King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Friend of Friends

King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Friend of Friends

Scripture Reading: Romans 5:1-11

Focus Verse: Romans 5:8  “But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

My granddaughter, Aviya, was born on December 2nd.  Her name in Hebrew means "God is my Father.”  We know her birthday and plan to celebrate it when it comes around again. I don’t know exactly what day Jesus was born, but we like to celebrate His birth on December 25th.  I love the month of December leading up to Christmas.  We have special services at church.  We get a Christmas tree and put lights on it.  We put up the nativity display.  We sing the Christmas carols. These are all things we don’t forget.  In fact I can remember many things we did at Christmas time when I was just a little boy many years ago.

Christmas is special to me because when Jesus came to earth it was the most important event to ever happen in human history.  Have you wondered why Jesus would leave all the comforts of Heaven to come to earth?  It’s because He loves us and wants to be with us.  The God who created you, the whole universe and everything we see, loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. In fact, He desires to even be your best friend as you walk with Him.  He planned the way for it to happen because sin separates us from God. But God, in human form, came to this earth as a baby.  Because of mercy and grace, He came to die in our place for our sins so that we can choose to surrender to Him and inherit this forgiveness and have a relationship with Him.  

 

Jesus doesn’t just want to be one of your friends, He wants to be your best friend.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  He will be there for you in your good times, and when things are not going well.   Jesus said in John 15:14 “You are my friends if you do what I command.”  So if you’re not doing what Jesus says you should be doing, then maybe you can repent, trust Him and ask Him to help you walk with Him in obedience.  Let’s keep Jesus as our best friend. 

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

Jesus Came Near

 Jesus Came Near

Scripture Reading:  Luke 2

Focus Verse: Luke 2:11 “The Savior yes, the Messiah, the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!”

Luke 2 tells us how it came about that Jesus came and was born.  We can learn many events that happened around that event and it was like nothing that had ever happened before!  Some people think that God is "somewhere out there", but He is everywhere and He is here.  He came in the flesh as was planned from the beginning because of love. God wanted to give an opportunity for a restored relationship with Him and sent His "Only Begotten Son", to accomplish this.  Jesus came near.  It affected everyone from the lowly shepherds to the majestic wise men.  We rejoice!

 

Every year in December I set up a nativity scene in front of our home so it can be seen from the road when people pass by.  It has different figures such as the shepherds, wise men, and angel, Joseph and Mary, some sheep, a donkey, some chickens, and of course the Baby Jesus in the manger.  One year something unusual happened, someone stole the Baby Jesus.  They took Him right out of the manger.  It was just a plastic baby.  Can someone take Jesus from you?

 

Once you have been born again, nobody can really take Jesus away from you, not even Satan. We can’t lose Jesus, but sometimes people get so busy at Christmas time they lose sight of Jesus.  We need to keep Jesus in our thoughts, meditating on Him and praying with Him. One reason is that we may have opportunity to share the real meaning of Christmas with someone who needs to hear about Christ's love for us.  Jesus came to this earth because He loved us so much that He was willing to take the punishment for our sins and die for us.  So when God looks at us he no longer sees our sin, but He sees the righteousness of His Son Jesus.  Let us not forget that Christmas time is when Jesus came near.  He wants to live in your heart.  He wants to make you a new person.  Surrender to Him today if you never have.

*see the photo of the nativity.

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

 

Willing and Rejoicing

Bible Reading: Luke 1

Focus verse:  "Mary responded,“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.    How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!  For he took notice of his lowly servant girl" Luke 1: 46-48a

Mary was betrothed to Joseph which means that there was a plan and a promise to be married.  I imagine that Mary had been planning of her wedding and the life that she would have as a wife of Joseph.  They had not yet married and she was a virgin, untouched by man, when Mary's life was interrupted.  It was not a small interruption but a major one.  Angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and that Mary would conceive and give birth to a son and name him Jesus.  He will be a holy Son and be called the Son of God.  

Mary could not understand how all this could happen, so the Angel explained that it would be through the power of the Most High.  He reminded Mary that even Elizabeth became pregnant in old age after she had been barren and that the word of God will never fail.  Mary responded with submission to the Lord as a servant and welcomed God's word into her life.  Then, after a visit with Elizabeth, she gave a great cry of praise to the Lord and rejoices in God her Savior.  She proclaimed God's holiness, mercy, might, provision and that He remembered Israel and His promise that Abraham and his children would be remembered with mercy.

When God brings a change in your life, you may be tempted to look at how your life was wrecked, your plans have changed, you have lost your dreams and your own path.  Or would we dare to submit to the Lord as Mary did, to recognize that we are a lowly servant and that God's change is a mercy and a blessing on us.  God isn't going to ask you to raise the Son of God, for that has already been done, but he may ask you to do something different than what you had planned.  It may not exalt you, but it may keep you humbled.  Mary didn't have it so good by earthly standards.  Mary got pregnant before marriage and it looked scandalous, she risked being stoned or divorce.  She gave birth in an animal shelter, she loved and raised Jesus and then watched him die the worst death a man could die, on the cross.  As a mother, she suffered, but as a servant, she was blessed.  She was willing and rejoicing in God.  Let us be humbly willing and rejoice in God as we accept the mercy and direction for our lives for His glory.

Page Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

The Time is Now

The Time is Now

Devotion by Greg Laurie

But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.

—Galatians 4:4–5

The birth of Jesus Christ divided human time. Rome had established control over much of the world at this point. The Pax Romana, a period of peace during the Roman Empire, was a time of brutal peace. The Romans cared most about two things: submission to Rome and a steady flow of wealth into Roman coffers.

But with the absence of war, many people were rediscovering art, literature, and philosophy, and they were asking questions. They were talking about human destiny and the meaning of life.

“When the right time came,” the Bible says, “God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children” (Galatians 4:4–5 NLT).

Caesar Augustus thought he was a powerful man, and he was, but he also was a pawn in the hand of God Almighty. That’s because history is His story. Thus, God moved Augustus to accomplish His purposes, reminding us that God is in control. He is sovereign over all nations and over all people.

The Bible says, “The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he guides it wherever he pleases” (Proverbs 21:1 NLT). God can move the heart of a king, queen, prime minister, president, senator, congressman, or CEO. God will accomplish His purposes.

Augustus thought that by ordering a census, he would have greater control over the world. But in the end, all he did was run an errand for God.

The Lord needed Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem because Scripture prophesied, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf” (Micah 5:2 NLT).

Joseph and Mary made the ninety-mile journey to Bethlehem for the census that Augustus decreed. We like to imagine scenes of Joseph and Mary silhouetted against a full moon on such a beautiful night. But the reality is that it was a very difficult and dangerous journey, especially for a woman in the ninth month of her pregnancy.

You would have hoped the hardships would have ended when they finally arrived in Bethlehem. But the Bible says, “There was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7 NKJV). This doesn’t vilify the innkeeper (if there was indeed an innkeeper); it simply presents him for who he was: a man who was preoccupied and busy. You would have thought he could have found it in his heart to make room for a woman who was ready to give birth at any moment. But he sent Joseph and Mary to a barn, or more likely a cave, where the Savior of the world was born.

There are people today who are just like this innkeeper. They don’t have any time in their lives for God. But we had better make room for Him. As the Christmas hymn “Joy to the World” reminds us, “Let every heart prepare Him room.” Make time for Him today.

 

https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/no-time-for-god/

He Was Born To Die

 He Was Born To Die

Scripture Reading:  Matthew 1:18-25

Focus Verse:  Matthew 1:21  “And she will have a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

It’s hard to believe but I am now a grandfather.  I have one granddaughter born about a year ago, and another granddaughter on the way, as well as a grandson on the way.  What a great blessing this is for our family.  When a new baby is born it’s a very happy time. It’s hard to think about the day they will die.  That’s just not something that we want to think about.

I’m sure that death was not something Joseph and Mary were thinking about the night baby Jesus was born.  But the main reason Jesus left the comforts of Heaven to come to the earth was to die.  His death was not a normal death, but an atoning death and a temporary one.  Atoning: The only way we could be saved from our sins is if someone died a sacrificial death in our place.  Only one person could die such a death.  Jesus was the only person qualified for such a death because He had never sinned.  He didn’t deserve to die for us but did so willingly.  John 3:16 says, “For this is how God loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” 

 

Have you believed in Him?  Have you accepted this gift of salvation?  Jesus knew when He came from Heaven to earth He was coming to die.  Then he was alive three days later! So as we celebrate the birth of Jesus this Christmas season let’s not forget the love that God has for us that He would send His only Son to die for us so we can live eternally with our risen Savior in Heaven.

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries