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

LifeLinkDevotions for Monday, March 2, 2026

A line has been drawn in the sand. It is along that line that a chasm will soon be fixed for eternity. For the moment, while the line is still crossable, many people pass from one side to the other and back again as if there were no line at all. As they do, the line becomes obscured by sand that is kicked on it by feet that tread on the truth under the direction of hearts and minds that are motivated by selfish sin.

Back and forth across the line go millions and millions of people. They seem to have good intentions when in reality they are blind to the existence of the line. Their blindness to the line is their choice, having decided not to look at it because they have chosen to look only at their own lusts and take delight in their own desires.

In their blindness to the line they are convinced that they can have all the desires of the flesh and still earn favor with God and somehow attain eternal life. So they continually cross the line from religious duty to sinful pleasures and back again. Little do they realize that the line is still there, and one day, maybe very soon, that line will become an un-crossable chasm and they will be trapped for all eternity on the side of death and destruction with no hope of seeing the Creator they have denied.

There will be many on the eternal life side of the chasm. They will be those who were esteemed by God because of their humble hearts, their repentant spirits, and their awe of the Word of God. They will be the ones who continued to see the line no matter how obscured it became to the rest of culture.

God drew the line in the sand in the Garden of Eden. It has been there ever since. Then one day some 2000 years ago His Son re-traced the line with His finger dipped in the blood of His own sacrifice.  He declared that He was The Way, The Truth, and The Life. He stated truthfully that no one can ever get to eternal life with the Father except through His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection to new life. He taught frequently that crossing back and forth over the line is unacceptable and inexcusable. The person who believes they can cross back and forth between surrender to Jesus and selfish sin is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.

As I read Isaiah 66:3 I am deeply moved by the blindness of people to the blood-stained line in the sand. “But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol. They have chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in their abominations.”

Billions of people who are being misled and deceived by the enemy of God – our selfish pride – to believe that they can obey some spiritual law or sacrament and thereby earn the favor of God, all the while doing only those things that please themselves and fulfill their own desires. How my soul is tormented by their lostness. How I grieve for their souls on that day when the sand that has obscured the line falls into the eternal chasm of separation between eternal life and eternal death.

All of their sacrifices and spiritual rituals will mean nothing from God’s perspective if the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary is ignored. That is the line God drew in the sand. There is no other way to God than through His Son Jesus. That may sound narrow to many, but to those who are being saved by the power of His death and resurrection it is the way of freedom.

Many people are very sincere about their religions. However, nowhere in God’s sacred and holy Scriptures are we told that God rewards sincerity with eternity. He rewards humility – a broken and repentant heart that turns in faith from a life centered on self to a Savior who gives real life. Salvation is not available to the person who intends to keep kicking sand on God’s blood-stained line. Forgiveness is a one way bridge across the line from the side of sin to the side of salvation. Forgiveness is not to be a cheap and easy way for us to keep crossing the line back and forth between religious duty and personal gratification. That is a denial of the Gospel truth and intentionally ignores the reality of the coming chasm.

My friends, many are deceived. Many are doing spiritual duties to earn the favor of God while they continue to seek and serve self every day. Let us blow away the sand that has obscured the line in our own lives, so that it can be clearly seen by those around us. They need to see the line and be drawn by the Holy Spirit to cross it into the arms of a loving Savior who drew the line with His blood.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, February 27, 2026

Several years ago I attended the annual Pastor’s Conference at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. As is typical of me when I go to such events, I take lots of notes. I especially like to write down quotes I hear. One of them came from Crawford Loritz as he spoke on handling the pressures of life.

He told a story that resonated with my heart. It revealed the typical ways we respond to pressure. Sometimes we expend exceptional amounts of energy trying to resolve the things that are causing the pressure to build. Other times we go into full-blown performance mode and overcome the pressurized attacks on our worth by accomplishing bigger and better things. At times we even attempt bigger and better things for God and call it faith, when in reality it is nothing more than a self-serving attempt to re-establish the baseline of our personal value.

But then it happens – the bottom falls out. Everything goes wrong. All of our best efforts are destroyed, and we fall flat on our faces as the problems pile up around us. How could God allow this to happen? Where is He in my time of need?

Then Dr. Loritz said this – “On my way to accomplishing something, God is working so I will become something.”

You see, being is more important to God than doing. Who we are matters more than what we do. In fact, are we really capable of doing anything that matters apart from what God is doing in us and through us?

The prophet Isaiah spoke of it here in the first two verses of chapter sixty-six.  “This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.”

God does not esteem the one who thinks He can accomplish great things. After all, what can we really accomplish? Has not God done it all? The one God esteems is the one who is becoming the reflection of His love and grace – the one who is humble and broken (contrite) and lives in reverential awe of God.

FREEDOM! That’s the shout of my heart at that moment of recognizing that God no longer requires my accomplishments but honors my brokenness. It is in my weakness that He is proved to be strong and mighty. It is in a simple vessel of clay that God has placed the eternal treasure of His glory (2 Corinthians 4:7). Let the pressures come. Let the cracks be exposed. As Stuart Briscoe said, “The more cracks that develop simply allow more of the light of God’s glory to shine through.”

That’s the contrast between life in the flesh and life in the Spirit. We are either on the way to accomplishing something, or we are watching to see how God works so we will become something.

I know which one I choose!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, February 26, 2026

We had several of them and we still do. There used to be one in the bathroom for the grandkids to use, and there were two of them in the pantry so that the grandkids could help in the kitchen. There’s still one in the laundry room. There’s also one in the camper. And when I’m in the garage, upside down five-gallon pails serve the purpose. We have multiple footstools.

Some are placed specifically to assist little children in accomplishing tasks. They raise the kids up to higher levels of functionality. Some are available to adults for the same purpose, like reaching the top shelves of kitchen cupboards. Still others are used primarily for rest and relaxation, lifting tired feet off the floor. Some even assist in getting a person up into an extra tall bed.

One thing is true of all footstools – they were designed and created to assist others by lifting them up. They never complain about the weight they must carry. They never argue with the user about how they are being used. They are kicked from one location to another so another task can be accomplished. They have cake batter and cookie dough spilled on them by less than careful grandkids that are learning to bake with grandma. They have dribbles of another kind on them from little boys being potty trained. They have absorbed the smell of stinky feet placed on them after a long day of work. Dirty, battered, and sometimes with covers that are wearing thin, they just keep doing what they were designed to do – lifting up others.

As we come to the final chapter of the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Bible we hear these words from God.

Isaiah 66:1 “This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?”

God is asking us to consider His eternal greatness. He is asking us to humble ourselves before Him and admit that our efforts at self-advancement and personal glory are worthless. We are nothing more than a footstool compared to who He is.

But at the end of verse two God says this. “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” The same God who doesn’t notice the efforts of man is prepared to invest in the life of anyone who becomes a footstool. You can become His resting place. You can serve Him by acknowledging Him and praising Him and honoring Him and telling others about Him. In essence, you are to lift Him up so He can reach places with the Gospel that haven’t yet been reached.

You see, God’s creation – every part of it – is designed to lift Him up.

So, how are you doing today at lifting up your Designer and Creator? Or would you rather not be the footstool of the LORD God Almighty?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Never say never.

We have been warned to be very careful how we use words that express absolutes – words like never and always. Sometimes these words are added to a statement as an emphatic expression of the truth. But for most of us, they are words that are used to try to make a point and convince others of something that we may not be convinced of ourselves.

For example, after being caught for the third time doing something wrong, little Johnny says to his father as the discipline is being enforced, “Daddy, I’m sorry. I’ll never do that again.”

Or how about the married couple that is in a heated argument, and neither one is staying on point. Soon one or both are saying, “You always…!”

The words never and always are valid words when used to express truth. In fact, the word never is used 315 times in the Bible, and the word always is used 129 times. In Deuteronomy 28:13 we read, “If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.”

God is the God of absolutes. Everything He speaks is absolute truth. Everything He does is absolutely perfect. He never uses never inappropriately. He always means what He says.Like this verse in Isaiah 65:20. “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.”

In the coming devotionals we will see the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth that Isaiah describes. And what a glorious Kingdom that will be. All of those who by faith in Jesus Christ have been washed of their sin and born of the Spirit into the eternal family of God will be a part of it.

As I ponder the splendor of our eternal glory in Christ, something has become clear to me from the verse we just read that is especially meaningful at this stage of my life. In the earthly Kingdom of Christ, an old man will live out his years, and anyone under 100 years of age is still a youth. So here’s the thought that is dominating my mind right now – I’m not getting older, but I’m actually getting younger.

That is totally true if I consider it from God’s perspective. Of course, if all I see and confirm is the flesh, then I am getting older. But I can renew my mind so that I see what God sees – until I am 100 hundred I have not yet reached maturity. The Kingdom of God will be like the first 2000 years of earth’s history when people lived to be over 900 years old. Imagine that. According to Kingdom lifespans, right now I have only lived 7.5% of my projected life expectancy. This is incredible. At the moment of my death I actually become younger.

Now, for you theologians out there – LET IT GO! I know there are so many things wrong with the age arguments because all of us alive now will be raptured into our new glorified bodies before the Kingdom begins. But the point is this – there will be those who will live that long in Christ’s Kingdom here on earth, and the age we all are right now will be considered youth. So why not change your perspective on how old you really are and recognize that age doesn’t equate to value or usefulness. Come on, start thinking young again, and get busy for God.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Isaiah 65:18 “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create”

Some days are a drag. They are so mundane. May I suggest that the reason for Mundane days is monocular: you know, looking only through one eye rather than two.

When I was first learning to shoot a rifle as a young boy, I was taught something very important by the man who was training me. When I put that .22 caliber rifle up to my shoulder for the first time and looked down the barrel at those sights, I shut my left eye so I could focus completely on the target. Before I could pull the trigger, he stopped me. He told me to open my left eye and learn to focus on the target with both eyes open.

I had a lot of trouble with that at first. By nature, because our eyes are separated by space, we see in stereo, making it possible for us to have depth perception. In addition, one of our eyes is more dominant than the other, and when trying to line up two objects in a straight line we need to use the dominant eye. Trying to line up a rifle on a target is very difficult when both eyes are open.

But I did what he said and kept practicing. Now, when I hunt, both eyes are always open. In that way, I never become so focused on one target that I miss another potential target that may be just left or right of the first one. On several occasions I have been looking through the scope of my rifle at a deer when out of the other eye I see the movement of a bigger deer to one side. Monocular vision limits potential.

This morning, as I sat in my recliner checking out all the latest news, weather, and sports, I noticed movement through the window on the other side of the house. I looked up and a squirrel was attempting to jump onto the top of my birdfeeder. It was fun to watch him try various branches from which he could suspend precariously before giving up and trying another one. But this moment was not about squirrels, it was about the Lord revealing Himself to me and reminding me not to get so monocular about life that I forget to see His presence around me.

Mundane days are the result of monocular vision. We are so focused on the fun we had over the weekend, or the stresses of life in the week ahead, or the disappointments of life, or any other issue that exists, that we miss the blessings of the Lord’s presence. We have closed the eye that can see the movement of the Lord and we are seeing only the targets visible through the scope of self.  We are so intent on
what we can create for ourselves that we are missing the splendor of what God is creating in and around us.

This is not a Mundane day – this is a Magnificent day. It is a Marvelous day. I rejoice that I enter into this day with both eyes wide open to see the splendor of God’s presence in everything that goes on around me.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, February 23, 2026

Since God is in control, and all things are working out exactly as He has planned for His glory and for our ultimate good, then it makes perfect rational sense to not be critical complainers but rather to be filled with hope.

Maybe you missed the preliminaries that led up to that statement. For the last few days we have been in Isaiah chapter sixty-five and have heard God speak directly to the issue of our past and our present and given us a vision of our future. He has declared the past to be forgotten and hidden from His eyes (Isaiah 65:16). He has declared that anything and everything about the past and the present will be wiped away in a new creation so that we will no longer remember the former things (vs. 17). Now, in place of complaining there can be rejoicing: in place of sadness there can be gladness.

Isaiah 65:18  “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create…”

Fourteen years ago while in the Philippines, I was introduced to the Dean of Men at the Bible College that serves as the headquarters for the Evangelical Christian Outreach Foundation International Incorporated (ECOFII), which is a ministry that I am privileged to partner with. His name is Christopher Bocboc. We talked for a few minutes, and then he helped me remember something from nine years earlier. I had been invited to an all-night prayer meeting with the students at the college, and he was one of them. I had spent an extended period of time counseling him about his spiritual life and God’s call on his life to full-time ministry. Now, nine years later, there he was as the Dean of Men at the Bible College.

Then one day on Facebook, Chris posted this, and I wanted to share it with you to encourage you to become people of praise.

“Most of us give praise quite naturally. For example, we love watching our favorite sports heroes perform magnificent feats of athletic brilliance. Then we praise them to our friends as we share in their secret wish, just for a moment, that we could feel what it’s like to be in their spotlight! We also praise musical artists and bands when their music entertains or moves us .Do you praise your friends? How about a boyfriend or a girlfriend? There’s nothing wrong with giving praise to others or even receiving some well earned praise. Yet the one we often forget to praise is the One who is the most deserving of it—God. No person is totally praiseworthy in the same sense that God is praiseworthy. We’re all human. We make mistakes. We let others down. We let ourselves down. But God is faithful. He is always true to Himself and to his word. When was the last time you paused to give praise to God? Is it something you do naturally?”

THINK ABOUT IT! David recognized all God had done for Him and paused to praise God for His faithfulness. Second Samuel 22:4 says ”the Lord should be praised.” The next time you hear a great song, instead of praising the band, praise God, the creator of music. The next time you watch an exciting sporting event, praise God, the giver of all talent. Set aside each day to praise God for who He is and what He has done for you.

Be glad and rejoice in what God has created, and to Him alone be all the praise and glory.

Pastor John