https://anchor.fm/pastor-john-van-gorkom/episodes/CHOOSE-THE-RIGHT-HAT-euhvm9

LifeLink Devotional

Friday, April 9, 2021

I have a variety of hats. Each one has an assigned context.  My red Wisconsin Badgers hat matches my golf bag. My beige hat with the words “I’d rather be fishing” is my work-around-the-yard hat. I have two floppy brimmed hats for the boat when I’m fishing. I also have two hats I never wear. One is a navy blue Detroit Tigers hat with an autograph of Al Kaline in it. The other is a Green Bay Packer Super Bowl champion hat I won. The reason for not wearing that hat is obvious if you know me.

I have lots of other hats also, with a variety of logos or words on them, but I use those for work hats because they don’t necessarily represent me. Most of the time, we choose to wear hats that identify us in some way, either as a fan of a team or a customer of a company.

Just like hats, Jesus told us that there would be characteristics of our lives that we would wear to publicly identify us as His followers. The most obvious one is love. Jesus said that the world will know we are Christians by our love.

However, in the context of John chapter fourteen which we have been studying this week, Jesus reveals another “hat” we wear.

John 14:27  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Let’s review the context. Jesus told the disciples He was leaving. He assured them they were not being abandoned. He revealed the Helper to them, whom the Father would send to abide in them as a constant encourager and teacher. The Holy Spirit would manifest the life of Jesus to them. Then, in a profound statement that is backed up by His own example, Jesus says that His life in them would provide them the same level of peace that He was experiencing as He prepared to be crucified. All I can say is, WOW!”

Yesterday I saw a post of Facebook that bothered me. Christian people complaining about the outcome of the Tuesday election. One even said that they didn’t know what to do anymore. I posted a comment. “Read the end of THE BOOK and then trust God.”

My friends, what if we wore the hat of peace every day to identify us as followers of Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, suffered at the hands of human government and religious tyranny. Yet He was at peace knowing that He was accomplishing the Father’s purpose. And in preparation for His suffering, He gave peace to His disciples. He promised His presence in each of our lives so we could know and experience His peace.

Why do we wear hats that identify us as discouraged, grumpy, critical, controlling, or hopeless, when we could be wearing the hat of peace? As a follower of Christ, you own that hat. Put it on.

Pastor John

https://anchor.fm/pastor-john-van-gorkom/episodes/NEVER-ABANDONED-eufk6q

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Recently a news story caught my attention. Video captured by a Border Patrol officer shows a young boy, tears streaming down his face, who had apparently been abandoned alone in the desert in Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border. The boy was seen in the video walking down an empty dirt road. 

“I came with a group, they dumped me, and I don’t know where they are,” the minor said between sobs to a motorist who was in the area. The boy told an off-duty Border Patrol officer, “They can rob me, kidnap me. I am afraid.”

The world is filled with the tragedy of human abandonment. Fathers and mothers abandon their children to pursue their own dreams. Husbands abandon their wives in search of a better life with someone else. Wives do it too. Employees abandon their posts to follow their impulses and seek immediate gratification. Even in the church there is abandonment, as shepherds leave their sheep for a presumed better flock, and sheep leave their shepherds for possible greener pastures.

Jesus understood abandonment through experience. He was abandoned by the people He came to save. He was abandoned by those who had one time followed Him. He was preparing to be abandoned by the Father to the point of death so He would cry out, “Why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus knew what it meant to be abandoned, so He compassionately reached out to those who would soon feel the same abandonment. He has told the disciples that He is leaving them, so now He assures them that it is not abandonment.

John 14:18-19   “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.”

This statement of Jesus is packed with truth. When we choose to believe in Jesus, we are never left alone. His promise to us is that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He has come to us as He promised by sending His Spirit to permanently dwell in us. We are not orphans. The love of God is being constantly lavished upon us because we are His eternal children.

Yet the world does not see Him or know Him. Those who do not believe in Jesus are orphans by choice. We who believe are promised life because He who dwells in us is alive. Not so for unbelievers. How sad. If only their spiritual eyes were opened so they could see Jesus, then they too could live. If we who are alive would abandon our worldly pursuits and give them a view of life as a child of God, maybe they would abandon their unbelief and turn to Jesus.

We who know we will never be abandoned must choose to abandon everything that contradicts the life of Christ in us. When we do, we become the living evidence of the resurrected life of Christ. We are surrounded by people who are ready to meet Jesus. Show them that they can.

Pastor John

https://anchor.fm/pastor-john-van-gorkom/episodes/ETERNAL-LIFE-eudcu3

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lifelink-devotions/id1559931973

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Forever is a long time.

We have probably heard and used that statement many times, but it is not a true statement. In fact, a long time is the exact opposite of forever. Forever is the absence of time. Eternity is not measured in time. Forever will never feel like a long time, because the past and the future are all wrapped up in the present. My mind cannot comprehend that because I am confined to a space/time continuum.

God is eternal. He is not limited by time or space. When we enter eternity, and everyone does in either heaven or hell, our existence will no longer be measured by time. We will not have a past to remember or a future to anticipate. Everything about us will be realized in the immediate, and it will never end.

Jesus gave us a glimpse of what eternity will be like in His discussion with the disciples in John 14. Here’s what He said.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…”

Those who have received the forgiveness of God through faith in Jesus Christ are immediately given a Helper, the Holy Spirit. The Eternal God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, comes to us in the Spirit of Christ and dwells in us. Not just for this life, but forever in eternity. It is the Holy Spirit who brings to us the life of Christ, and when these mortal bodies are transformed into immortality, the Holy Spirit will fully glorify the life of Christ in us. It is because we have the eternal presence of Jesus in us today that we can look forward with certainty to the time when time shall be no more, and we experience the eternal glory of God.

Those who are not in Christ have no such hope. They are without the present life of Jesus in them. By their own unbelief they have chosen to not participate in the eternal glory of God. Every unbeliever, with no exceptions, will also become an eternal being, but without the life of Jesus it will be eternal suffering. Today’s rejection of God results in eternal death and separation from God.

Those of us who have eternal life in Christ should be grieving the hopeless state of unbelievers. Yet we are empowered by the life of Jesus in us to be His witnesses to the lost and dying. We have been commissioned by Jesus Christ to go to the lost, make disciples of the lost, baptize them in the Name of Jesus Christ, teach them to obey the commands of Jesus, and then send them out to make even more disciples.

The world is overflowing with death. Our lives are to be overflowing with life so those in death can see the hope we have and turn from death to life. The question of the hour then is this – “Do those in death see the living presence of Jesus Christ in me so that they can find life?”

Pastor John

Dear Friends,

Beginning today and for the next few weeks I will be unable to record my podcast. I know many of you read and listen to these devotionals every weekday, so I don’t want you to be left with nothing. Therefore, I will be running reruns of devotionals from 2021. I have not updated nor edited them to make them current, so please read them like you read an old book. They still contain God’s unchanging truth.

Denise and I appreciate your prayers for her mother during this time.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Twice in my lifetime I have received an inheritance. Once when my father died, and once when my grandmother died. It is the second one that gave me the character growth lesson that I’m still learning.

When my parents received a small inheritance from my mom’s mother, they chose to use it to buy me and my two brothers a car. Used cars of course, but they were greatly anticipated. They did not take us with them for the purchase, knowing that we might be fussy and desire more than they could afford. In fact, they didn’t even tell us they were doing it until the cars arrived in the driveway.

One brother received a 1968 Chevy Impala Super Sport. One brother received a 1967 Ford Mustang. My car was a 1968 Chevy Bel Air that had lived it’s life as a taxicab.

You may be wondering how I responded. Well, to put into practice yesterday’s beatitude, I mourned. I was heartbroken. I took my car gift as a statement of my worth. I was sinfully jealous and disappointed. Yet as time passed, that car served me very well.

God was trying to teach me a lesson that a 18-year old wasn’t ready to learn, but since then I have started to get it. The lesson is this – Stop trying to show off and become meek. But at the time I didn’t see the lesson. After a couple of years of driving that car I took matters into my own hands and traded it for a 1969 Mustang convertible. Now I could show off my worth. But it didn’t satisfy, so I traded it for a 1968 Olds 442, all souped up and fast. But again, it was my display of power and control, not God’s.

Today, even though I still struggle with meekness, the words of Jesus make much more sense.

Matthew 5:5  “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Meekness is defined as power under control.” Like a horse that is bridled by a rider. The horse has much more power than the rider, but he submits that power to the direction and control of the rider. That’s how Jesus is described as well – He was meek and lowly. He had infinite power, but He brought it under the control of the Father’s will and purpose.

And the promise for all of us who choose to relinquish our power and control to the Father is that we will inherit everything that we have been spending our energy on. The whole earth will be ours when Jesus returns to reign as King. But only for those who give up their power to try to achieve everything in their own strength.

Meekness is not weakness. It is the infinite strength of Jesus in us but fully under His control and not ours. Is that how you are prepared to live?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, March 9, 2026

The more I study the teachings of Jesus, especially the Beatitudes, I see the contrast and conflict between my efforts to appear well-adjusted and strong on the outside versus the integrity of the inside produced by life of Christ in me. I especially see it in today’s teaching from Jesus in Matthew 5:4.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

When tragedy strikes we tend to cover the emotional distress with an appearance of courage and strength. When hardships come into our lives our fleshly nature tells us to cover it up and be okay. We even lie to people when they ask us how we are.

But Jesus turns all of that upside down when He says, “You will experience the fullness of my life in you if you will just be honest about how you are feeling because in your transparency I will comfort you.”

Recently I have had to face that exact character growth opportunity. There are multiple people in my life right now who are facing life-ending possibilities. It hurts. Facing the reality of losing them and mourning them is painful, and I want to avoid such pain. So I start turning to things of my own invention that I think will help me deal with the pain. One of my go-to techniques is to stay busy with planning other things and working towards their accomplishment. If I can just keep my mind busy with other stuff I won’t have to think about what might happen that will cause me to feel grief and loss.

But it goes deeper than that. It’s not just about avoiding grief or loss of people; it carries into most forms of loss. Loss of friendships. Loss of employment. Loss of resources. Loss of energy and skill due to old age. We avoid most forms of loss. We don’t take the time to mourn.

But Jesus promised if we will be honest with our feelings and deal with them that He will become our comfort. My inventions of pain relief will never work long-term, but my open and honest relationship with Jesus will bring me the fullness of His life in me. And I have discovered that being emotionally honest with other emotionally honest people will bring a similar result. They won’t reject us. They will comfort us with the same comfort that they have received from Jesus, and we will be able to do the same for them.

The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

It all starts with being honest about our feelings. Don’t try to bury what you consider to be bad feelings. Emotions are neither good or bad. God has them all. Jesus has experienced them all. They are not evil. Embrace your emotions and deal with them by confiding in Jesus about them. Then watch His comfort flood your soul.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, March 6, 2026

It is getting increasingly hard to find people of true moral character. Each one of us knows our inconsistencies when our chosen beliefs don’t line up with our chosen actions. We are living beneath our privilege and outside of the fulness of God’s blessings when we say one thing but do another.

When I think of the character of Jesus as He lived on the earth I am amazed at how His teachings and His actions ALWAYS spoke the same thing – INTEGRITY. As I thought about that this morning I was drawn to do a study of the Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew. I want to compare the principles Jesus taught with the principles by which I live. I want my life to be one of integrity like His.

Jesus begins His teaching of His disciples with nine cause and effect statements. Each of these nine statements  follows the same pattern. We are blessed by God with the fullness of His life in us when our character matches His, and when it does we experience a new reality and reward.

These teachings of Jesus are called the beatitudes. The word means “supreme blessing” and comes from a Latin word meaning “happy or fortunate.” These teachings at the start of Jesus’ sermon set the tone for everything else He will teach. They are the foundation of a life of supreme blessing. With these principles in place in our lives, we will be blessed with the fullness of the presence of God and experience life in a way never achieved through our own efforts. Our character will become the character of Jesus.

The first beatitude is this:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Right off the bat my attitude is challenged. The word “beatitude” suddenly becomes a “Be Attitude.” If we are going to live lives of integrity it starts with the Christ-like attitude of humility.

The word “poor” here means “to cower and crouch in total poverty.” That is how we are to define our spiritual condition prior to meeting Jesus. But that is not how we typically define ourselves. Our pride causes us to build ourselves up and make ourselves look better than we know we are. We seek to perform well on the outside so the weakness and ugliness of the inside isn’t revealed.

But Jesus starts out His entire sermon by saying that anyone who cowers before Him in total poverty and brokenness is welcome into the kingdom of heaven. He declares a foundational truth for each of our lives – Jesus will honor and reward anyone who stops trying to impress Him and falls on their face before Him as an empty vessel waiting to be filled.

AND HE WILL FILL YOU!

So stop trying to impress God with your goodness. Empty yourself of self and become poor in spirit. You will be blessed with the fulness of His life in you and receive the reward of eternal citizenship in His kingdom.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, March 5, 2026

Most of us would rather forget the painful experiences of our lives. We would rather not remember the things or the people that hurt us.  We prefer to be comfortable and never go back to the darkness of death.

But as Isaiah closes out his book of prophecy, he declares the word of the LORD about the political and physical status of the earth during the millennial reign of Christ. All the enemies of Jesus have been conquered and put to death. The King of eternity has descended to the earth and taken His rightful place on the throne of Israel. All the people of the earth, from every tribe and nation, will come and bow down before Him. And as a part of their worship, they will go out and look upon death as a reminder to be faithful and obedient to God.

Isaiah 66:22-24 “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD. “And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

This is hard for us to accept. Why would Jesus allow the view of the pit of death to be open to all the people of His temporal Kingdom on earth? I do not presume in the slightest way to know the full answer to that question, but I do know this – the view of consequences is a great motivator and deterrent.

During the Millennial reign of Christ, the earth will be filled with finite human beings. You and I will be in our eternal bodies, not subject to the physical laws and limitations of creation. We will have already seen Christ in His eternal glory and so we will be like Him. 1 John 3:2 says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” We who are in Christ in this present age will be raptured prior to the beginning of the next age – the great and glorious reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, and the earth will be at peace.

However, those people who are alive in the flesh during this time will still be subject to their free will and will have the right to choose to obey the King or reject Him. The consequences of disobedience must be understood, and God requires everyone to see them. The gruesome reminder of rebellion against God will be constantly visible to all the people of the world.

We live in a time where consequences of rebellion against God are minimized rather than memorized. We intentionally choose to consider them inconsequential. We maximize the pleasure of the present while minimizing the probabilities of penalties. We succumb to the same temptation as Eve in the Garden of Eden – we choose to reject God’s truth that He alone is sufficient to satisfy every need of our lives and we choose to believe that such rejection will not result in death.

We have become very adept at eliminating the view of consequences of our sin. We are enamored with the pleasures and have erased the pain that has most certainly resulted from previous choices.

But God would have us constantly look at the consequences of sin. Yes, it is true that our love for God is what compels us to love and serve Him, but true love for God requires a complete view of who He is, and He has shown us that there is justice and condemnation for all who disobey Him. This is the constant fear that is healthy for all His followers. Such fear elevates grace to the highest place of praise, for without God’s love for us we too would be subject to condemnation and death. It is by keeping the consequences of sin ever before us that we appreciate the grace of God more and more.

My friends, do not forget the reality of Hell. Do not refuse to believe in the finality and eternity of punishment for sin. Do not think that because you are saved by His blood that you are not subject to His loving hand of discipline. The visible consequences of sin are a gift of God’s grace. Embrace the view of them, for in them is found the love of God.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Oh the joys of grandparenting. I remember when they were young enough to do sleepovers.  Their arrival at our home was an instant boost. Their eyes gush with love and admiration, and it melts my heart. Their playfulness re-energizes me, even if it makes me feel old.

One night they arrived late, so it was off to bed right away. They were both tired and fast asleep within minutes. The oldest one rose at 6:40 am and we took some time to talk on the couch while grandma and his brother slept a little longer. When grandma got up and got dressed, it was my turn to go shower and shave and prepare for a day of ministry. I was a little sad that I wouldn’t be there to spend more time with them, but grandma had a great plan for their day.

When I finished dressing I started to make the bed, knowing that grandma was busy with the boys in the kitchen. There was an instant flash of the flesh that said I was too busy to make the bed and I should get going to work. I quelled that thought immediately and continued to get the bedroom in order. Then another thought came to my mind – “This is the least I could do for her.” I was overwhelmed at that moment with a total distaste for that statement. Why do we say it, and what makes us think that it’s a good thing to only do the least that we can for someone?

I started to think about that statement in relationship to what God does for me. What if He only did the least He could do? As I thought about it I found myself doing some extra straightening of the comforter and pillows on the bed. I looked around the room for anything else that needed to be picked up or put away. As I left the house and moved the kid’s car seats from my vehicle to my wife’s, I did so with extra care and precision, buckling them firmly in place to protect those precious lives.

I started thinking about what God promises to do for His people in Isaiah 66, and how He would never do the least He could do but will go beyond what is expected or even deserved. As I read verses 12 through 21 again I saw so much more than the least God could do. I saw Him granting peace and wealth. I saw the people flourishing not just surviving. I saw God extending Himself beyond anything He had ever done before to bring people who had never heard of Him to the place of eternal worship. I saw Him extending grace to “newbies” in the Kingdom by promoting them to positions of priesthood. He did far more than the least He could do.

Then I was reminded of one of my favorite words from the Bible – a word used in 1 John 3:1, where it says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” When God loved us it wasn’t with the least love He could give – He LAVISHED His love on us. He could have extended just enough love to forgive us so we could have access to eternal life. But instead He lavished His love on us so that we could be called His children, with full rights of inheritance of all things with His Son Jesus.

I choose to live my life that way. Never again will I intentionally do the least I could do for someone. Never again will I allow my selfish desires to influence the expression of the love of God to others. From this day forward, I want my life to be lived lavishly – not in the materialistic way many choose to bring honor to themselves, but with the heart of a servant Savior who lavished His love on me. I will not settle for doing the least I could do. I will serve them to the full extent of God’s love that was lavished on me.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Again this morning I read the entire sixty-sixth chapter of Isaiah. In this concluding chapter God is explaining the final separation of the righteous from the unrighteous – the righteous into His presence on the new earth that will endure forever (66:22), and the unrighteous into eternal punishment (66:24). The judgment of God on the unrighteous will be severe, beginning with the harsh treatment of verse 4, to His fury of verse 14, and His fire and sword of verse 16.

But what I am most burdened with is God’s statement in verse 17, which says, “Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the midst of those who eat the flesh of pigs and rats and other abominable things–they will meet their end together,” declares the LORD.”

I am burdened because it describes good-willed people with religious inclinations and spiritual values who are included in God’s judgment. These are people who have put on an outward appearance of spiritual life, and who participate in religious traditions and sacraments, but on the inside are still lost in their sin.

Every day I recognize my connections to people who are trusting in the wrong things for their security. They trust their goodness, reminding others that they are a good person. They trust their success, displaying their abilities to the world around them. They trust their wealth, building bigger and bigger kingdoms to their own credit. They even trust their churches, seeking to find spiritual security in their obedience to the sacred duties declared by their leaders to be necessary to earn the approval of God.

But their hearts are unchanged from the condition of sin in which they were conceived. As a result, in one of the most painful and heart-wrenching statements God ever makes, they will meet their end in the same way as those who absolutely rejected anything to do with God and His Son Jesus. The one who did their spiritual duty will be condemned right alongside the one who did abominable things. Oh how that breaks my heart!

But it goes even deeper. I wonder how many there are in my own church, and in my own family, who are trusting in a man-made, man-honoring religious exterior when in reality their heart has never been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord? I am concerned that there are people sitting under my preaching every week who are going through the spiritual motions of faith but are walking through life following those who are doing abominable things.

My friends, the Scriptures are very clear – there is only One Way to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. His death and resurrection are the only qualifier for eternal life. And those who have repented of their sin and been forgiven by faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross not only must not, but in reality cannot go back to a life of sin and compromise with the world. The warnings of the Apostle John are clear:

1 John 2:15-17“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

And again the Holy Spirit speaks through John and says in 1 John 3:9, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

Oh dear people, we must declare boldly whom we will serve. Will we serve ourselves and seek acceptance with the world, or will we serve the Savior and forfeit the world of today for the eternal world that is coming? There can be no compromise. You cannot serve both because you cannot love both. Make your choice carefully. What or whom you choose to love has eternal consequence.

Pastor John