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

Seeing and Witnessing

Seeing and Witnessing

Scripture reading: Matthew 28:1-8

But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” 8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.  

 When an accident or crime takes place and the matter is taken to a court of law, a witness (one who saw it happen) would be needed to testify about it. The witness would then give facts of what he saw happen and would be asked to swear in before the court that he is not giving false information. The court would then rely on the witnesses to give a ruling in accordance with the rule of law. It is worthless to see a crime or incident and refuse to give a testimony of what you saw.    

Jesus had just risen from the tomb and the ladies who went to anoint His body were ushered into an empty tomb by the angel of God. The angel showed them the empty place where the Lord was laid, thus making the ladies be witnesses that Jesus is indeed risen. He was no longer laying dead in the tomb. The angel then instructed the ladies to go and tell (share with) the disciples that Jesus is no longer dead, He is risen! The ladies did exactly as they were told; they ran and told the disciples about the same. 

Seeing is one thing but sharing/witness about what you saw is another thing altogether. Believers are not just called to see God work in their lives or around them but must be ready to go and witness to the person about Jesus...and to the world. Not many believers are ready to witness to the world about what God has done to their lives and as a result it denies others the opportunity to hear about Jesus and come to Him. When we read God’s word or hear God’s message, we should not just keep what we heard or saw but should go out and witness to the world about the same. God allows us to see or experience his work since He wants us to be His witnesses. The women in the scripture did not just see the empty tomb and the risen Christ but went out and witnessed to the others about the same and as a result more people came to believe in Him. Are you ready to be a witness of the risen Christ to the world today? What opportunities have we had to share about Him but we have kept quiet? Did we ever put off His voice instructing us to do something for His kingdom? Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 

Eliazar Wambo Nyakwadah
Director Bethesda Faith Ministries & Pastor Makira Baptist Church

Fruitful in the midst of weeds

 Fruitful in the midst of weeds
Scripture reading: Matthew 13:24-30
Focus verse: Matthew 13:28-30 - He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” 

Weeds are very bothersome! We may love for our fields to stay without weeds. They not only compete for nutrients with our crops but they also can carry disease or can strangle our crops so that they don’t produce harvest. One funny thing with weeds is that they time your planting season and will come out as soon as your crops have begun to grow. We may use many methods to control them but still it’s so hard to take them all out completely.  
Jesus gives a parable of a man who sowed good seeds in his field, unfortunately the enemy came at night and planted tares. As the grain grew, the tares also grew with them. The servants of the man came to him and asked him to grant them permission so they could uproot all the tares but the man declined. Instead, he tells them that lest they uproot the good crops in their attempt to uproot the tares. Again, he tells them to wait until harvest time when good crops were to be distinguished from the tares. Tares would then be gathered and burnt while good crops are harvested and taken to the barn.
Tares are works of Satan and they are his efforts to make you unproductive in your life as a believer. They can be life storms that one encounters in his walk with Christ and we all must go through them. We may want to do away with them as the servants’ of the man had wanted, but God is saying He has the best time and solution for each tare. Believers should still produce a harvest in the midst of tares. Challenges will always be part of our life experience since we have an enemy who is fighting against our new life in Christ. We need to keep being the light of God in the dark world and our light needs to shine where there is darkness. God will surely sustain our fruitfulness as long as we keep relying on Him.

Eliazar Wambo Nyakwadah

Little Things Make a Difference

Little Things Make a Difference

Scripture Reading:  James 3:4    1 Samuel 17:40   Matthew 13:31-32

Focus Verses:  Matthew 13:31-32  He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

My father has a piece of property that consists of a few acres of land.  Many years ago he was generous and gave me an acre to build my house.  We purchased a farm tractor to help maintain the property.  Today I was doing some maintenance  work on that tractor.  I changed the engine oil, and changed the fuel filter.  These are important things to do if I want the tractor to work properly.  What if I thought to myself “I don’t have time to change the oil, I’ll just keep using the same old oil.  And the fuel filter, I don’t think I need to change that because the tractor is running fine.”  If I continued to think like that one day I would go to use the tractor and it wouldn’t want to run anymore.  It would be broken down.  The fuel filter is a very small part and only costs a few dollars, but it is a very important part of the tractor.  It helps the fuel to be clean without dirt in it.  

Our lives can be the same way physically and spiritually.  Physically, if you eat the right kinds of food you can be strong and healthy.  Spiritually, if we read God’s Word that can keep us strong to stand against the devil.  We might think that regular Bible reading is a small thing and not very important, but it can make a big difference in our lives.  Just think about how the tractor is turned on with a very small key.  Even if you have a very large tractor if you lose the key the tractor isn’t going anywhere.   A mustard seed is so small you can hardly see it, but it grows into a large tree.  How much will your faith grow if it starts small? You might think your life is not very important to God.  Let’s not forget the story in the Bible of the little boy who had one lunch that he gave to Jesus.  Then Jesus fed over 5000 people from that one small lunch!  The little things in your life can make a big difference when you let God use them.

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

A Life of Worship

 Bible Reading:  Colossians 3

Focus Verse: Colossians 3:23  "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men." and also verse 6 "Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts."

Colossians 3 instructs about the life that we have in Christ.  There are many things that we are supposed to put away, but also things to begin doing.  Some people come to church with great expectations of what they can get out of it.  But they fail to realize that God wants them to contribute to the service.

Something that I want to focus on today is verse 16. "...Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts."  If people have not been worshiping God the other 6 days of the week, then they cannot effectively worship Him on Sunday.  They need to be in a right relationship with God for worship to take place.  The word worship comes from the old English word meaning "worthship."  This means you worship something because it merits (or is worthy) of our worship.

Many people in the world today are worshiping the wrong thing.  I see people worship money, success, other people, their home, their business, sports teams, maybe even themselves.   It's not wrong to have these things, but if it is more important than God it is wrong.  Only God is worthy of our worship.

We worship when we glorify God with our lives in all we do and say.  We all have different gifts from God.  Maybe you cook, build homes, fish, operate your business, or you do your school work well.  If we do all these things well for the glory of God, then this is a form of worship to Him.  Don't do just enough to get by, but do your best as unto the Lord.  Keep in mind who we are serving.  Even if you have a boss, ultimately you are doing your job for Jesus, because He gave you the ability to do it.  This will be a testimony and a witness for Him.  We can live an effective life of worship to Him every day.

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

Training for Service

 Scripture Reading: Daniel 1

Focus Verse: Daniel 1:5  They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king's service.

Training is important before entering service.  Even a blade of steel needs careful attention before it can slice through a piece of meat.  Just as the knife needs sharpening, our spiritual skills need to be sharpened before God can effectively use us.  Maybe you don't have the resources to attend Bible college or go to seminary, but you can gain a great deal of biblical knowledge through your church and personal Bible study.  It is wise to prepare, instead of rushing off unequipped to serve.

Daniel and his friends did not compromise their conviction in God.  Even as they trained under ungodly authority, they held to their Godly instruction from their youth.  God still worked His purposes in their lives.  Sometimes the training process is not always pleasant.  Hebrews 12:11 says, "No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening, it is painful.  But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way."

Most importantly stay in the training process so you can be a better servant for God.  He will see you through.  He is training you for the task He has planned for your life.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries