Can Anyone Be Saved?

Can Anyone Be Saved?

 Scripture Reading: Acts 26:9-18

Focus Verse: Acts 26:9  “I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene.”

I went to a conference where our speaker shared some of his testimony on how he came to Jesus.  He mentioned how he was involved in drugs, alcohol and sexual misconduct before his salvation.  As I listened I thought how unlikely it seemed that he would come to Jesus and be saved. 

 

All of us can probably think of someone that we know who is unlikely to become a Christian. Our scripture reading today is about one of those people.  The apostle Paul was actually chasing down Jesus followers, putting Christians in jail, having them punished and voting for their death. A very unlikely person to become a Christian!  But then he had an encounter with Jesus as he was traveling on the road and that changed his life forever. Jesus appointed him to be His servant and witness so that people would turn from darkness to light.

You might say you don’t have a testimony of being saved from all kinds of rough sins like drugs, theft, and murder.  If you’re a born again Christian, it doesn't matter if you had big sins or small sins, you have a powerful testimony of how you came to Jesus.  Your testimony is not about "you", but it's about God's saving grace in your life.  There is someone out there who needs to hear your testimony of how you came to Jesus!  Who knows, but they may be the most unlikely to be saved.

 

  Lastly, I want to answer the question asked at the beginning of this devotion.  YES, anyone can be saved, but only through the grace of God through Jesus and a repentant heart toward God.

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

Holding On

 Holding On

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 13:1-4

Focus Verse: Deuteronomy 13:4  “Serve only the Lord your God and fear Him alone.  Obey His commands, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him.”
 

How can we think rightly about what our life is supposed to be for.  We really count on a lot of things around us, but some things can fail us. What are some things that you depend on in your life?  

We all depend on the sun to rise each morning.  We depend on gravity to hold us here on the earth.  Maybe you would say you depend on your job, or you depend on your money, or your government.  Do you depend on God as much as you depend on these other things?  

This world is always changing. Just like shifting sand at the beach, the waves move the sand around and it is not secure.  Nothing in this world is 100% dependable.  But God has never changed, and He never will.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  His love and mercy for us is never changing, no matter how we change.  God is my Rock and he wants you to put your anchor into the rock that can never move.  God will never let you go.  There is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of Christ.  So hold on to the things that never change in this world, God and His Word.  Our focus on Him can keep us secure from getting wrecked or lost.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Forgiveness: The Delete Key

Forgiveness - The delete key
Bible reading: Matthew 6:9-13
Focus verse: Matthew 6:12 – Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

I must admit that my typing skills aren’t all that good so I frequently use the delete key to help me write and pass accurate information to other people. It’s possible that we will never be very accurate every time we write or pass information.  I try to imagine if this key was missing in a computer or phone; communication would be difficult. Accumulation of mistakes would make your work, information or paper to present to be senseless, lacking in meaning hence low or no grading. People would present information they didn’t intend to. So the delete key is the key that helps your writing be on course. It is a key you can’t avoid no matter how accurate you try to be.

Our lives have so many keys but forgiveness represents the delete key. It is the button we can’t avoid clicking daily if we want to stay on course with our walk with God and be presentable to God and to the people around us as imitators of Christ. Imagine if all the unedited work full of mistakes is what you could present for awarding, what grades could we get? That’s what happens when we don’t click the delete key in our lives. We should click it each time we make mistakes to others or whenever others do mistakes to us. Unfortunately, for some people this key is either dead, rarely used or just ignored in their lives. Jesus knew the importance of this key in our lives and instructed us to click it in our daily prayers. He said each day we need to ask for forgiveness as we also have forgiven others who trespass against us. He further states that if you don’t forgive then you too will not be forgiven, Matthew 6:14-15. Paul further states that, “You yourself are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” 

Pastor Eliazar Wambo
Makira Baptists Church – Mfangano Kenya

Our Shelter In The Storm

Scripture Reading: Psalm 46

Focus Verses: Psalm 46:1-3   "God is our refuge and strength,

    always ready to help in times of trouble.
2 So we will not fear when earthquakes come
    and the mountains crumble into the sea.
3 Let the oceans roar and foam.
    Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! “

Last April, Kenya experienced widespread flooding.  Now flooding has come to America.  More specifically to my state of North Carolina.  About 250km from my home in the mountains of North Carolina hundreds and maybe thousands of homes and businesses have been swept away by flood waters.  This all happened one week ago.  There are over 250 confirmed dead and still hundreds are missing.  We are sad to see such devastation happen to our neighbors to the west. We would ask you to please pray for these people who are suffering.

Psalm 46 tells us that natural earth disasters will take place.  Even Jesus told us that in this life you will have trouble. Even if we don't know why bad things like this happen, we must trust that God knows what He is doing.  Since this tragedy happened last week I have seen how neighbors have come together to help each other.  I have driven my vehicle out to the affected area to take much needed supplies for hurting people.  Psalm 46:1 says “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble."  Some people have lost their home, their business, they even have lost family members.  Sometimes you may lose everything that you have in this world and you realize God is all that you have.  And He is willing, ready, and able to help in our time of need.  God will receive glory from every tragedy.  He can take the worst of circumstances and turn it around for His good, and our good.  Maybe you’re going through a very difficult time in your life.  As the Psalmist says “do not fear, God is our refuge and strength and ready to help.  God alone is our shelter in the storm.

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries