Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Maria Clara Arruda, psychology student. Christ, therefore I am.

June 16, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Obedience is a positioning

“If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15 Obedience has some synonyms: compliance, submission, resistance and even respect. When we accept Jesus as our only Lord and Savior of our lives we accept to live a crucified life with Him. This life is to always seek to be at the center of God’s will, respecting his commandments and being under the mission He gives us. Obediencie is a place Obedience is a place and disobedience is also. Both are positions in which we decide whether to walk or not. You can enter them, but you can also leave. You can intentionally live in one of these places or abstain completely from where you have been living. I was once being responsible and leading a ministry in my local church and had received a direction from God to deliver that leadership. I realized that as long as I did not follow and obey this direction I would be living in a place of disobedience and not fulfilling what God had said to my heart. Disobedience generates fear “But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was […]

love-of-god obedience

June 09, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Living a constant Christian life

“May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” 2 Thessalonians 3: 5 Being constant in an increasingly hectic world is really challenging. Living college, work, appointments, running and daily chores, we often end up giving more priority to the material world than to our relationship with God. Prioritize what really matters The daily rush ends up becoming one of the biggest excuses for not focusing on Jesus, we end up being carried away by the rush of the day and day and we often let ourselves be carried away by it. We leave for later what should be a priority. Jesus is the greatest example of constancy. He faced trials and suffering without deviating from his purpose. We must follow in Christ’s footsteps, even when we face temptations and difficulties. We have to learn more every day that being constant is a decision. Resignation, sacrifice and mainly priorities. To be steadfast, we need to step out of our comfort zone and act with determination in service and intimacy with God and not do this only occasionally or only when we feel excited. We need to be constant on good and bad days. And above all, we need […]

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June 02, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Analyze your heart

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21 Where is your heart? This is an important question and that over time, we must look within and analyze: Is my heart really in the right place? How to analyze our hearts The meaning of the word “treasure” is a set of riches, so this Matthew 6 biblical text is telling us that our hearts will always be in what is precious to us. What is most valuable today? What makes our hearts beat faster? What has been our motivation each day? These are questions that we need to ask daily and especially at decisive moments in our lives so that we can probe what our real intention is. When we question where our hearts are, we must investigate and analyze what has defined our priorities. So, if we want to find where our heart are, we need to realize where we put most of our stengths […]

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May 22, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

A study about David

David’s story is one of the best known in the Bible. He was the man chosen by God to lead his people and he was certainly a man very used by Him. The story begins to be told, in the Old Testament in the chapters of 1 and 2 Samuel and continues until 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles. It is one of the stories that most impacts and confronts my life. I was always intrigued by the fact that David was considered “a man after God’s own heart”, and as I studied his life, I began to notice that he was like that because he sought to understand God’s heart. David’s early life He was the youngest of Jesse among 8 brothers and belonged to the tribe of Judah. He was raised and trained to exercise the profession of shepherd. He also stood out for countless talents such as being a great warrior with the right to even sing in his honor, play the harp and even make musical instruments for worship in the house of the Lord (1 Chronicles 23: 5). When describing David, one of Saul’s servants used the following terms (1 Samuel 16:18): “is a talented harp […]

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May 16, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Don’t lose your faith

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” John 6:5-7 Jesus asked the disciples how they would feed all those people who were coming toward him. They looked at their insufficient resources, at their empty hands and were filled with despair and anxiety. The disciples forgot who Jesus was and the miracles he had already done, doubted Him with a perspective of limitation and impossibility. At what point had they forgotten that they were before the son of God? Jesus had just calmed an angry sea and healed several sick people. Was there anything that would be too difficult for Him? Where was the faith of the disciples hidden? Why did they stop looking at the greatness of the God they served and put their attention only on the circumstances? Jesus knows what you have been facing Jesus knew of the insufficiency […]

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May 12, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Dedicate time to your devotional life

These days, I read in an American magazine that said “Difficult subjects, train the mind. Difficult times, train the spirit”. We know that we are living atypical days, however we cannot fail to prioritize our prayer and devotional time. Creating the daily habit of reading the Word of God and meditating on it is the way to communion and an intimate and deep relationship with our God. There are ways to organize this period, in this post are some tips. #1 Start a new Bible reading plan In the Plans section of the app, reading options are available, such as “New Testament in 3 months”, “Reading the Gospel of Matthew in 28 days”, “Knowing Jesus through the Word” and many others. Following daily reading, you make it a habit to have a separate time to learn more from the Holy Scriptures and learn more about our God every day. #2 Choose a theme and go deeper Another golden tip that is worthwhile is to choose biblical themes and dedicate yourself and deepen in this subject. In the Biblical Themes part, there is a list of specific themes and which verses are related to that content. It is a great way […]

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April 28, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

3 great features in the Bible Offline app

Hello, dear users! The new app update is full of news, innovation and improvements. In this post, we came to show 3 of them and show how they work. We are always working on improvement. If you have any questions, opinions or suggestions, please write to us. New Biblical Plan of the Bible Society of Brazil Do you already know the biblical plans that are available within the JFA Bible? Many of you have been asking us more and more for news in this area of the app. Thus, SBB (Bible Society of Brazil) made incredible content available. If you are looking for a new reading with deep and transforming content, surely “To be fearful of the Lord overcomes fear” is a great suggestion of a biblical plan. New marker colors For those who do not know the Bible Offline application, there is the option to mark the verses by color. Before, the colors were specific, with their own tones and it was not possible to choose others except those that already were available. With our new update, you can customize with the color you want, putting it the way you like it most! We offer a palette to facilitate, […]

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April 21, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Changing the menu layout and other tips

Hello dear users! We are always adding new features to the application. We just launched a new version of the Android app, version 8.1.7. Make sure you’ve updated. For iOS users, the latest version is 6.9.5. We will always use the blog to send resource tips and spread news about the app. =) And of course, we will also continue to send posts with biblical content. 1 – How to change the layout of the main menu? In the new version of the application, which we recently launched for Android, we put a new layout of the main menu. This new menu is fixed as a “bar” at the bottom of the screen. As many users gave us feedback that they preferred the old menu, we put in the settings the option to select between the new menu and the old menu on the left side. Here’s how to do it: 2 – Versions with recorded audio About our audios, part of the audios are robotic because we do not yet have the copyright of audios recorded by producers for all biblical versions. But here is the list of versions in which we have audio with a human voice for […]

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March 19, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Your hope in the right place

“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope” Lamentations 3:21 Often what we can see is only chaos and darkness. Today, it seems that we can only look at what is in front of our eyes, which is the confusion and concern of a pandemic that has been plaguing us. Closed schools, markets with food shortages, more and more cases of infected people every day and many other factors that have contributed to everyone being worried and desperate in the face of this atypical situation in which we are living. But the Bible teaches us to place our hope in the Lord! Putting our eyes on Him and not on the circumstances. An unusual moment This is an unusual moment for us, but from everything we live we can learn great lessons. The biggest recommendation of health professionals is to stay in quarantine and not leave the house so that there is a decrease in the number of people infected. This situation has taught us to think collectively, as it is something that the whole world is living together. We have had to take care of our parents, grandparents and family. Ensure the health of everyone in […]

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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 […]

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January 23, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

The power of the secret place

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” – Matthew 6: 5-6 Jesus was a reflection of what he lived and received in the secret place. And the most incredible thing is to know that what moved the heart of Jesus was not necessity, but love. Love for the Father, for intimacy, for eternity. Encounters with God transform life Rest assured that our greatest encounters with God will always be when our decision is too close the door to the room and spend time with Him. It is in these secret encounters that He tells us truths about who we are. He reveals more about His essence and gives us new sandals to support the “GO” ministry. It is in the secret place that we are equipped for the visible. Moses had an encounter alone with God in […]

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January 16, 2020·Maria Clara Arruda Marques

Do not worry!

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all […]

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