LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, January 29, 2026

As I look out over the back yard at my house, I see nothing but snow. But I can imagine how much work will need to be done when it melts. I know it’s way too early, but the raspberries and shrubs are inviting me to beginning planning for spring pruning and fertilizing.

As I read through Isaiah 61 again this morning, my attention was drawn to the gardening metaphors.

• “We will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.” Isn’t that exciting – we…you and me…are planted by the Lord so we can display His splendor to the world! How’s that going for you? Does the world see us despairing over the sufferings of life or displaying the splendor of the Lord?
• “For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” This metaphor confused me. I understand the soil part of causing a seed to germinate, but since when does a garden cause seeds to grow? Seeds will grow outside of gardens as well, won’t they? Then it hit me – the Lord is the soil; He is the garden. We are the seeds. When we are planted in Him, in the soil that He has prepared, and when we remain in Him, within the boundaries of His garden, then we spring up as righteousness before all the nations and praise Him.

I like that. Life started in a Garden, where everything was good and righteousness and praise continually sprung up. Even though that original physical garden is gone, destroyed by man’s sin, there is a spiritual garden in which each of us can be planted to spring up with righteousness and praise. I am reminded of the words of Psalm 1 – “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”

I wonder if the reason we don’t spring up with righteousness and praise more often is that we are drawing our water from the wrong place. The water of the world will bring disease and death to any spiritual seed, but the water from the River of Life brings a harvest of spiritual prosperity.

God has prepared a garden for each of us in which we are to sprout up and spring up with the splendor of His grace. It is a well-watered garden, and in it we will flourish. The world has a garden also, but just beneath the soil that looks fertile is the blight of death. Enter into the open gate of the garden of God and spring up with life.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Isaiah 61:10  “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

What an interesting word – delight. When heard, read, or spoken it immediately creates an emotional response. Yet at first glance it appears to be an oxymoron. To de-light means to make dark, yet the general use of the word means to brighten. So I looked up the etymology of the word.

I discovered it is not the word light with the prefix de. The original word is French and means “to please greatly.”

Try saying the word out loud in public. Then look around. How many people are looking at you? They heard you say it and I bet there’s a smile on their face, right? They are either smiling because they think you’re crazy, or they are smiling because the word you said affected them. I know it has affected you already. What you are feeling is delight.  It’s delightful, isn’t it?

I wonder what really gives us delight. What is it in our lives that instantly lifts our spirits and pleases us greatly? I take delight in a perfectly cooked steak. The beauty of a sunrise glistening on the water of a glassy lake as a screeching eagle soars overhead is even better. But the smile of a grandchild running to greet me with a hug is more delightful. There’s something deeply pleasing about the look on a child’s face as they smile back at me when their eyes meet mine. It is delightful when another person delights in us.

Delight is reciprocal. It’s contagious. It’s that way with people, and it’s most certainly that way with God. Did you know that God desires to delight in you? Our delight in Him always results in God delighting in us!

The Scripture is filled with motivation for us to delight in the Lord.

• We are to delight in His salvation – “Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation.” (Psalm 35:9)
• We are to delight in His Word – “I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” (Psalm 119:16)
• We are to delight in God’s commands – “for I delight in your commands because I love them.” (Psalm 119:47)
• We are to delight in the fear of the Lord – and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. (Isaiah 11:3)

And when we take delight in the Lord, He takes delight in us.

• “For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.” (Psalm 149:4)

That reminds me of my favorite verse of delight in the Bible. It’s found in the book of Zephaniah, chapter three, verse seventeen.

“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

That’s delightful! Who dares let the snow or the cold or the price of groceries or politics or war discourage them when the Lord Himself sings over us with delight because we have taken delight in Him. He has clothed us with garments of salvation and arrayed us in robes of righteousness. That’s delightful!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Isaiah 61:7  “Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.”

One morning years ago I talked to a friend who was having some problems with his house. He bought the house several years earlier, but some issues were showing up. The latest was that when the house was moved to its current location and the addition put on, the rafters in the roof were not framed properly. The roof was collapsing. The living room ceiling was falling in. Thousands of dollars of repairs were in store because of a builder’s mistake made without the knowledge of the owner.

That stinks! Paying for repairs that weren’t our fault is painful. We rebel against it. We get really bummed about it. It ruins the whole day, or maybe even the whole weekend. Why should we have to pay for someone else’s mistake?

Suddenly I stopped. This sounds familiar. Someone else paid for my mistakes once. My house had also been moved from its original location by a counterfeit carpenter and additional space for self was added on. The construction of that space looked good on the outside, but it was not done according to the original Designers specifications. But I continued to live in it and embraced it as my own. It was collapsing all around me and I didn’t even see it.

Then I realized that someone else had already paid for the repairs. His payment would ultimately drive the counterfeit carpenter out of business. Until then all houses that he had remodeled were made available to the Benefactor for complete restoration if the owner would allow it. I chose to have my house restored.

The Benefactor replaced everything. The renovation began with a new Foundation, followed by the replacement of all the rotting parts with eternal ones that can never rust or rot. Every room I asked the Real Carpenter to restore was instantly invaded by His Co-Worker and completely transformed into a living space that reflected the nature and character of the Benefactor.

It is a joy to live in such a house. There’s no more shame from living in a collapsing house, but complete joy in knowing that my house has been replaced with one of eternal value. I will rejoice and give thanks to the Benefactor who paid the price for my sin – a price He did not owe but graciously paid – by sending His own Carpenter to do all the work. My house has been replaced, and my hope has been firmly placed in the One who did it for me.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday. January 26, 2026

The headlines in the news are tragic and heartbreaking. They generate all sorts of emotional responses. I think grieving may be the most underestimated of the emotions. It may be the one we deny the most. Of course we grieve a little when we read headlines. We would have to have awfully cold hearts to not feel some compassion for the people affected by these wars, uprisings, and tragedies. But grief hurts, so in most cases we skip right over it and move on to thinking about something else – something more positive and uplifting. We deny that anything hurts us because we don’t want to appear weak. We certainly don’t want the circumstance to affect us so deeply that it causes any long-term depression. So we deny that it is there, and hope we never really have to deal with it.

There is a popular theory of grief, introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book entitled On Death and Dying that proposes five stages to the grieving process.

1. Denial – “Everything’s fine…I’ll be all right…This can’t be happening to me.”
2. Anger – “It’s not fair…Why is this happening to me…Who’s fault is this?”
3. Bargaining – “I’ll do anything to change this.”
4. Depression – “Why bother…What’s the point…Why go on?”
5. Acceptance – “It’s really going to be okay.”

This is the secular view of the grieving process, and for a long time we may have believed it is the only process available. That’s just not the case. You see, there is a stage prior to the denial stage that has been omitted from the DABDA model – it is the stage of mourning. It is the very first thing that happens in all of us, but for many it is the one we pass through the quickest because it hurts the most. It is the stage of helplessness, and that is in direct contradiction to our humanistic thinking. We cannot be found helpless, so let’s skip that part and move into the self-help realm.

Yet it is in the stage of mourning that Jesus comes and offers healing. He offers the intimacy of His presence that ultimately moves us to restoration and skips all the in-between steps found in the human model.

Isaiah 61:3  “and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.”

The crown of beauty is bestowed upon those who grieve, and gladness pours over the soul of the mourner. In the depths of despair the garment of praise is given.

Look at this picture of the crocus growing out of the ashes of a fire.

 If the humanistic model is true, this could never happen. The bargaining stage would have removed the burned log, tilled up the soil, put in some landscaping rocks, and planted roses, only to realize that roses are too hard to grow and depression would have set in. Man’s efforts to heal grief don’t work.

But God can heal any grief. Jesus Christ mourned over the death of Lazarus, and with no denial, anger, bargaining, or depression he simply resurrected him from the grave. Don’t let the world get into your head. Let God heal your heart. He who can grow crocuses out of ashes can bring joy to you in the darkest of days.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions  for Friday, January 23, 2026

We are a culture of followers. We sit and wait for someone else to take the first step. We live in a fairly consistent fear of stepping out into the unknown. We’ve put a considerable amount of emphasis on the failures we have seen others suffer while minimizing the faith we can have in the power of God. This concerns me.

One of my friends was a missionary in Swaziland, and I asked him one morning, without him knowing why, to give me his spontaneous response to this question: “Why have we become a culture of followers rather than leaders?” Here is his spontaneous response.

“We don’t have many leaders today because we are a generation who do not want to take risks, make waves, or stand out based on our beliefs. We are much more comfortable fitting in. Our level of importance is based on acceptance by those around us. To lead means to risk that mass acceptance. It is much more comfortable to follow like all the others and complain along the way.”

He sees it too. We have put the emphasis on fitting in and earning acceptance and approval from those around us, rather than on the fact that the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon us as it says inIsaiah 61:1. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me.”

In a doctrinal study of the Holy Spirit I did with my elders in the church these questions were raised.

“Why do we have such a hard time believing that God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit?”

“Why do we doubt what we hear?”

“Why do we not act like we believe He really spoke?”

There were a variety of answers, but every one of them boiled down to this – we don’t have faith in the Holy Spirit as God, one of the three Persons of the Trinity. We have no trouble listening to a friend across a Starbucks table, but we doubt the reality of our True Friend living inside us when He speaks to our heart and mind. This is a serious problem, and it has created a church population of followers rather than leaders.

We have all, as followers of Christ, been given marching orders. We know what we have been commissioned to do. We know in our hearts how we have been equipped to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yet we wallow and wander aimlessly in the culture around us, not convinced that God really said that to us and certainly not trusting that He will provide for us and care for us if we do what He said.

My friends, the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon us, and He has commanded us to go and bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom in Christ for those captivated by sin, and proclaim the grace of God that is available to all.

What are we waiting for?

Take the lead.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, January 22. 2026

Monday morning we’re down.  Friday afternoon we’re up.

Those are the bookends of an average rollercoaster work week for most of us. Up and down emotionally, physically, and even spiritually. Some of us run that cycle several times a day as circumstances and people play games with our attitudes. How many of these bumps could be resolved if we would just recognize the truth that no person or event has any power over our attitudes? Attitudes are completely and exclusively our choice. But that’s for another day.

For today I want to share with you a blessing I received from the Lord one morning many years ago. I awoke at 4:15 AM and did my very best to go back to sleep. I couldn’t. So I thought about things and prayed.

I thought about the message I had recently preached and how people still listen through filters. I prayed for them.

I thought about how busy I was and how some days I don’t get home until after all the meetings are done. I prayed for strength and good time-management skills to get everything done.

I thought about the building program the church was in and the incredible blessing that God has bestowed upon us, and how we can use that blessing to bless others. I prayed for our sister church on the Bayou we had adopted after a hurricane and the people who still need houses.

I thought about my emotional responses to the aforementioned items and realized that I had allowed my attitudes to be adjusted by those circumstances and people, both up and down. The down part bothered me. I finally got out of bed.

When I went to the couch and sat down with my laptop, I opened my Bible program and went to Isaiah 60 and read the whole chapter again. When I got to verses 19 and 20 I stopped. God spoke truth into my mind and heart. He worked the truth deep into my soul and spirit.

Isaiah 60:19-20 “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.”

Here’s how applied what I read. “When you trust me, there are no more ups and downs. Your life right now is like the rising and setting of the sun and the waning of the moon. Trust me, and the ups and downs will be replaced with the consistency of My eternal light. Stop looking to people or circumstances to validate or determine your feelings and attitudes. Let me be your glory.”

That’s what I needed for that day. And today. And every day. I hope it helps you too.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Do you remember this little song?

“Gloom, despair, and agony on me;

Deep dark depression, excessive misery;

If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all;

Gloom, despair, and agony on me.”

Too many of us live life this way. Darkness covers us like the dust cloud around Pig Pen in the Peanuts cartoon strip. Everywhere we go we find something wrong with what’s there. Every piece of news we hear pushes us deeper into the chasm of cynicism. Every day the darkness gets darker as the light gets dimmer because we have run out of batteries.

The natural response of our hearts to increasing darkness is to draw up closer to ourselves. We pull everything tighter to our chests and protect what little we think we have left. We quickly turn from a giving person to a tightwad. We do the same things with our lives that we do with our homes when the sun goes down – we lock the doors behind us, finish some inside tasks, turn off all the lights, and snuggle up with the false security of a blankie, hoping no one breaks in while we sleep.

I think we are in denial of how dependent we have become upon the world. The proof for each of us is in our response to crisis.

Do we respond by protecting ourselves from the darkness, or do we become brighter shiners of God’s light by walking in faith?

Do we withdraw into the security of our homes and turn off the light of influence to our neighbors?

Do we shut down the outreach ministries of our church and focus only on the increase of knowledge so we can survive the onslaught of culture’s rebellion against God, or do we fling the doors open wider than ever to rescue as many as possible before Jesus returns and sets it all straight?

Do we hedge our personal and church funds for the predicted doom or by faith do we give more than ever to shine the light of the Gospel more brightly?

I think the reason the song was so funny is that we relate to it so well. Isaiah knew it when he wrote chapter sixty verses one and two, “Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples.” But he also wrote that “the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.” He challenges us to “arise, shine, for your light has come.”

The next few verses of Isaiah 60 are significant. They give us the promises of God for those who ignore the darkness and let the light of the glory of God shine in and through them. These promises given to the nation of Israel for the day the Lord returns and redeems their land are for people like you and me who let His light shine today as well.

• You will be radiant – verse 5
• Your heart will throb and swell with joy – verse 5
• You will be blessed with prosperity – verses 5-7 (No, I am not teaching the false prosperity gospel but rather affirming what the Lord said that whatever we sow we will reap.)
• God’s glory will fill the church – verse 7
• Your enemies will become your friends and serve you – verses 10-11
• Respect will return to you – verses 14-15
• Peace will come to you – verses 17-18
• Complete dependence upon God will be the norm – verses 19-20
• Righteousness and justice will rule your life – verse 21

All that can be ours if we choose to let the Light of God shine through us instead of succumbing to the darkness around us. No more gloom, despair, and agony on us. The glory of the Lord has come upon us. Arise, and let His light shine.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Isaiah 60:22  “I am the LORD; in its time I will do this swiftly.”

It appeared to be a dead end. Dead was the operative word in their minds. In front of them was a great body of water that according to their human wisdom was not crossable. Behind them they could see the dust of thousands of chariots as the army of Egypt bore down on them. They cried out to their leader in anger and said, “What have you done to us?”  Standing still meant certain death at the hands of the warriors. Moving meant drowning. It seemed hopeless.

Does this describe your life right now – a dead end? Standing still doesn’t change anything. Moving ahead is way too scary. Maybe if we just close our eyes it will all go away.

Well, I have some interesting news for you – standing still does change things and moving ahead is worth the risk, as long as God has directed you to do either one. No matter how it appears on the surface, God is working on your behalf. If He says stand firm, then do it. In His time He will act. If He says move, don’t look back and don’t fear what’s ahead. He has already been there, done that, and has everything all worked out, so move with Him no matter how swiftly you have to move.

The hardest part is accelerating from a standstill to God-speed in such a short period of time. The only thing that makes it possible is that during the standstill, we are not inactive. All the groundwork for moving can be put in place so that when God’s time to act arrives, we are ready.

Standstills are never meant to be times of complacency. Want proof? What happens at a stoplight when you are driving? You check your phone, right? You quickly throw together a text to someone, or listen to a voicemail, or read an email. Standstills are times of productivity. So instead of complaining about not moving, why not get prepared to move when the light turns green again?

So with all the preparation done, and all of God’s pieces being put into place, we choose to move with Him. Swiftly. Hang on tight. It’s going to be an awesome ride filled with opportunities to see God’s power and provision. It will require us to step out in faith and move into uncharted territory. But God knows we are ready. No looking back. No looking around. With eyes straight ahead fixed firmly on where God is moving, we will follow, and we will follow at His speed.

So what happened to the people at the dead end? Here’s what it says about them in Exodus 14.

“Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

Stand firm on the promises of God. Move when God says move. Then we will see the glory of God.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, January 19, 2026

 To follow up on what we shared on Friday, it’s easy for many of us to just go along with the flow. We follow the crowd. Without any real attempt to be educated with facts, we move in the direction of popular opinion. We may even compromise known truths for the sake of appearances. We do so with the hope that we will arrive safely at the port of acceptance and approval.

This is not a new issue. The nation of Israel suffered from the same malady. They were riding the wave of national identity thinking they slide right into an eternal relationship with God based on their heritage. Many still do that today, placing their faith and hope in their religious, political, or social affiliations. The Israelites of the Old Testament thought that their identity as children of Abraham gave them automatic access to God.

Things were about to change. Ultimately it would be for the best, but the change itself would be difficult. The groundwork for the change had always been in place, but it had been overshadowed by traditions. From the beginning of man’s existence on the earth when He created Adam and Eve on the literal sixth day, God’s eternal plan was to make each individual personally responsible for their relationship with their Creator. There would be no exceptions – no loopholes. Family ties mean nothing. Race, creed, or color offers no benefits. Political views provide no eternal hope. Religion cannot accomplish redemption. No connection of man can earn favor from God.

The fifty-ninth chapter of Isaiah is about change – a change from the traditional way of seeing human connections as sufficient to being personally responsible to God no matter what direction the rest of the world is moving. For most of the chapter Isaiah deplores the condition of culture – a culture that was supposedly based on faith in God. When God saw that there was no one going against the flow, He sent Himself to work salvation on our behalf.

Then, in an amazing moment of change in verses 20 and 21, the Lord declares an eternal truth.  “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD. “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.

The Redeemer will come to a nation; not for national renewal, but for individual salvation! Only those who repent will be saved. A New Covenant will be established that abolishes any and all possibility that a person’s human connections and affiliations will have any value in determining their eternal destiny.

The New Covenant of the Redeemer’s blood poured out on the cross of Calvary removes all national identity. It removes all racial discrimination. It eliminates all religious sacraments. It destroys any and all works of man as an attempt to earn the favor of God. Family background cannot be used as either a pass or an excuse. Each one of us is responsible for our sin before God. The greatest discover any one of us can make is this, that we begin to perceive that there are but two beings in the whole universe—two only supreme and luminously self- evident beings—our own soul, and the God who made it.

The New Covenant offers the same promise of eternal life to every person based on only one truth – the sinful nature of all of us and the payment for that sin that was fully paid on the cross by God Himself. The covenant of cleansing from sin is for those that repent, and once that is stated in verse 21, every pronoun in the rest of the verse is singular, not plural. You as an individual are responsible to repent of your sin so that every benefit of the covenant can be experienced personally.

This is incredible news. It’s hard to change from our traditions, but in this case change has eternal value. Regardless of your past, your sin, your connections, your politics, or your religion, you can repent of your sin and be saved for all eternity. Jesus died and rose again so that you can be forgiven and live. That’s incredible news.

The Redeemer has come for you.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, January 16, 2026

The elevator door began to open, and as it did I took my first step to enter. I stopped before taking the second step when I saw how crowded it was in that little box. Yet the people inside motioned me to come forward as they started to squeeze more tightly than before to make room. As I entered, I realized it would not be easy to turn around, so I stood facing all of them as my back was brushed by the closing door.

Have you ever stood facing the people in an elevator? It’s uncomfortable. There are two reasons for the awkwardness. First, there’s the realization that everyone in there is staring at you. They are evaluating you. They are wondering if you will say something, and if you do, will you have bad breath or will you spit as you speak. Our insecurities explode to the surface in such situations, and we imagine all kinds of things that the other people must be thinking.

Second, there’s the reality that you are facing the wrong direction and blocking their exit. You stand opposed to the majority, and that’s uncomfortable in any situation.

How much power do you have in that box to change people’s minds about where they want to go? Absolutely none if all you consider is the exit door.  But you do have the power to change their mind about when they will use that door. They may have gotten on the elevator to go to a particular floor, but it is possible for you to convince them to change that plan. It may not be probable or practical, but it is possible. You have more power than you think to affect the direction of other people’s lives.

We need to remember that when by our faith in Jesus Christ we stand opposed to the direction the world is taking. The Bible is full of stories about the power of one. I think we as Christians have started to believe the lie of our Enemy that the current of culture is too powerful to resist. Every day we get on the proverbial elevator of life and turn to face the same direction as everyone already there. We avoid contact with others and leave them to their own choices, focusing only on the numbers above the door as they announce the arrival of our destination. We know very little about anyone else around us, and don’t seem to care why they are going where they are going. We miss countless opportunities to invite them to make a different choice.

That is the picture presented to us in Isaiah 59, verses 2-15. It would benefit you to read them and see how appropriately they describe our current culture.

Then in verse 16 we read God’s response to what is happening. “He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;”

It is into this elevator of injustice and sin that God wants us to step and face the other way. He did it. Jesus came and lived His life facing the opposite direction from everyone around Him. And while He went against the flow, He invited others to consider changing their direction.

That’s exactly how we are supposed to live. Go against the flow and influence others to join you.  

Pastor John