often in the habit of seeking only the great miracles and the great supernatural experiences in our lives. […]

follow-jesus grace holy-spirit love-of-god

June 04, 2020·Léo

Give Thanks to the Lord!

Have we recognized God’s blessings in our lives? Have we been grateful for the things we received undeservedly? In these last days I have been thinking a lot about gratitude and I started to analyze my ingratitude habits, in my relationship with God! I would like to talk to you about it! Come on? Undeserved life No. I don’t want to talk only about the goods and passing things that we receive from the Lord! I want to talk about everything, everything! I imagine that the main thing we receive from the Lord is life. I think about it a lot and the more I think about it, the more I realize that God really didn’t need any of us! His own glory is enough for Him. However, in love, He decided to create the heavens and the Earth and to place His creatures to command, care for and manage His own creation. In fact, not only has he given us the privilege of taking care of His creation, but the sovereign and sublime God has decided to share with us. It has allowed us the honor of being reached for its power, love, kindness and purity. He loved us […]

bible blessings grace love-of-god

May 31, 2020·Léo

Run to the Lord!

Where is our refuge? Who have we believed and trusted? In moments of anguish and pain, into whose arms have we been running? These days I have been thinking a lot about refuge. About who I have placed my hopes on. In times of suffering, we need to run to the right place. I would like to talk a little about it! Come on? Where is our heart? “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21 The Bible makes it very clear to us that what we pay attention to will greatly influence our decisions. However, several times we pay attention to things that do not matter and this brings us great losses. Whenever we have our hearts in the wrong place, as soon as we experience some difficulty, we tend not to run to God or even to blame Him, even though we have no reason to do so. However, this does not happen only when we are in an uncomfortable or painful situation. This also happens, often, when we are happy and “without problems or difficulties” in our lives. We end up forgetting that it is the Lord who does all things and […]

bible faith follow-jesus grace

May 28, 2020·Léo

Just be yourself!

Have we done things to please others? Where’s our treasure? Have we sought the approval of men and women instead of the Lord’s approval? God has spoken a lot to my heart about it and has shown me how I must seek only to please Him and no one else. We constantly do things to please other people and I would like to talk a little about this topic. Come on? God reveals our identity I have been thinking a lot and learning a lot about character, about who I am and how I should act. In this adventure of getting to know myself better, I realize more and more that I can only clearly understand who I am, when I know my Father more and more. It is no use wanting to discover, for myself, who I am, since I don’t even know what I need and don’t I was the one who grew up. I have a Creator who knows me, knows all my yearnings, all my struggles and knows more about me than I do myself. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,” Genesis 1:26 Knowing that we are made in […]

faith follow-jesus grace happiness

May 09, 2020·Léo

Did you sin? Take Christ’s hand and get up!

From the moment we sin, accusations arise and can take over our minds. We need to talk about the danger of the charges. This is a topic that has spoken a lot to my heart and I have realized how much the accusations can hinder our spiritual journey! Come on? The accusation does not come from God “Then I heard a strong voice from heaven, saying: “Now has come the salvation, the power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ, forbeen cast out the accuser of our brothers has, who accuses them before our God, day and night.” Revelation 12:10 Whenever we fall into temptation, Satan will try to put us down, saying that” we are no longer children of God, who “are not worthy of God’s forgiveness” and many other things. Undoubtedly, listening to the accusations was one of the things that hindered me most in my spiritual journey. From the moment we give, we let the accusations enter our minds, we enter a cycle, in which we sin and feel ashamed to speak with God and this distances us from Him, how we return to sin. This has happened to me several times […]

grace love-of-god

May 03, 2020·Léo

We need to stand up!

Are we living God’s will? Have we done things for Him and in the way that He asks of us? We need to talk about the comfort zone. I have realized that we need to get up. It’s time to act, we can’t stand still! Are you going to stay still? The comfort zone Unfortunately, it is extremely common to see Christians in the comfort zone. I say this because I am often one of them. Several times I chose to stay chill, calm, instead of obeying the voice of God. How many times have I chosen to stop talking about Jesus’ love to a friend or a stranger?! Or how many times have I not helped a homeless person out of shame?! And how many times have I spent several days without reading the Bible and praying out of laziness or “because I am tired” ?! Unfortunately, several times. I was watching a pastor’s live on Instagram and he made a very interesting comparison: in ancient times, people who read the Bible and prayed every day, were doing nothing but their obligation. However, for the current generation, if a person has the habit of reading the Bible and praying […]

faith follow-jesus grace holy-spirit

April 02, 2020·Léo

Don’t know what I need

Are we aligned with God’s heart? What have we asked for Him? Do our requests match His will for us? This week I made some requests for God and I had an incredible response, which made me rethink my whole relationship with God and the way I have approached Him! You can’t miss this! I don’t know myself I was in my moment of prayer, telling God my wishes and what I would like! I talked about my ministerial life, my professional life, my relationships and various things and said that I would like certain things to happen. The next day, the Lord embarrassed me in an absurd way, saying, “Why do you keep asking for different things if you don’t even know what you really need?” It shocked me. I know that the thing I need most is to have the Lord by my side, but instead of asking Him “what do I need?” and asking Him to guide my heart to what really builds me up, I just asked for what I wanted! “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.” Job 38: 4 This question that the Lord asked me, reminded […]

faith grace love-of-god testimony

March 31, 2020·Léo

Fear of the Night

Our Wednesday texts are mostly informative or tips. However, God spoke to my heart in a very strong way and I couldn’t let it pass. In today’s text I will tell you something that happened to me last night. A brief testimony about an experience that I had last night and that paralyzed me. The Testimony In my family, we have the habit of praying together before bed. Something very good that always brings me peace. However, this time it was different. For some reason, after the moment of prayer, when I was in my room, I began to feel a great fear and I was extremely distressed. I didn’t know where that fear came from and why I was feeling that way. Like any Christian, I prayed that God would take that fear away from me and that any attempt by the evil one would be sent away. I slept in distress and without understanding what was happening. I woke up several times during the night and had bad dreams. And I realize that it happened, because I didn’t have enough faith to believe that God would hear my prayer and take that fear away from me (James 1: […]

faith grace love-of-god

March 04, 2020·Léo

Love of God

How do you see God? As a God of love and grace or as a God who only wants to punish people? It is necessary that we have an understanding of who God really is. At the beginning of my reconciliation with God, I had some difficulty understanding who He really is. So, I want to talk a little today about what I learned of God’s character. Join me! The essence of God “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8 We need to be very clear in our minds that God is all that is good and right, all good things emanate from Him. However, there is a particular characteristic of God that best defines Him: Love. God does not have a specific amount of love, nor love is one of his “ingredients”, which he takes and puts a little bit in each of us. God is love itself. At the beginning of everything He was love, throughout history He was love and He will always be love. Therefore, it is essential that we understand the passage from 1 John 4: 8, because in fact, if we do not love our neighbor, […]

follow-jesus grace love-of-god

February 13, 2020·Léo

Enjoy the moment that God gave you!

I’m going to start today’s post by asking a question: Have you been enjoying the moments that God has given you, or do you spend most of them worrying about the future and what’s to come? “So, don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow worries about itself. Your own evil is enough every day. ” Matthew 6:34 We live in a chaotic and very busy world. Many things happen around us and we are pressured in various ways, so this leads us to be anxious and concerned about what is to come. But is that what God wants for our lives? Why do we care? The Bible tells us (1 Thessalonians 5:23) that we are the fusion of body (soma), soul (psyche) and spirit (pneuma). Therefore, we can conclude that we are divided between what is heavenly and what is earthly. In our minds we have thoughts placed by God and coming from ourselves. ”And he said: What comes out of man, that is what contaminates man. Because evil thoughts, adulteries, prostitution, homicides, thefts, greed, mischief, deceit, dissolution, envy, blasphemy, pride, madness come out of men’s hearts. ” Mark 7: 20-22 In this passage, Jesus clearly shows us that everything that […]

faith grace love-of-god

January 30, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Jesus is the fountain of living water

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14 What have you been feeding your soul with? Where have you sought refuge from the bad days? Distracting yourself on the internet? Drowning at work? It is as if at all times, God was showing us that “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.” That is, if you drink the things of this world, your thirst and your inner emptiness will never pass. The real food, rest and refreshment for our soul comes from just one place: Jesus! The essential water for us to live He himself said that “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. Don’t get lost in fleeting and visible distractions. Refresh your soul with living water! When the woman asked Jesus for physical water, He offered her spiritual water. We know that the human body cannot survive without physical water, just as the spiritual body […]

faith grace water-of-life

December 12, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

For unto us a child is born…

Isaiah 9: 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (7) Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness. It is very likely that this passage was written seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Isaiah was one of the prophets who announced the coming of God’s anointed in the Old Testament. I confess that one of the things that strikes me most about the Bible is how ancient prophecies aligned with these later events. Today’s text is intended to remind all brothers of the true meaning of Christmas. And not. I’m not talking about good energy or dressing nice people at the end of the year. The meaning of “Christmas“ The word “Christmas”, coming from the Latin “Nativitatis”, carries the simplicity of the word “birth” in its meaning. Therefore, we celebrate the occasion of one’s birth. Whether or not this is the official date, if we have […]

grace love-of-god

November 07, 2019·Gabriela Angerami

Love with actions ♥

These days I was listening people sharing on the radio generous actions they usually do at the end of the year. It was pretty cool to hear such different ideas on how to do something good for someone else. On the commemorative dates of this time of the year, people are more proactive in help others and be generous. That made me think about generosity and that we as God’s children need to love with actions all year long. So I decided to share with you a reflection on 3 points about generosity in John 3:16. John 3:16 (NIV) – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 1) When you are generous you express God’s nature “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” In this passage we see that He so loved the world. The term “so” has the meaning of intensity. Then God’s intense love for us resulted in giving His son. This makes clear that one of the forms of expression of God’s love is generosity. God’s nature is generous. In Him […]

grace love-of-god love-your-neighbor

October 10, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Be like a child

On October 12, we celebrate the children’s day in Brazil. And while this date is really focused on children, I thought I’d bring to this blog a comment about a sermon from Jesus about the importance of being like them. The text is well known. Many people, however, take it literally and believe that Jesus really was talking about little children. But in this study we will see what the Lord actually meant by this passage: “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mt 18:1-6) […]

grace simplicity-en

October 03, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Overcoming the concern

We all know, or should know, that being a Christian is not a promise of easy living. On the contrary, when we are on the path of truth, many things seem to come against us to divert our attention from the focus, which is Jesus Christ. And when I say the focus is Jesus, I have in mind the constant thought of obeying and pleasing the Father. Having full faith that the Son of God has given Himself for us. He has already acquitted us of all our sins and pains, giving us the possibility to live, through the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God. A place where there is no crying, sadness or unrest. The biggest “problem” is that even though we have been reborn in Christ, we still live in a body of flesh. This body of ours is corrupted by sin and is unable to choose God’s will. This is why Paul says in the letter to the Galatians that we strive to walk constantly in the Spirit. Now, walking in the Spirit is nothing but living with our conscience focused on Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, […]

grace happiness word-of-god

July 11, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Switching curses for blessings

I’ve been thinking a lot about how much the words we hear create things within us. I confess that I was never the person but attentive to the way of speaking during my life. When I gave myself to Christ, however, I began to police more about things that came out of my mouth. I find it most interesting to remember that God created the heavens and the earth declaring things. He did not use his powerful hands and he was not even joking to model some things. All of His power was manifested in matter through His words. “Let there be light”, “Let the earth produce herbs” among other phrases. Seeing that after creating all these things the Bible says that “God saw that it was good” is clear that through his words the Lord was creating blessings. The Greek word for “bless” is ευλογεω (eulogeu). That is a mixture between the words “speak” and “make prosperous or happy”. This shows that our speech has the power to create happiness and prosperity around us. But have we used this power only to create good things? Enough to complain! One of the evils I see most in the day-to-day among […]

blessings grace love-your-neighbor

May 30, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

True wealth

Last week, after a small meeting at my church, I gave a ride to some friends and was approached by two men. It was a robbery and they took my car and several things. This post, however, is not an outburst about crime or a whining about it. “God will give you double” When the people in my daily life began to hear the bad news, I heard some phrases frequently. Such as “God will give you double” or “God will restore you” among others in the same sense. I know that many may think that I am being radical to look at these figures of speech. But this has led me to think about how a theology directed toward full material prosperity has long been gaining ground among Christians. I confess that this annoyed me a little. After all, who said that it is within the scope of the Lord to give me back what was stolen from me? Rm 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (34) “Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?” (35) “Who has ever given to […]

grace prosperity

May 23, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Don’t be a pharisee!

Certainly, one of the things I love the most. And what less should. It is debating biblical questions in discussions that will lead nowhere and no growth of my faith. After the last debate, however, at the moment I was asking God’s forgiveness for not knowing how to keep silent. I felt He speak in my heart the passage of 1 Sm. 17: 7. Where it is said that the Lord does not see as men see. But it does look at the heart. The word used in the Hebrew manuscript for the term “heart” is “lebab”. That carries different meanings. Among them, the soul, knowledge, reason, moral character, desires, intentions, etc. Which means that when God says to see the heart of man, it means that He is seeing an infinity of things so that there is a holy approval. We know we are considered approved before the Father by the blood of Jesus Christ. But this does not detract from our obligation to be in constant internal renewal. Aligned to the standards of holiness of the Kingdom so that we can present ourselves as approved workers (2 Tm. 2:15). Rom 12: 2 “Do not conform to the pattern […]

faith grace simplicity-en

April 24, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Be vulnerable

Hello dear friends. Here I am here for another week. This time, writing from a coffee shop in São Paulo next to a brother of the faith. I was telling you about how God was telling me a lot about vulnerability this week. And through a preaching by Myles Munroe that this brother showed me, I began to reflect on one important point and that complemented all the things the Lord was telling me. Preaching talked about how each person is unique and irreplaceable. And how valuable we are only when we are rare. Diamonds are expensive because they are rare, costume jewelry is cheap because they are common. However, sometimes we put it in our heads that we need to be like other people (such as great leaders or the coolest and most handsome guy in our community) to reach out. We lose our rarity by trying to be like them. In fact, if we have a model of man to follow, it must be Jesus Christ. He is original, unique and irreplaceable, as we should be. You may not be understanding the link between vulnerability and rarity. But I hope the Holy Spirit speaks to you, even though […]

faith grace

April 17, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

The most important date of the year

April arrived and next to him, the time to celebrate the Passover, or Easter for a better understanding. Most begin with their usual runs to buy the cod and the chocolate eggs that each year become more expensive. In some countries people take advantage of the wonderful truce of the routine to have a few days of rest because of the holiday. They strive to set departure and arrival times in their destinations and enjoy these days in the best way. The only problem I see in the midst of all this is that, as usual, the Lord’s affairs often fall into the background. Many churches strive to show the true meaning of this celebration. But by analyzing our society as a whole and the bible, we are far from celebrating in the right way. The first Passover Every Christian should know about this. But before I was converted, I spent eighteen years inside a church without even reading the Bible intentionally. So I think it’s important to say how this celebration originated. If you want, you can read more about it on Exodus 12. First of all, it is very important to understand that Easter (in Hebrew Pessach) means […]

grace holy-spirit love-of-god

April 10, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Avoid evil and get closer to God!

That God loves us, we already know. In each contact we have with Him, we see his goodness, his love and his justice, which are priceless and eternal. In the last blogpost I approached on how is your intimacy with God. I spoke of how we should be pure in heart to get closer and closer to Heavenly Father. And to understand his plans and feel his love without the barriers that we ourselves build. Where do these barriers come from? If purity of heart is essential for rapprochement with God, we must also talk about some key points in order to purify ourselves from all the evil that we witness daily in the world. Before we go to the practical points, it is interesting to understand the nature of the evil that we see every day. That is, where evil begins. So get ready, because we’ll have a great deal of Bible in the next few lines. Jm 3:6 “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. (7) All kinds […]

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April 04, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

How is your intimacy with God?

For many years, when I used to live in a church without being fully converted, I had a very wrong view of Adam. I confess. At that time, I saw him as one totally blamed for all the sins of human race. So I refused to go any deeper into some study of this biblical character for so long. On the night of last Tuesday I was praying and I asked for a direction to God regarding this post. I felt like writing about the intimate relationship between God and the first man in the world. Along with a few other thoughts that were put into my mind, I came to some personal conclusions. Why was man created? I began by reflection on why the Lord created man. So first, even though it was impossible, I struggled to understand what God wanted to do. I even want to paraphrase an excerpt from a great preaching from brother Douglas Gonçalves. Through Paul’s final salutation in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, he defines the name of Jesus as “Grace.” The name of God as “Love.” And that of the Holy Spirit as “Fellowship”. 2 Cor 13:14 “May the grace of the […]

grace holy-spirit love-of-god simplicity-en