Word Of God

April 14, 2020·Léo

Did you really understand?

Do you understand that Christ gave himself entirely for you? Do you understand that He didn’t think twice to obey God? Right. But if we understand all these things, why are we so reluctant to give up our carnal desires and live completely for Him? Why, even though we know Jesus’ sacrifice for us, do we sometimes continue to live a shallow gospel? This was a question that my leader asked me. This led me to think a lot about my devotion and obedience to God. I would like to talk to you about it. Selfishness After hearing this question, I started to think and realized how selfish I have been! I have done God’s will and kept His commandments when it suits me. When I realize that in order to do God’s will, I will have to give up my carnal desires, I ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit and listen to my flesh. This is absolutely unfair and selfish! I want Christ’s sacrifice to be saved. But I am not willing to give up my life as a sinner, to be grateful and to glorify Him who saved me. For myself and with my own strength, I […]

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March 26, 2020·Léo

A little bit about Faith

Where is our trust? Who or what have we placed our faith in? Where have our expectations taken us? We tend to trust ourselves, our plans or the people around us. But we need to understand and talk a little bit about how harmful this could be. Trusting ourselves “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” James 4: 13-17 James warns us about the danger of trust put ourselves and our plans. As I see it, self-confidence oftentimes is generated by pride, an inflated ego. It’s hard to hear this, but when we trust ourselves, we show that we don’t trust God enough to give everything […]

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March 17, 2020·Léo

Avoidable doubt!

Where is our faith? In the midst of obstacles and so much tribulation, we need to stop and remember that God is above all things. We shouldn’t have no doubt, what we must have is the conviction of our faith. In times of disease and pandemics, we act out of fear rather than faith! We are paralyzed and forget that God is in control. However, this doesn’t happen only in these days of illness and crisis. Whenever we have an obstacle, we tend to be afraid. We need to talk about the fear that makes us forget the fact that God is in control of all things. Doubt can create fear Once, when I was around 9 years old, I was riding a bicycle with my brother in a square. Suddenly, I realized that I was pedaling towards a branch that, in the eyes of a 9 year old boy, was gigantic. I was in doubt if I could face that obstacle. I was afraid and slowed down, but I couldn’t get out of the way and when I got to the branch, I fell off the bike and got hurt. If I had had the courage and the conviction […]

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February 20, 2020·Léo

Afraid of God?

Should we be afraid of God? What does the Bible mean when it talks about fear of God? What is this fear? Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. Deuteronomy 8:6 At the beginning of my reconciliation with Christ, I had a hard time understanding what that fear really was. A super important theme that leads us to have respect and zeal for what comes from God. Shall we talk a little about it? Being afraid vs. Fear of God When we know our God and understand who He is, we may be afraid of Him, but we cannot stay in that stage of fright! Why? According to psychology, being afraid is related to an involuntary and natural reaction that is associated with the survival instinct. It is related to self-preservation (action or reaction to preserve one’s existence). So if we do things to and from God for being afraid, we are doing it with the mindset to preserve our own life, and not out of love for Him. That is exactly where fear comes in! Ok. But what is the fear of God? “Much dreaming and many words are […]

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February 04, 2020·Léo

How to do a daily Devotional?

How and what to do in your daily Devotional? Devotional is undoubtedly one of the most important moments in the daily life of a Christian. Therefore, we need to pay close attention to it. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. – Joshua 1:8 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. – John 6:35 We need to look to Jesus and in the biblical teachings, for food for our spiritual life. That way we will be able to grow, increase our faith and live a life that glorifies God. It is important to remember that the devotional is a personal moment. You should do it in the way that makes you most comfortable. What we are going to talk about are just a few steps that can help you, but there is no exact rule on how to do it. The Place The choice of place has a great influence in the flow […]

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January 09, 2020·Gabriela Angerami

Don’t waste opportunities

For 2020 to truly be a year of opportunities, we need to be able to identify them. Hence the question arises: How do we identify opportunities? To answer this question it is worth talking a little about WISDOM. See what the psalmist says: Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12 (NIV) Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. Psalm 90:12 (NLT) The Psalmist is basically talking about the brevity of life and that our days need to be numbered, that is, lived wisely and not wasted. About wisdom We as humans already have a wisdom in us related to our ability to read the world, read people, and read circumstances. From our reading we try to make the best plans, projects and make the best decisions. However, we who believe in God have access to His wisdom. We have access to a spiritual understanding of life. The Father is able to reveal to us things we would never be able to see on our own. The Bible itself gives us the wisdom of God. The Word brings to our understanding teachings that we […]

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December 13, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

New robes

Welcome to the third decade of this millennium. It may be that some of you have not even noticed. It’s two thousand and twenty. If you read what I have been writing here since last year, you will find that I understand that New Year’s Eve is nothing more than day after day. Even so, we make plans, organize the agenda, promise things, say we will start the diet next Monday. We set goals. We say that we are going to pay off debts and until we will be “better Christians” this new year. Although I know many of you will reach your goals, I want to suggest a new way of seeing your brothers. It is the vision that I will try – yes, try – to apply to my year much more intensely than I did last year. Old robes In December, I finished reading two books that I recommend to everyone. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “The Cost of Discipleship” and Tim Keller’s “Transformed Ego” opened my eyes to many things about my life as a true disciple of Christ. As full as I am in my ministries. Or even within my secular work. As long as I am in […]

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December 13, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Come 2020!

We are nearing the end of 2019. So you can get ready because that is what they say: new year, new life! And may it be a new life with Christ, especially! This does not depend on whether you had a year of great intimacy or a year of being a little distant from the Lord. God’s Word tells us that the mercies of the Most High are renewed each morning. There is always a new opportunity to draw near to our Father. He embraces us and accepts us through our decision to live the way He tells us to live. If there is repentance on our part, we can resume the step we were in and re-establish our walk with Jesus. Acts 3:19 “Therefore repent and turn to God, that He may forgive your sins.” New routine I confess that I have always had great difficulty establishing routines in my life. I don’t like to fall into a routine and lose the intentional force of what I’m doing. At the same time I hate not having a routine for certain things that are needed every day. Reading the Word, praying, fasting, studying, and keeping thought on things above (Col. […]

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December 11, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Bible Offline Retrospective

December would never be complete without a beautiful retrospective of our year in the Bible Offline. These were great times with each of you. So many moments of reading God’s Word, plans, devotionals and new learning here in this blog. I confess that I grew a lot myself in 2019, either in my understanding of the Bible or Christianity itself. I know I’ve grown a lot internally too and I’m sure the Bible Offline has cooperated a lot for it, as it must have cooperated for all of you reading here and using the app every day. Even though it was a small verse read, I am sure that the Word, which is living and effective, served to bring confrontation and comfort. A few numbers In all, we had 439 million verses underlined with color markers this year, 28.4 million shared verses, 68 million chapters read, and 40 million audio downloads of Bible chapters. Despite such large numbers, as a brother in Christ, I want to bother me and everyone who is reading. We have approximately 65 million Protestant Christians among almost 210 million inhabitants in Brazil. On a basic account we can see that God’s word could have been […]

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November 18, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

2 Features You May Not Know in the Bible Offline

If you are reading this post it is because you already use the Bible Offline and its resources. You may only use the app for daily reading of God’s Word. However, there are numerous options to help you grow more in your Christian walk. In today’s post I will mention two functions that you may never have used or that you never thought existed. 1- Inbox The inbox is very little noticed by most users. It is very common for us to receive email about people who have missed notification about the blog texts and also about the verses of the day. Here you will find absolutely everything we send you through notifications and you don’t miss a thing! The inbox is in the main menu, both on iOS and Android, see the images: 2- Bible Themes Do you know that time when you want to find comfort in the Bible or something that can help a friend or family member? Or when you want to understand more about how God views a subject? For this we have the Bible Themes. It is an option that is intended to make it easier for the user to find the things they […]

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October 31, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

The Importance of Reforms

On October 31, most Christians celebrate the Reformation Day. Much more than creating a “new denomination”. Reformation facilitated access to the reading of the Word of God. And, aligned with new technologies, it has allowed more people over the years to access to the holy scriptures. Today’s text is not an exhortation to the brothers. But rather a collection of curiosities that marked the story. Things that have made it possible for you, the reader, to have such easy access to the words of eternal life. The first translations The first “revolution” that facilitated access to God’s Word was called ‘Septuagint’. In the first century after Christ, seventy sages were gathered to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek. This was the language most used by the Gentiles at the time. History says this was crucial for the apostles of Jesus to succeed in their preaching and spreading the gospel among people who were unaware of the Hebrew line. Remember that the Apostle Paul founded churches in Greece. Another big step taken was the Latin vulgate. In the year 386 after Christ, a great biblist named Jeronimo was appointed to translate the Bible into Latin. This facilitated diffusion throughout […]

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October 17, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Respect God’s Time

Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (2) A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; (3) A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; (4) A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” If there’s anything I feel God saying to my heart, it’s always about respecting His time in my life. I’ve always been a restless and restless person, so I don’t like it when things take a long time to happen. Anyway, when I converted, I found that things didn’t work my way. Being a servant of God, I have no right to my wills. Especially remembering that He is eternal and that He certainly understands much more than I do about life and the times needed for things to be fulfilled. Don’t be anxious The biggest problem is in fear. Almost all our problems or limitations as human beings are based on fear, in fact. Not knowing what will happen […]

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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, […]

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September 19, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

How to admonish a brother correctly

In recent weeks we have been dealing with such things as God’s rational love, the impossibility of walking alone, and how to be a good friend. Along the same lines, we must also learn how to correctly admonish a brother. That we may all be aligned with the will of God. Humility The first thing needed to admonish someone.Or to bear fruit from an exhortation for a brother is humility. In this is the recognition of our own mistakes and failures and the understanding that we have limited in wisdom. With this in mind, we learn to value other people’s wisdom. And we also begin to understand that it is more valid to admonish the brothers in those things we have already been purified. There is no use on me exhorting a sister about her gossip if I can’t control my tongue myself and I do the same thing. Phil 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves. Biblical basis Along with humility, there must be a correct biblical knowledge. We should admonish others around us based on God’s Word. Exhort means to teach or encourage. If teaching or encouragement is […]

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August 20, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

No more shame!

For those who do not know. Along with some texts I write for this blog, sometimes I make some more in-depth videos about the subjects posted and publish it on my Instagram profile. A few months ago, a follower shared one of these videos on his profile. With this, a girl found this blog and began to be interested in the content. At the same time, it began to feed her desire to know Jesus in a purer, non-religious way. This woman eventually discovered the church to which I belong (Butantã Family Christian Church – São Paulo) and one day decided to visit us. After the service, she came to me and we talked about Christianity and how God had changed my life through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The look of happiness in her eyes that day was extraordinary. It was noticeable that this woman had just been impacted by the gospel only in the way she talked about how she had found herself. I went home overjoyed that day. Even writing for a blog in an app with millions of users, I’m still a simple young man who barely understands what’s going on. So it’s normal that sometimes […]

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August 01, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

How to read the Bible?

Many people ask me every day on my Instagram profile about how I read my Bible and what are the best ways to do it. Well, I’m not a pastor, much less a theologian. But I think I can go over some things that make it a little easier for me. Understanding the translations This part sometimes goes unnoticed. Many first-time believers think that every Bible is the same. But there is a difference that can make it much easier to understand the Word. The Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. In the early centuries the early Christians shared the manuscripts among themselves in order to copy them so that the scriptures would spread. Years later, around 400 AD, a Christian biblist named Jerome decided to translate the Bible into Latin. You may have heard about the Latin Vulgate. One of the most important translations in the western world. It was the Bible used by the Catholic church for a few centuries. Only around 1500 AD did the Bible begin to be translated into other languages. Luther made the first German version and with the help of the invention of the press, the Bible became more accessible. Curiosity: […]

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July 25, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

God is His Word

“In the beginning, the one who is the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God ” (John 1: 1) I love the times when I begin to reflect on this verse. It is at these times that I see God as inexplicable and of incomparable size and simplicity. God himself calls himself a verb. And through that, it makes it clear that contact with Him is simple and happens naturally when we are ready to listen to Him. Things get even better when John exposes the Son as God Himself. Saying that first of all, the word of salvation already existed. It freaks me out when I think God has absolutely ready everything for us to enter the Kingdom and live in communion with Him, as He was at the beginning of all things in Eden. Nonconformity with the church I have witnessed really sad times for many churches. With society increasingly valuing a culture where the self must be fully satisfied before the next. We see man running after the earthly fullness and the satisfaction of the pleasures of the flesh. Worse still, we see the church being contaminated with this growing culture. […]

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July 18, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Do you live a shallow Christianity?

I have told you a few times about a part of the testimony of my conversion. As many of you know, I was born and raised in an evangelical church, and I got out of the way when I was about eighteen. I gave myself to God some time later. With this, I began to live Christianity in such a way that, looking back, I saw how eighteen years inside the church I was completely empty and meaningless. In fact, I’m sure that’s why I gave up living a life with God. The truth is that even years in the church, I still had no idea who my Lord was. Are we really being Christians? In this new stage of my life, trying to live with Jesus with all my heart, I began to realize that not all who call themselves Christians have lived in a way that this “title” requires living. Far from me wanting to judge or say that someone is wrong. I do not have that power and I do not want to have it. My intention is to lead you to a reflection on your own lives. About how is your practice of Christianity based on […]

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June 13, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

How to hear the voice of God?

Many people have come to me on social networks to ask the right way to hear God speak. Some blame themselves for never having heard an audible voice. Others do not know whether God is speaking or whether what they feel is the work of their minds. I felt like writing this post to talk about how I “hear God” and encourage the brothers to strive to hear from the Lord. Lowering the volume I heard a very good phrase from Brother Douglas Gonçalves (JesusCopy) on this subject. He says that since satan can not lower the volume of God’s voice, he strives to increase the volume of things around us. So that we can not understand what God is speaking for so many things that are screaming in our ears. In fact, it is difficult to direct our minds to have contact with God in the midst of so many things. Work, study, relationships, problems, debts, processes, social networks. There are innumerable things that take our focus every day and make us spend in futilities a time when we could move away from all of this so as to silently try to hear the voice of God. If we […]

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February 28, 2019·Marcelo Brandão

Fasting: am I doing it right?

Our walk with Jesus Christ teaches us new things every day. Day after day we are learning new ways to live in communion with the Lord ways of exercising our faith. There are three things that are essential in a Christian’s everyday life. Bible reading, prayer and fasting. Of course, no one has any doubts about how to read the Word of God and how to pray daily. But something that has always been difficult for me to understand as a Christian was how to fast correctly. In the beginning, I used to do fasts of food for purposes. Fasts of some kinds of songs and even of social networks. But did I do it right? WHY WE MUST FAST? First we must understand the reason why we fast. There’s a lot of people that do it for material things or blessings for the earthly life. And ok, I can’t say that this is going wrong. After all, we live by faith and not by the ways stated in the law. As the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:16, “know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, […]

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December 19, 2018·Marcel Rocco

Being faithful to God and His Word

Titus 1:9 – He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. To be faithful to God we must also be faithful to His Word. When we fill ourselves with it, we become capable of making a difference in the world we live in. The Father reveals his plan for humanity through the Word. When we relate to Him through it, we discover our purpose in life as individuals. The Holy Spirit speaks to us in a personal way. As it is written in Psalms 119: 105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path”. The Bible also generates in us encouragement and wisdom. The text strengthens our faith, enables us to discern and we can refuse lies that are preached or thrown into our minds by the enemy. Pray for understanding the Word of God so that you are able to carry the Lord’s values where you are. That in each reading the Holy Spirit will transform our life. We want to be an extension of the Kingdom of God through our way of thinking and acting.

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December 17, 2018·Marcel Rocco

Sowing for the Kingdom of God

Acts 2:42-47 –They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. We must sow according to the instructions that God gives us. So we can harvest abundantly because He is the provider of the harvest. God gave us care ingredients as communion, reading the Word, breaking bread and prayer. If we ignore these items, we will lose many fruits. Enjoy the gifts of other brothers that complete yours. Together it will be possible to compose a work that will bear many fruits for the Kingdom. Pray that your church will work well in sowing and care. Pray also that there is sensitivity to the direction of the […]

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