Walking in the New Year

Bible Reading: 2 Peter 1

Focus Verse:  “May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.” 2 Peter 1:2

We are just a month into the new year and we feel like it's a fresh start!  We can look back on the last year and look forward to the next year.  What do you see as you look back?  We can see our world changing culturally, politically, financially and medically.  Maybe we see some hardships, sin, pain, loss, struggles and discouragement.  Maybe we see  joy, blessings, new relationships, God's handiwork and spiritual growth.  Most likely, there's a combination of the two and we see some good and some bad.  In life, we will always have trials and blessings.  In all these things, as a follower in Christ, we are not alone!

In light of this, how do we move forward this year?  The scripture in 2 Peter chapter 1 tells us that we can have a supernatural peace that can multiply into more and more, even in the midst of our storms and a God who rejoices when we look to Him.  We also read in v. 4 that we can share his divine nature and have the power to escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. We can have His strength to live for Him and walk in His ways.  Verse 5-6 teaches us how to take steps for our faith to grow.  Read over that again as you make your plans for this year.  And lastly, we should pay close attention to what the scripture says!  The scripture was not written out of any of man's ideas or thoughts, but the very heart of God.  We must study God's Word so that we can not be swayed by the clever words and sweet drip of a false preacher.  Verse 19 says of God's Word, the Bible, that we "must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place". 

We also pray "May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord."

Page Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

Questions For Christians

 Questions For Christians

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:23-33

Focus Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:23  “You say, "I am allowed to do anything but not everything is good for you."  You say, "I am allowed to do anything but not everything is beneficial.”

What is the Apostle Paul saying in our focus verse?  There are some activities for a Christian that fall into gray areas. Some activities might be permissible but does it help you to grow as a Christian?  You can tell a lot about someone that calls themselves a Christian by the questions that they ask.  They might ask, “can I still be a Christian and do _____?  It sounds to me like they are asking “how close to sin can I get and still be a Christian?”  Maybe a better question is “how far can I get away from sin?” We don't have to earn our salvation, however we shouldn't trample on the grace of God.  We need to seek God's wisdom in these things.

Maybe you are wondering about an activity that you would like to participate in.  Here are four questions that you could ask yourself:  

1. Does this activity build me up spiritually?  In other words will this activity help you grow as a Christian?  Could it be likely to cause me to move away from God and his will for me?

2.  What does your conscience say about it?  Do you have an uneasy conscience about it?  

3.  If you do this activity and another Christian sees you could it make them stumble in their faith?  We need to be sensitive about what others see us doing.  

4.  Could this activity take control of you?  Example, alcohol has the ability to control you.  Don’t do anything that has the ability to control you above God’s control in your life.  

 

Would you yield to God’s desires in your life, seek in the Bible to know Him and have a passion to walk with Him and obey Him?

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

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
Interlocking Ministries

Good Foundations

Scripture Reading: Matthew 7:24-29

Focus Verses: Matthew 7:26-27  "But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.  When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

Jesus compares listening and obeying His teachings to the foundations of houses.  When Jesus teaches this parable it’s really very easy to understand.  The wise person that builds a foundation on solid rock is the person that obeys Jesus' teachings.  And the foolish person that builds a foundation on the sand is the one that does not obey Jesus teachings.  Notice that both the builders of these houses heard Jesus' teachings. Notice that both houses went through a storm.  We will all have to endure storms in this life.  The question is, will we obey Jesus' teachings or not?  The foolish man did not, and the wise man did.

 

It seems like every year when I go for a holiday to the beach I see one or two houses that are built on the sand that are at risk of collapse.  Many years ago I built my own house.  I put a lot of thought and work into the foundation of my house.  Because I knew if the foundation was not well built then the whole house would be at risk.

Every day we make decisions.  We are either laying a good foundation or a bad foundation. We are either obeying or disobeying Jesus' teachings and this is laying our foundation.  One day eternity will reveal what kind of foundation we have been working on.  As we begin this new year let’s commit to obeying Jesus' teaching so that our lives will not be at risk of collapse.  Remembering 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 ^"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love."

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries