JFA Blog

Reflections, studies and news for your walk with God.

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 25, 2020·Léo

Fight and Stay!

To what extent have we persevered in our life with God? When temptations come, do we give up or prevail? Do we fight or just give up and surrender to sin? If, just like me, you have been having a hard time staying, fighting and resisting temptations, I would like to talk to you about it. It is a big mistake that we have made and this needs to be changed urgently! Let’s go! We can not give up! This is one of the phrases that I say the most to those around me. But have I applied it to my life? Most of the time, unfortunately, I have failed! Several times I give up the fight and surrender to temptation! But I want to change that, because I know that this is not the life the Lord has for me! I’ve been trying to learn from my mistakes and turn them into successes. It is not easy at all, because at first glance, sin seems to be more pleasurable. However, the pleasure is not lasting and the bitterness of sin comes and takes over the heart. And that is exactly where the love of God and the action of […]

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April 23, 2020·Léo

Learning to rest in God!

Do we really trust God? Have we put our whole life in His hands? Or have we been trying to take control of things and wanting to do it our way? I confess that this has been a great difficulty of mine. For this very reason, I would like to talk to you about it! Come with me! Learning to rest in my life As I said before, I have had great difficulty resting in God and in His plans for me. Not only I have it, but most part of my life I suffered with this. It is extremely difficult for me and shows that my faith is small and that I do not trust God. It is as if I feared more to displease myself than to displease God. But I don’t have to take care of everything. I don’t have to take the reins of my life and do things my way. I am a child of God and it is He who cares for me and my heart. The Lord has shown me this fault of mine and has guided me to improve. Thanks to the care him for me, my leader talked to me about […]

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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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April 17, 2020·Léo

Love your family!

I would like to bring a reflection to all of us in this moment of quarantine! Have we loved everyone around us the right way? As many people are staying indoors with their family for almost full time in this quarantine period, disagreements end up happening. At some point we will disagree with those who live with us. Disagreeing is natural, but we need to be very careful and always base our relationships on what the Bible says. Shall we talk a little about love? Come with me! What does the Bible say about love? “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4: 7-8 It is not new that we must love one another. The Bible makes it very clear, not only through Jesus’s commandments and teachings, but also through the disciples and apostles, that we owe others as we love ourselves. Right. But what would it be like to love? What would it be like to show love? How to love? For this, Paul wrote the following: “Love is patient, love is […]

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April 16, 2020·Léo

3 Characteristics of God

We know many things we can to do to please our God! But do we have the real understanding of who He is? Do we know His characteristics? Do we know why God deserves our praise and devotion? We are often taught what we should do and what we should stop doing. But God brought to my memory that we need to remember who He is! Having an understanding of who God is is extremely important and necessary! Shall we talk a little about this? Why should we talk about who God is? I find it very difficult to delight in the Lord. Wait on Him and understand that He defines who I am and not my attitudes or thoughts. This shows that the knowledge of who He is is not yet 100% rooted in my mind and in my heart. From the moment we understand who God is, we understand who we are talking to and, especially, who we are serving! If we don’t understand who He is, all of our service and devotion will be directed to someone we don’t know. And it wouldn’t make sense to give up our lives and serve someone we don’t know, right? […]

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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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April 13, 2020·Gabriela Angerami

Why do we sometimes need to be silent?

Even though many are in social isolation at the moment, we are hardly ever in silence. We are always listening to music, radio, some podcast, we leave the TV on while we do something else. Or we exchange several videos and audios on with our friends and family. Nowadays we even work listening to something. Sometimes it seems that we are only silent when we sleep. But my point here is to say that it is important to spend time in silence, just willing to hear the voice of God. We often forget to turn our ears to our Father who knows all things. As it is written in Job 12:13, “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.” In this moment of crises, the noise is really loud! We are currently experiencing something unprecedented in which the coronavirus crisis is not something exclusive to just one city or a single country. Basically the whole world is going through this together. There are isolated people in almost every country. European city dwellers are experiencing the same problems than city dwellers in North and South America. As a result, everyone is talking about the pandemic. The noise is loud! […]

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April 13, 2020·Gabriela Angerami

¿Por qué a veces tenemos que estar en silencio?

Aunque muchos se encuentran en aislamiento social en este momento, apenas guardamos silencio. Siempre estamos escuchando música, radio, algún podcast, dejamos la televisión encendida incluso para escuchar la predicación mientras hacemos otra cosa. O intercambiamos varios videos y audios en Whatsapp. Hoy en día incluso trabajamos escuchando algo. A veces parece que solo nos quedamos en silencio cuando dormimos. Pero lo que quiero decir aquí es que es importante pasar tiempo en silencio, simplemente dispuesto a escuchar la voz de Dios. A menudo nos olvidamos de volver nuestros oídos a nuestro Padre que sabe todas las cosas. Como está escrito en Job 12:13, “Con Dios están la sabiduría y el poder; suyos son el consejo y el entendimiento.”. En este momento de crisis el ruido es muy fuerte Actualmente vivimos algo sin precedentes en el que la crisis del coronavirus no es algo exclusivo de una sola ciudad o de un solo país. Prácticamente todo el mundo está pasando por esto juntos. Hay personas aisladas en casi todos los países. Los habitantes de las ciudades europeas están experimentando los mismos problemas que los habitantes de las ciudades de América del Norte y del Sur, por lo que todo el mundo […]

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April 09, 2020·Léo

The Joy of the Good News!

How are you in this quarantine period: happy or sad? What kind of news and content have you being consuming? Where have you been looking for happiness? In the midst of the crisis we are experiencing, we consume negative content, such as news about deaths, fake news, economy in crisis and many other things! But we must not let that shake us! Let’s talk about it? Contaminated by Bad News In this period of contamination with the covid-19 virus, we end up letting our minds be contaminated with the amount of information and sad news that we receive. Such contamination can be devastating in our lives, as it shakes our minds and, consequently, there is a great possibility of shaking our spiritual lives. But we cannot let that happen to us or to those around us. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”” Joshua 1: 9 To keep our minds from being filled with sadness, fear and anguish, we need to hold on to God and put everything we are and have in His hands! Let us delight and rejoice in Him! […]

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April 07, 2020·Léo

2 Features from Bible Offline you may not know!

Hello, dear brothers and sisters! In today’s post we are going to talk about some super cool and very useful features on the Bible Offline app for your Bible studies. We have endeavored to bring more and more content that can bless our lives and add to our wisdom and knowledge about our great God! Come with us! Theme Color For those who do not know, in the Bible Offline app there is the option “Theme Color” where you can customize the color of the app’s interface, putting it the way you like best! This feature is available in the “options” or “setttings” menu of the app. See how to access this tool: IPhone Android Bible Themes Have you ever felt the need to research a specific topic in the Bible? Or, have you ever felt that a friend or family member needed to hear a word about something specific in the Scriptures, but you couldn’t find it? For that, we have Biblical Themes. There you can research on various subjects and learn new things! This feature is available in the main menu. There are even birthday verses for you to send to your friends in their anniversary day. Or […]

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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 […]

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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: […]

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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 24, 2020·Léo

5 tips for your mental health

This text is for you who are quarantined and thinking about what to do with your free time. Come with us and we will give you some tips to preserve your mental health! Much has been said about the coronavirus. How to prevent, how to relate to people,the dos and don’ts. But we are human beings and we have our needs, so we need to talk about yours, mine and our mental health in this quarantine period! The current Society We are used to affection in our daily lives, that is because we spend the whole day with friends and family. As a result, we get used to warm hugs and greetings every day. However, now we are at a critical moment in our society and we need to give up our customs and desires for a greater good. But it is very difficult being away from everyone and being stuck inside the house! What should I do? Knowing this, we at the Bible Offline have separated some tips on what to do with your free time and how to spend this difficult time with peace and tranquility! Get along! 1 – Do different things Learn new things! Do you […]

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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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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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March 12, 2020·Léo

The power of the word!

The “word” we are going to talk about is the one we utter, the one that comes out of our mouths! Have we used our mouths correctly? Have we praised God with our words or have we used them to hurt people and gossip? Words have the power to bless and curse. Knowing this, we need to talk a little bit about it to see if we are using it correctly! The word as a blessing. “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10: 9-10 The word can only be a blessing if we are with the heart in the right place. That is, we will only have the ability to bless someone’s life, once our hearts and our lives are centered and focused on Christ. Any goodness that exists in our hearts, whether it big or small, does not come from us, but from the love that the Lord deposits in us. By origin we are flesh, we are […]

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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, […]

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March 03, 2020·Léo

4 Tips to evangelize!

“He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.“ Mark 16:15 We know that Christ left us a mission: to bring the Good News (the Gospel) to all people. But whats is the best way to do this? How to spread the gospel to friends and strangers? There is no correct way to evangelize. But today, we will give you some tips on practical steps that can help you in evangelization! What does evangelize mean? Before we talk about this topic, the meaning of it must be cristal clear in our minds. According to the dictionary, evangelizing is: converting (someone) to religion, preaching the Gospel, spreading the constant word of the Gospel. We know that we don’t have the power to convert anyone, because the one who converts is the Holy Spirit. We just plant the seed of the Gospel in the hearts of people. So what would be the true meaning of evangelizing? Evangelize is to talk about Jesus for other people. It is to present the essence of God and show people what He has done for us. To show that the only way for someone to be saved is to […]

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February 27, 2020·Gabriela Angerami

Bible Offline app has a new look!

At the end of last year we published an article here on the blog talking about the news we would have in 2020. One of them was the app with a new look. And with great joy we are now launching this novelty to our users! Check with us what has changed! 1) New Design We developed a new application design. We make it more beautiful and friendly to improve your experience with the Word of God on the cell phone. We updated the layout of the biblical text for a more pleasant reading and also the colors of the app’s own interface for a clean look. You can now browse the menu at the bottom of the screen or expand the list of features by clicking “more”. 2) “More” menu This menu brings a new organization of the features to make them even more accessible to our users. To start, right at the top there is a search icon, where you can search for specific features. We divided all the tools of the app into 4 categories: • Content • Store • Explore • My Bible In the sequence, we have separated the functions most used by our users […]

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February 27, 2020·Léo

Walking in Humility

Since the beginning of my adolescence I have always fought my ego and I still fight against it today! Being humble is one of my biggest difficulties! Realizing that nothing is about me, but about Jesus Christ, is one of my daily struggles! I am very grateful to God for showing me, through the Bible, through people or in prayer, where I am commiting mistakes and what I should do. By His grace, I have learned a lot about humility. My spiritual leader has taught me that from the moment we become subject to God and our brothers, we learn much more and our wisdom grows. I still have a lot to learn about humility, but I would like to share with you what I have learned! What is Humility? According to the dictionary, humility comes from Latin humilitas, and it is the virtue of knowing your own limitations and weaknesses and acting accordingly. It refers to the quality of those who do not try to project themselves on other people, nor show themselves to be superior to them. Therefore, we can see that humility is a good thing and helps in the order of society, avoiding intrigues and discussions. […]

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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 18, 2020·Léo

3 Tips to be an active Christian

Do you want to do more for the Kingdom of God? Are you tired of being in a spiritual comfort zone? If you are reading this text it is probably because the answer to the two questions above is “yes”. This is a good thing, because recognizing our mistakes in our life with Christ is the first and one of the most important steps to improve. In today’s post, I’m going to talk a little bit about how we can be more present in Kingdom activities and how we can help on the edification of the Church of Christ. Spiritual Sloth According to the dictionary, laziness can be interpreted as aversion to work or even negligence. It is the lack of willingness to perform a certain task. Something that leads us to do things as if we did not care and not do our best. “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son” If laziness is not overcome, it will affect all areas of our lives, including work, studies, family and especially spiritual life. Proverbs 10: 4-5 By […]

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