A Warning For Christians

 A Warning For Christians

Scripture Reading: Revelation 2:1-7

Focus Verses: Revelation 2:4-5  “But I have this complaint against you.  You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!  Look how far you have fallen!  Turn back to me and do the works you did at first.  If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.”

I heard a story of a man who did a lot of exercise.  He did weight lifting, and running to get his body in the best physical shape.  And to look at him you could tell he would eat all the best foods and you could see all his muscles and could tell he did all this exercise.  Then one day he died of a heart attack.  He did all this exercise but he had a bad heart.

In our scripture reading there is a warning about our spiritual health.  You may look good on the outside, go to church, help your neighbor in need, and do all these good things.  But on the inside you’ve got a problem; you have lost your first love.  The church in Ephesus had left their first love.  Satan will say to you “God has put all these restrictions on you so your life is no longer fun.”  You may be tempted, but God's Word has guidelines to protect us.  Maybe you have built a fence on your compound and your children say “I want to play outside the fence” but you know it is dangerous outside the fence because of a busy road or dangerous animals.  Even more than a good earthly father, God always knows best. 

Jesus said in John 10:10  “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”  A rich and satisfied life is a life where we joyfully serve Christ, have a passion for the Gospel, and a hunger for God’s Word.  These are all indications that we have not lost our first love.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Choose The Right Path

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 3:1-18

Focus Verses Proverbs 3:5-6  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.”

We make hundreds of choices everyday.  Many of those choices are not that important.  When getting dressed in the morning you may decide to wear red socks.  That’s a choice that is not very important.  Some of you reading this devotion have made the decision of who you will marry. Now that is a very important decision that will have an impact on the rest of your life.  I’m thankful that the Lord helped me make the right decision in who to marry.

Some people say “just follow your heart in making decisions.”  Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?”  Following your heart is a bad idea.  Our focus verses tell us to trust in the Lord and not to depend on our own understanding.  When we seek His will for our lives He will show us the right way.  Why is God able to help us make better decisions than we can for ourselves?  Because God knows the future and we don't.  God knows what the outcome of every decision is.  No matter how much you think you know about life, you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.  So God wants to help us make choices that will benefit us and not to harm us.  God’s path, even if it's a challenging path,  will lead us to an abundant life in Him.  That’s why we need to put our trust in Him and not our heart that can lead us astray.  So let’s choose the right path in asking God to give us wisdom in our choices.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Are You A Salty Christian

Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:13-16

Focus Verse: Matthew 5:13  “You are the salt of the earth.  But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?  Can you make it salty again?  It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.”

The sermon on the mount was a collection of many messages by Jesus.  In these verses, Jesus was talking about salt.  In Jesus' day salt was so valuable that sometimes people were even paid with salt instead of money.  When there was no refrigeration it was a challenge to keep meat from rotting, so salt was used to preserve the meat to keep it from spoiling. This is still a method used today.

It is true that if you are going to be an effective Christian you will need to be a salty Christian. How are we called "the salt of the earth"?  Today in the world I see a society that is spoiling.  Sin in this world is causing rot or evil to spread, but a salty Christian can speak out against such evil and help rescue those who are trapped by it.  Salty Christians can spread the gospel and teachings of Jesus to be the cure in our culture today.

Salt also creates thirst.  I love to eat country ham biscuits.  The ham is salt cured (preserved), so after I eat one I’m very thirsty.  A salty Christian is going to stimulate a thirst in others to know God!  1 Peter 3:15 says, “If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.”  Are you living as a salty Christian?  This world needs to see Jesus through you.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Godly Advice & Encouragement

 Bible Reading: Hebrews 13

Focus verse: "You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God." Hebrews 3:13

I hope you read Hebrews 13 slowly.  The end of Hebrews was full of Godly advice and encouragement.  Everyone should find something there for growth.  Maybe we are so wrapped up in our own problems that we have ignored the needs of others.  Maybe we have forgotten to be thankful toward those who mentored us in our faith.  There is a lot of great advice in that chapter as the author, thought to be Paul, concludes the letter.  Like a loving father he gave a lot of great advice for living the Christian life.  From topics of hospitality, marriage, money, fear, leaders, sacrifice, to living honorably, he reminds them of their position.

I don't want to say too much, but read through Hebrews 13 again.  We all need to be reminded of God's truth so that we won't be deceived by the lies of the enemy.  It is the role of Christ followers to exhort, or remind others of the ways of the Lord in a loving way.

As a believer, we are given the position of God's child.  As a believer, we should also behave like God's child and remember even in verse 9, to be aware of strange ideas that aren't biblical. 

Page Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

God Will Triumph Over Evil

 God Will Triumph Over Evil

Scripture Reading: Psalm 10:1-7

Focus Verse: 

Romans 8:28  says, “For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

It’s a question that I, and millions of people have asked.  Why doesn’t God do something when evil people prosper, and righteous people suffer?  We have all seen situations like this.  Perhaps where someone steals something and it looks like they never get caught.  We have also seen situations where a good upstanding Christian has gone through great suffering with no end in sight.   And we think, "Where is God in all of this?  Does God even care what is going on?  What is God thinking?"

The heart of an evil doer will one day be exposed.  A liter of paint will not be able to hide the evil heart.  It will come to light one day.  When God is silent He is giving opportunity for repentance, but the opportunity will pass and one day come to a close.  That is when judgment will come.   The Lord will say, “depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity." Luke 13:27   

Even those who have suffered for righteousness sake have been on the side of evil at one point in their lives.  The Bible says, “all have sinned.”  We were all guilty but now are cleansed in the blood of Jesus.  When going through suffering ultimately we must trust that God is sovereign and know that He is doing what is best.  “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.  God has a plan He is working out.  We can’t always see the end of that plan, but we must trust that it is good.  Jesus triumphed over our sin at the cross.

God always triumphs over evil in the end.  

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

 

Additional reading:

"Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10

Problems Have Purpose

Bible Reading: Romans 5:1-11

Focus Verse: Hebrews 10:36 "For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised." 

Our Bible reading tells us much about our problems and how to think about them, but first it tells us of our undeserved benefits of being made right in God's eyes through faith, peace, standing in privilege and the joy and confidence of looking forward to sharing God's Glory.  Then we learn of how we can actually rejoice when we run into problems because of the endurance, strength of character, confident hope of salvation and that the hope will not disappoint because God dearly loves us.

I went to an "Herbs as Natural Medicine" nursing seminar for education credits a few years back.  They taught me that the herbs that weren't watered regularly and underwent stress of weather and stress during growth would hold MORE beneficial properties for medicinal purposes!  The herbs that were perfectly cared for, and shielded from all harm, had LESS of the medicinal value.  

In the same way, when we have stress and problems in our lives, it may be a struggle, but if we stand in Christ, He will bring about value in our lives that we would not know without our struggle.  Maybe you have a medical problem, money problem, relationship problem, struggles at school or work or grief from losing someone you love. These things may feel like you aren't being cared for by God, but just like the herbs, God will bring you to have more value through your endurance. Maybe God will reveal to you some earthly purpose, but maybe not.  Even if we don't know the purpose when we are on earth, we have the promise of sharing God's Glory in Heaven.  This is how we can rejoice with hope!

~Page Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

With All Prayer

With All Prayer

Bible Reading: Ephesians 6
Focus verse: "with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" Ephesians 6:18

Do you ever wonder if prayer works?  Does it really make a difference?  Prayer is our connection to God!  God has planned for and ordained prayer and that He will work through our prayers.  The effective praying person will put on the armor of God before praying. (vs 10-17)  Another effective way to pray is to use scripture as you pray.  You can pray any time of day or night for as long or as short as you like.  Pray in all trials and joys of your life.  Pray for others.    An effective praying person knows how to pray in agreement with the scriptures, in the Spirit, watchful, alert, perseverant, devoted and by submitting their life to God.

Do you use all parts of prayer?  It is good in Kenya to start a conversation by a proper greeting of the other person and ask, "How is the day?", the family, the parents and the cows.  In the same way, you begin the prayer by greeting the heavenly father with some words of adoration and praise.  Such as God's faithfulness, creation, power, love, forgiveness, holiness and more.
Second, you can confess humbly who we are in our failures to live up to God's standard.  We remember our weakness, our sin, and we agree with God about it.  We can not do this life without God and we acknowledge it.
Third, we are to remember our blessings and be thankful to God for them.  Even in our trials, there are things to be thankful for.  Can you be thankful for your salvation, your family, your friends, your church, your country, your relationship with God and even we can thank God for the trials in our lives because of the growth that it brings (James 1:2-4)
Fourth, we will be bringing our petitions, our requests, to God.  This is prayer for others and for yourself.  God has asked us to bring our requests to Him. (Philippians 4:6)  There are three ways God can answer.  God might say, "No" if it is not the best thing for us or if we didn't ask according to the correct interpretation of scripture.  God may say "Yes" if our petition is based on God's principles and we are praying in the Spirit.  God may say, "Wait" when the timing isn't right.  We are always learning more of God's ways and the way He answers our prayers.  We can be sure that if we are in a right relationship with Him, that we are never alone and He always hears us.

Can you focus on prayer this week?  What part of prayer can you strengthen in your life?  Is it using all the parts?  Is it learning more of the scriptures?  Is it devoting more time to prayer?  Is it praying for others more often and faithfully?  Is it finding joy in your trials and having thankfulness?
"Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near."  Isaiah 55:6

~Page Johnson