JFA Blog

Reflections, studies and news for your walk with God.

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 21, 2020·Léo

Forgiveness that heals!

I would like to bring up a very important topic today: Forgiveness! Have we forgiven as Christ taught us? Have we been meek of heart? Or do I fear we are easily stressed, compassionate and resentful? The question of forgiveness is a very delicate one. A theme that must be rooted in our minds, so that the Body of Christ may be built and communion may grow. Why should I forgive or ask for forgiveness? “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:21-22 I believe that the biggest reason why we should forgive our brothers and accept a request for forgiveness is for simple fact that we are sinners and did not deserve God’s forgiveness, yet He gave His Son to forgive our sins, so if we are Christians (the meaning of the word Christians in Greek is “Little Christs”), we must follow the ways of Christ There is something very interesting about forgiveness in Jewish culture: in Judaism, it was considered honorable to forgive three times. However, in this line […]

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May 19, 2020·Léo

A teachable heart!

Today, I would like to bring you a very simple and brief word! Have we welcomed the exhortation of our leaders and brothers in the faith? Have we submitted to the leadership that has been placed upon us, by God? This is a theme that I love to think and talk about, as it helps us to grow in communion and as the Body of Christ! Come on? Teaching in my life I have always enjoyed learning new and different things, but it was very common for me not to submit to the corrections and exhortations I received. This was something that God dealt with in me through the discipleship I participate in. It was very hard for me, and it still is, to hear corrections and to hear someone saying that I am wrong, because it hurts my ego. However, as time went on, I learned that the teachings I received was for me to improve and grow in my walk with God. I still need to learn a lot to control and repress my pride, but the Lord has clearly shown me what he says in Proverbs: “Because the Lord rebukes the one he loves, as well as […]

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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 14, 2020·Léo

The Bible is our guide

How much time have we invested in the study of the Word? Have we taken advantage of the time we have to read the Bible? Today we are going to talk about the importance of the Bible in our lives. I confess that I have always had a hard time finding pleasure in reading the Word, but the Lord has placed great joy in my heart, while spending time with the Bible. Follow me on this journey! The Bible in my life As I was saying, my walk with the Bible was never a good one. I have always been reluctant to spend time reading the Word and would rather have my leisure than invest time with the Bible. Without a doubt, the consequences of this in my life were not good. If I had spent more time with the Word of the Lord, when I was younger, today I could have a better understanding of who God is, who I am in Him and many other things, such as my calling. I learned in the most painful way how the lack of Bible reading damages our lives. I could have avoided mistakes like trusting myself and wanting to take […]

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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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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 […]

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May 07, 2020·Léo

Mother’s Day Special!

In today’s text, we are going to talk about the person who generated us, the person who carried us in her womb and the one who was chosen by God to bring us into the world. Yes, our dear and beloved mothers. But calm down. If you are not a mother, do not leave now. Read the text to the end, as I’m sure we can take a very incredible lesson, for our lives, through our mothers. Come with us! What does the Bible say about “mother”? God attaches great importance to mothers, especially in raising their children. Together with the father, both have the role of caring, protecting and walking their children’s lives in the ways of the Lord. And children have the obligation to respect, obey and honor their parents. “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.” Proverbs 1: 8-9 The mother takes care of her children with her own body and is the second person to know that little, fragile, helpless and so loved being, coming right after God. The mother watches […]

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May 05, 2020·Gabriela Angerami

Don’t waste time while in quarantine

Even in this situation in which we find ourselves, we can continue to live God’s purposes for our lives. We can even take advantage of this moment to feed ourselves even more spiritually and leave this situation ready and full of boldness to face the next challenges that will come. We must not waste time in this quarantine! Therefore, we have separated 4 tips to help you, with indication of resources in which our team has a lot of work. 1. Pray More Take this time to pray more and dedicate a daily devotional time. We just launched the Pray More app, a social network for you to spend more time in prayer. With this app, you can submit your own orders and pray for other people’s requests. Just search for “Pray More” on the App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store (Android). As it is a new application, it is being tested and we are receiving a lot of feedback from users to work on improvements. 2. Evangelize more Amid so much bad news, you can spread the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus. Within Bible Offline app, you have access to SAL (salt in Portuguese), a powerful […]

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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 […]

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April 30, 2020·Léo

God is beside you!

It is extremely important to understand that the Lord is on our side, regardless of the situation! Do not walk ahead if the Lord is not ahead of you! I would like to bring a brief theme that touched my heart a lot! If you have also had a hard time understanding that the Lord is at your side or having a hard time staying in Christ, I think it’s important that we talk about it! Come with us! What happened? During the past three weeks I confess that I was distant from God! I was trying to do things by my own strength, without letting God take over. Furthermore, I did most of them for myself and not to please and glorify God! There came a moment that was sunk in myself. I didn’t understand what was going on, where I was supposed to go and what I was supposed to do! Why? Because I was trying to take everything in my hands and do more than I should, doing things that God showed me not to do and worst of all: I thought I was doing God’s will and doing things to please Him, when in fact, I […]

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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 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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