When it's Your Fault

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 4:11-16

Focus Verse: Hebrews 4:16  “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

We can all think of times when we have made bad choices in life.  Maybe you have not been faithful to your husband or wife.  Perhaps you chose a job that you don’t enjoy.  Or, maybe you cheated your way through school, and you now wish you would have studied.  When we look back at our past it can be painful to see the mistakes we’ve made.  Some years we may just wish we could live them over again, because we would do things differently.  You now live with guilt and regret, and you have no one to blame but yourself, even if you are blaming others for your bad decisions.

You can’t change your past, but the first step in moving forward is taking ownership of your choices.  This may not be easy if you’re thinking nothing good can come from this situation.  The good news is, God can take our bad choices and bring some good out of them.  God’s redemption and grace can give you the courage to face your bad choices.  Psalm 32:4-5 says,  “For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin”.  

You don’t have to blame others for your mistakes.  Tell God, “yes I sinned or yes I made bad choices."  He wants to forgive you, and bring something good out of your situation.  All you have to do is look at the cross, and you can see how God can bring good from that awful death His own Son Jesus.  God took that situation to redeem the human race.  God wants to cover you with His grace.  He want to forgive you.  He wants to make something beautiful out of your choices.

As God forgives you, you can now learn from the mistakes you have made.  God is always at work in our lives.  He loves us too much to leave us right where we are.  He is continually shaping us into the image of His Son.  1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.   When you make mistakes, be encouraged that God’s not through with you.  Confess your faults and move forward with God.

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

Jesus, The Only Way

Jesus, The Only Way

Scripture Reading:  John 14:1-14

Focus Verses: John 14:5-7 “Thomas said to him, Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?  Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.”

In the world today there is probably more confusion about how to get to heaven than any other subject.  Every religion seems to think they know how to get to heaven.  Most all of them involve some type of works based salvation.  But salvation is not about what we can do.  It’s about what Jesus has already done for us.  The only way to God is through faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the only path to God.  If we could do anything to earn our way to heaven,  then Jesus’ death on the cross was in vain and all the pain that Jesus endured on the cross would be worthless.  

What the Bible teaches is true.  There is no other way to heaven except through Jesus.  There is no other way to God except through Jesus.  Salvation is so simple, yet so many people are missing it.  You will end up in hell one day if you’re counting on getting to heaven another way.  The Bible has always been true, and it always will be true.

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

Make His Desires, Your Own

Bible Reading:
Psalm 37:3-7a
"Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him…"

Trusting God when we do not know what will happen next can be hard. These verses remind me that He has our best interests at heart. There are several instructions listed here:

1. Trust - Know that God is for you and will take care of you.
2. Do good - do what you know is right. Help others.
3. Dwell in the land - You are where you are for a reason.
4. Cultivate faithfulness - the translation for this also can mean "feed on faithfulness". A great picture of a farmer cultivating a crop, harvesting it, and feeding on it.
5. Delight yourself in the Lord - Focus on Him to find delight!

Then a promise: He will give you the desires of your heart. This doesn't mean that He will supply you with all of your wants, but that He will give of Himself and His desires. He will place His desires in your heart.

And one last instruction or command, commit your way to the Lord. Then He will show righteousness through you. Rest in Him - He is doing the work!

Be encouraged to know that God is on your side!

by Amy Warr
Camp Victory

Trust God Even At Your Darkest of Times

Scripture Reading: Psalm 31:19-24

Focus Verse: Psalm 31:21 “Praise be to the Lord, for He showed me the wonders of His love when I was in a city under siege.”

As I write this devotion the east coast of the United States is being pounded by a powerful hurricane storm.  We also have watched on the TV how this same storm earlier smashed into the Bahama Islands with winds as strong as 300 kilometers per hour.  Thousands of homes were destroyed and over 30 people lost their lives and they fear many more have been killed.  Many people in the Bahamas are living through the darkest hours of their lives. They have lost everything and some have even lost family members.  I heard the testimony of one man who said that the flood waters got so high in his house his wife was standing on a table in the kitchen and then she drowned.  He then had to swim out of his house into the raging wind and waves to a boat near his house to save his own life.

We may never encounter hardships like this, but we all go through difficult times in our lives. The weight of the world seems to be pressing on us from all sides, and we can't see our way out of that dark place.  In our scripture reading David felt the same way when he wrote “I’m in a city under siege.”  Let me tell you, no matter how dark the darkness, God’s love can always reach you even if you are facing death.  If you are a child of God you have nothing to fear.  The apostle Paul says it best in Romans 8:38-39  “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Those are probably some of the most comforting verses in the Bible.  No matter what circumstance you find yourself in today.  

You can know that the peace and love of God can always find you even in the darkest of places.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Bread of Life

Bible Reading: John 6:10-14; 24-27; 35

Focus Verse: John 6:35 "Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

What is your definition of a miracle?  It is something that only God can do.  When God decides to make a miracle, he has a purpose.  In the scripture reading above, we read about how Jesus fed over 5,000 people by multiplying the food.  The people were happy to have been fed and followed Jesus.

The focus of this event isn't the food or that people were fed, but that Jesus was teaching something about Himself.  He is the "bread of life".  He is everything we need and more.  He wants us to hunger for Him and to seek Him first.  He wants us to be satisfied in Him.
 
The good things in your life are not for the sole purpose of your enjoyment, but that our Lord has decided to reveal Himself to you.  Over the next few days, challenge yourself to pray that God will open your eyes to the wonderful things around you and that you will learn more about who He is.  The more you know Jesus, the more satisfied you will become.

I am satisfied with Jesus.

Page Johnson
Interlocking Ministries

Fighting God’s Way

Bible Reading 1 Samuel 17: with a focus on verses 38-39
Focus verse: 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 – The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary they have the divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.


1 Samuel 17 is such a great history to read. It tells how God used David a young boy to bring down Goliath who was a huge man and a well experienced fighter. It tells that all the Israelites including their king, Saul, feared Goliath and would not dare face him. For forty consecutive days Goliath would appear twice a day to call for a fight from the Israelites but none could come out to face him. Then a young boy called David, appears from tending sheep at his father's land.  After hearing how the name of the God of Israel was being abused, he decided that he would throw himself into the ring and face this giant. He faces opposition from his elder brother but that did not stop him. He solders on since he knew that the God of Israel would give him victory over Goliath.

Now Saul, the king hears about David’s decision to go fight Goliath and calls David to himself so as to give him his (Saul’s) weapons he would use to fight Goliath. Verses 38-39 “Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet of his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off.”

Fighting God’s way requires putting on the full armor of God and not the weapons of the world. Sometimes believers have failed to achieve victory because they have clothed themselves with weapons that are carnal. David tried to move around with one that was from Saul but realized it was canal and God was not in it. Imagine Saul had this armor before but still was terrified in fear and could not face Goliath with it. Look at how Saul’s own armor did not help him all the forty days that Goliath roared out: but when David comes, Saul tells him to have it and face Goliath with it. Why didn’t his own armor save him from the shame? Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18 reminds us of what the full armor of God is. As believers we need examine before we go for a fight if we are armed with God’s armor. We must also be careful with advice from friends when faced with a battle. Some advices are not from God and may not lead us to God’s victory regardless of who has spoken them. We must put out any carnal weapon and only look onto Jesus as the source of our strength, as the author and finisher of our faith.

Pastor Eliazar Wambo
Bethesda Faith Ministries

Additional scripture: "For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12

Can You See a Difference?

Bible Reading: Mark 8:22-25
Focus verse: Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, and to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from the darkness for the prisoners”

The passage in Mark talks about a blind person who was brought to Jesus by some people who then begged Jesus to touch him that he may be healed. Jesus accepted their request and took the man by the hand and led him outside the village. He then spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him and asked the man if he could see anything. The man looked up and responded that “I see people; they look like trees walking”. He is later fully healed by Jesus’ second touch on his eye.

Many people, both Christians and non Christian have suffered different kind of life challenges. We are at times worse hit with life experiences so that we are not able see our way out. Sometimes the challenges have been so overwhelming so that we have become a burden to other people, including their resources. We may try seeking guidance from other people but their advice may fail so that our situation grows worse. There is an answer; we all need Jesus just like the blind man needed him to be healed, so we are able to see our way. Without Jesus we are blind!

Most people who come to Jesus with their problems want Him to take the whole problem out immediately. Some run away from Him, thinking Jesus is taking too long solving their problems. Jesus had the authority to heal the man at once but decided to do it in stages. He is always able to take us away from that disturbing condition instantly, but sometimes he chooses to do it in stages. We may fail to acknowledge the small steps he has moved with us since we are so fixed into having the whole load off quickly.

The blind man acknowledged the simple difference. He told Jesus that things are never the same since He first touched his eye. I see people move like trees, something that had never happened to him. Though not fully healed by then, but he knew things were different from before Jesus’ touch. He had hope and kept trusting that Jesus was able to clear it all even as he appreciated the work already done. We all need to thank God for every simple step he takes with our lives. Did you ever call Him into your life or your troubles? Are you seeing any differences since He came? Yes, we need to tell him that we are seeing a difference. Don’t forget to appreciate God for any step he takes with your life. That’s his will. 

Eliazar Wambo
Bethesda Faith Ministries