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

Angels Around Us

Scripture Reading: Psalm 34

Focus Verse: Psalm 34:7

“For the angel of the Lord is a guard, he surrounds and defends all who fear him.”

Angels are mysterious beings.  With all the problems that go on in the world today it’s comforting to know that God has His angels watching over us.  The Bible does tell us quite a bit about angels.  But there is one story in the Bible about  angels that caught my attention.  Greg Laurie writes about this story:  

"The Book of Daniel gives us an interesting behind-the-scenes look at angelic involvement in the prayer lives of God’s people. The prophet was praying on one occasion, and immediately, his request was heard in Heaven, and an angel was dispatched with the answer. But while the angel was on his way to Daniel, an apparently high-ranking demon power opposed him.This angel sent from Heaven was unable to subdue this demon power, so the Lord called out one of the higher-ranking angels, Michael, and sent him to intervene and set the other angel free.  Meanwhile, Daniel wasn’t even aware of what was going on. All he knew was that he offered his prayer to God. But instead of getting an immediate answer, he waited and waited.  Sometimes, we pray for something that we believe is the will of God, something that we think God should do, and then we wait and wait. We might be praying for the salvation of a loved one, for physical healing, or for divine guidance.  Yet we hear no answer. And we falsely conclude that God isn’t listening. But we never know what is going on behind the scenes. There may be an angelic battle happening, even while we’re praying.  For twenty-one days, this angel was hindered, but finally, the praying prophet received an answer. This Old Testament account makes clear that delays are not necessarily denials. If something doesn’t happen as quickly as we would like it to, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t listening. It just may be that something else is happening.  We don’t know how many times angels intervene in our lives, getting us out of tight situations, protecting us from harm, and even speaking directly to us. They are indeed, as Billy Graham referred to them, God’s secret agents."

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

Greg Laurie 

Harvest Ministries

Jesus is Our Example of Integrity

Scripture reading: Luke 4:1-13

Focus verse: Hebrews 4:15 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."

Jesus was tempted in every way as a man is. After He was baptized and full of the Holy Spirit, he was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert and fasted for 40 days.  He was tempted by Satan, but He remained resistant to every temptation and faithful to the Father.  Alone in the wilderness, hungry and weakened, He maintained integrity.  There was no corruption in Him, but a wholeness, perfection, uprightness, complete and honest.

Do you compare yourself to other people to decide if you are doing good?  Who is our only true example? As someone who has surrendered their life to Jesus, the Saviour, we are called to walk with Him as a child who is learning to walk like their father.  There is no true example of integrity than Jesus.  Luke 4:13 says that the devil ended every temptation.   Could it be that means that Jesus was tempted in every temptation ever to exist? According to our focus verse, it seems to be true.  Our Jesus, Lord and Saviour, knows about temptation and can sympathize with our weakness, though he never sinned.  He can teach us when we stumble how to resist the devil.

What kind of temptations have you faced?  Born Again Christians have the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness. Jesus has prayed for us (John 17) so we can have hope for sanctification (spiritual growth).  When we are tempted to do something corrupt, something sinful, we have the choice on our action.  Our failures should push us to seek the Lord.  The more we surrender all in Christ, the more He will mold us to be like Him. I pray that you will be strengthened in the Lord to walk in integrity.

Page Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

Lasting Fruit Takes Time

Scripture Reading:  John 15:1-17

Focus Verse:  John 15:4  “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”

Some things just take time.  Smart investors know that much time is needed to get a good return on your money after they have picked a good investment.  Those of you who have gardens, you know that you can’t plant seeds one day and the next day harvest the crops.  It takes time for the sun and the rain to do its work and for the crops to mature.

So often in our lives we get impatient.  We want things to happen immediately.   Some people may look for shortcuts to growing in their faith.  They want to be mature Christians the day after they receive salvation.  It doesn’t work that way.  A 5000 meter race is run by taking one step at a time over and over and over again until you reach the finish line.  If you want to be successful in your Christian life it will take a day after day commitment.  Fruit probably will not grow overnight, it will take time.  But after some weeks, months, and years you will see the spiritual fruit come.  Just as an investor checks on his investment and sees how his money has grown from where he started.

In John 15, Jesus talks about himself being the grapevine and us being the fruit.  Psalm 1 also says “They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.  Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.”

Galatians 5:22-23 refers to the fruits of the Spirit.  “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  Be faithful and patient because this may not happen as quickly as you would like.  Lasting fruit takes time.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Our Job Description

Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:16-20

Focus Verses:  Matthew 28:18-20 

"Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Do you remember ever starting a new job?  The first thing you want to know about your new job is the job description.  You want to know what is going to be expected of you.  So you and your new boss or employer sit down together and he or she explains to you what you will be doing.

Jesus is doing much the same thing here in our scripture reading.  Jesus has been training His disciples for the past three years, and now He is reminding them of what they are to be doing.  Jesus is getting ready to go back to heaven, and He wants to be sure the disciples know what they are to be doing while He is gone.

If you are a follower of Jesus, He has given you the same job description.  His instructions are really quite simple.  You are to share the same good news that you heard when you believed in Jesus and wanted to follow Him.  So we are to share the Gospel and when someone accepts this good news then we are to disciple them or train them in how to follow Jesus.  You would be surprised that there are many Christians that have never told one person this good news.  Why would you not want to share with someone the best thing that has ever happened to you?  If you eat at a restaurant and the food is good, you will tell someone about your experience and how good the food was.  So of course we can tell others about Jesus!

Romans 10:14 says  “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?”

1 Peter 3:15 says we are to always be ready to share the hope that we have within us.  This is not Jesus' suggestion to us, it’s Jesus' command to us.  You know what your job description is, now let’s go do our job.

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries