LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, September 24, 2026

We need some good news. We are bombarded with information and experiences that cause tears, pain, and even death. When will we find relief?

I have found the good news that we need. It’s found in Isaiah chapter 25. Listen to what the Lord says.

“O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners’ palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the foreigners; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is put down. On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

On that day when the King of kings and Lord of lords reigns on the earth, we will rejoice that Jesus is our God and that He has saved us. But hold on a minute! We do not need to wait for that day to rejoice. The good news is that Jesus saves today. He is our God today. We may be waiting for His physical return but we already have His spiritual presence.

So let’s start rejoicing today.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, September 23, 2026

I have so much to look forward to. So many people my age begin to only look backward at what once was. I look forward to what is coming. And standing far out in front of anything this life still has to offer is the return of Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I will get to see Jesus face to face. I will join him in his conquering of all the evil nations of this world. I will serve him in a Kingdom on this earth where he is recognized as the only righteous ruler. The thought of those things overwhelms any possibility of good or harm in this life.

As we continue our study of the biblical uses of the phrase “on that day” we come to the first time it’s used in reference to that event of the second coming of Jesus Christ. It’s found at the end of Isaiah chapter 24 where God is describing the judgment that is going to come on all the earth because of its sin. And then we read these words in verses 21 through 23.

“On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.”

There is a day coming when the Lord God will punish all those who have rejected him and restore the earth so that it brings glory to him and him alone. He will reign from Jerusalem as the sovereign ruler of all the world. All the people of the world will worship him. He will conquer every enemy that stands in his way. He is coming again and those who by faith in Jesus Christ have received his forgiveness will stand with him and reign with him in all of his glory.

I can’t think of anything that motivates me more to carry on the work of Jesus Christ in my everyday life then knowing that no matter what happens to me I will be a part of that day. On that day I will be coming back from glory with Jesus to stand with him as he takes authority over all the earth. I will serve him in some capacity so that his Kingdom will be restored throughout the entire earth. And knowing that that is coming and that I will be a part of it gives me endurance and confidence to face anything this world is doing to me now. It gives me peace in knowing that no matter how bad the world gets Jesus is coming to fix it all.

But a word of warning to you. If you are not in love with Jesus Christ; If you have not surrendered your way to the ways of God; if you are still living to serve yourself for the immediate benefit that you get in this world and are not living for the eternal glory that is to come; then you are outside of all the promises for this glory to come. Unless Jesus Christ is your savior today you will not serve him as king tomorrow.

Please take some time today to carefully think about your relationship with Jesus Christ or the lack thereof. My hope is that your hope will be built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. My hope is that your life would be built not on what this world offers you but on what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross when he paid for your sin. My hope and my prayer is that together because of Jesus we will stand with Jesus one day and declare him to be the king of kings and Lord of Lords.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Do you understand the difference between discipline and punishment? There’s an important distinction between them that must be considered in the context of parenting, of  a government judicial system, and in God’s working with mankind.

Discipline is teaching someone to take responsibility for their actions and helping them learn and grow. Punishment is the enforcement of a consequence with no thought for how it might help someone in the future. Prison is punishment. Rehabilitation is discipline.

Today we come to the next usage of the phrase “on that day.” It’s at the beginning of a section of God’s Word that describes various days that are coming when God will do three things. One, He will discipline His people for their sin. Two, He will punish all the nations who reject Him. And three, He will restore His people to their intended glory in faithful relationship with their Savior.

God is still doing these three things, both in the political realm with the nation of Israel, and in the spiritual realm with each of us.

In Isaiah’s day the Israelites have rebelled against God by associating with and adopting the customs and religious beliefs of evil nations that do not trust the Lord. The Lord describes the situation in Isaiah chapter 5. It would be good for you to take the time to read it. One of the Lord’s descriptions goes like this:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!”

Sounds eerily similar to our country today. So God is going to discipline His people. I use the term discipline because it is not final punishment on the nation. His covenant with them will not be broken, and they will be restored. But for  time they will have to suffer the consequences of their sin.

Isiah describes a worldwide call that goes out from God to the nations of the world to come and conquer Israel. And when they come, Isaiah describes it this way: “Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and none can rescue. They will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened by its clouds.”

On that day they will be like lions growling over their prey and no one can rescue them. What a sad day. God’s people suffering at the hands of evil nations because they chose to be faithless and selfish.

Some may say that God is being unfair and acting harshly. But Isaiah reminds us that God is revealing His justice to everyone. Chapter 5 verses 15 and 16 say, “Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low. But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.”

Discipline is an expression of God’s grace towards us. He reveals His justice against sin while giving us every opportunity to repent and return to intimacy with Him. So instead of rebelling even more when the consequences of sin are enforced, embrace the grace that God is showing you to turn from your sin and receive His blessings of growth and renewed relationship. God is working in righteousness to do what is best for you.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, September 21, 2026

The story of Esther is a quiet reminder that God is working towards a day when His purpose will be fulfilled.  Esther begins as an ordinary young woman living in exile, seemingly far from any place of influence. Yet God places her in the Persian palace, not by accident, but by providence. She becomes queen—an unlikely role for a Jewish orphan—and her position becomes the hinge on which the future of her people will turn.

When Haman’s evil plot threatens to wipe out the Jews, and the King issues a decree to authorize it, fear could have easily silenced Esther. Approaching the king without invitation meant death. Remaining silent meant the destruction of her people. Mordecai’s words reach her heart: “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther realizes that courage is not the absence of fear—it is obedience in the face of fear.

She steps forward. She speaks. She risks everything. And God moves unmistakably through every detail. The sleepless night of a king, the forgotten record of Mordecai’s loyalty, the timing of Esther’s banquets—each moment reveals a God who is always present, always guiding, always working for the good of His people.

When Haman’s plan is exposed, the King has Haman hung on the very gallows intended for Mordecai. Then the King grants Queen Esther one request – that she and all her people be saved from death. However, the decree of a Persian King can never be undone, But on that day the King issues a new decree. The Jewish people are allowed to defend themselves. And on that day that the first decree was to be carried out, the second decree was also implemented, and the Jews were saved.

Twice in the book of Esther, the phrase “on that day” is used, both in the eighth chapter.

“On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews.”

“A copy of what was written was to be issued as a decree in every province, being publicly displayed to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to take vengeance on their enemies.”

The most important lesson I glean from the book of Esther is this: The King of Kings has given us His authority over our enemy who is seeking to tempt us and devour us with the things of the world. The King has decreed that we are to be ready to stand strong in the armor of God and  courageously defend ourselves against the attacks of Satan. We are not subject to the influence of the world to live according to the decrees of the world. We are ready to die in this life because the glory of Christ’s life can never be taken from us. We will stand up for righteousness. We will speak up for Christ even if it costs us our positions or our possessions. We will not fear what man can do to us, because we are not subject to what man says. We belong to the One True King, and nothing can ever change that.

On the day Jesus died he handed us victory over sin. On the day that Jesus rose from the dead He guaranteed us victory over death. And on whatever day the world issues a decree to end us, we will stand in the presence of Jesus as victors for all eternity.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, September 18, 2026

As I studied for today’s devotional I learned an important principle from Scripture. Thankfulness produces generosity.

Unthankful people are selfish and they hoard for themselves whatever they receive because they believe that they deserve it and it’s only for them. But thankful people are people who share with others because they realize that they don’t deserve what they have received and so they’re going to be generous with it.

In our walk with Jesus Christ, having received salvation and all the blessings of intimacy with Jesus that are not deserved, we should be generous people. But most of us would think we are generous. We give gifts to others in our family and we even maybe give gifts to people we don’t know because we understand their need. But at the root of all of our generosity is to be generous to Christ and his church. But not many of us want to listen to or consider the challenge of Scripture to be generous in the offering plate at church.

In Second Chronicles chapter 14 the nation of Israel is being confronted with a formidable enemy. An army of 1,000,000 soldiers has come from Ethiopia to do battle with them. As any of us would be, the people of Israel were scared and they cry out to God for his help. And in the subsequent battle not only did the nation of Israel prevail but they destroyed every member of that army. And they went through the land and they captured untold wealth and took it as their own.

Then in an act of thanksgiving and worship to the God who protected them and empowered them, they held a worship service. One part of that worship service is described in 2 Chronicles 15:11.

“They sacrificed to the Lord on that day from the spoil that they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep.”

Notice again the phrase “on that day.” On the day that they received from God the blessing of victory they became a generous people by making a sacrifice unto God.

My point today is this. By faith in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross you have been given victory over sin and every enemy of your soul. There is nothing in this life or in the spiritual realm that can ever separate you from the love of God. So why is it so hard, as an expression of your thanksgiving, to manage your personal resources so that God gets the first fruits of everything that you receive? Could it be that we truly are not all that thankful for our salvation?

My dear friends, take some time to contemplate where you would be without Christ. Consider the depth of sin in which you would live and the hopelessness of your eternal state. Then start singing the song of thanksgiving to the one who gave you life eternal and has provided you with all things necessary to live for him in this life. I guarantee you that something will happen in your heart. That thanksgiving will overflow into a spirit of generosity so that you willingly and lovingly give to the Kingdom work of Jesus Christ with the best that you have.

Thanksgiving produces generosity. So as you develop the habit of being thankful, allow your heart to become more generous toward the work of the Lord. Make sacrificial giving a vital part of your expression of worship to Jesus.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, September 17, 2026

Unfortunately we are not a naturally thankful people. It takes many years of training for your children to learn to say thank you after they have received something that was given to them. Even to this day my teenage grandchildren have to be reminded sometimes to say thank you after I’ve paid for their lunch or done something special with them. It would be wise for all of us to pay attention to how thankful we are for everything God does for us.

In yesterday’s devotional we referred to an incident in which the ark of the covenant had been taken away from the people of Israel by the Philistines. As the people repented of their sin God began to restore them and restored the ark of the covenant to their possession. Now many years later under King David the ark has been taken away from them. But God directs David in battle and they defeat the Philistines again and bring the ark of the covenant back to Israel.

The ark of the covenant was representative of the presence of God. It was to be treated as holy and sacred so that people would learn to honor and respect who God is and to seek his presence in their lives. So when the ark was returned to the nation of Israel they rejoiced that the presence of God was once again with them.

On that day that the ark was returned King David wrote a song and declared that it should be sung to the Lord by the Levites, the worship leaders of Israel. You can read all about it in First Chronicles chapters 15 and 16. Notice especially chapter 16 verse seven.

“Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers.”

On that day King David basically said to all the people, “We do not give God enough credit and we certainly don’t thank him enough for all that he has done. So I am commanding us to be more thankful.”

I wonder why it’s so hard for us to recognize all the things God does for us every day and then to be thankful to him for what he has done. Well I guess I don’t wonder. I guess I know. We are so self-centered and so self-absorbed that we live in a constant state of entitlement. We believe we deserve everything good that happens to us so we have no reason to be thankful. But God says to us through David that at the moment that something good happens we are to be thankful. In fact later on in the Bible we are told by the apostle Peter that even when things aren’t going well there are many reasons to be thankful. Paul repeats that and so does James.

So today is the beginning of a training period for all of us. They say it takes 20 or so days of repetition for something to become a habit. Start today start forming a new habit that in all things you will give thanks to God. You don’t necessarily have to be thankful for the event that happened but you can be thankful for the God who is using the event to make you a better person. And then take the time every day to read David’s song of Thanksgiving in First Chronicles 16. It starts this way:

“Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!”

Make Thanksgiving the ongoing song of your life.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Did you know that some of the hardships you go through in your life may be caused by your own sin? Now not all of them to be sure. But many times the difficulties we are in are God’s way of disciplining us so that we repent and returned to obedience to him.

Such was the case in the nation of Israel under the rule of Samuel. The nation is being besieged by the Philistines and they captured and took away the ark of the covenant. The people of Israel were hurting, but they finally started to come to their senses that their sin of rebellion against God was the cause of it. So they began to cry out to God in first Samuel chapter 6 and God started to restore them. The ark of the covenant was returned. And with it the hearts of the people were returning to the Lord. Then in Chapter 7 we read this:

And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only. Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.”

I see a very practical and simple application of truth from the use of the phrase “on that day” in this passage. When the people were reminded of their sin they did not wait for a period of time to confess it and make it right with God. They did it on the day that they acknowledged  it.

So many times when we know we have been wrong or have sinned we postpone acknowledging it and confessing it before the Lord. We certainly postpone confessing it to other people who have been hurt by it.  We are a proud people and we don’t like to admit that we have been wrong and that we need to be forgiven. But covering up our sin only adds to the distress of whatever circumstances were caused by it. But when we discover that God is working through the circumstances to bring us to a point of forgiveness so that we can accept his grace and love and be restored we should act on it immediately.

That’s what Israel did. On the day that they were asked if they were truly returning to the Lord with all their heart and ready to sever all connection to their sin they poured themselves out before the Lord and confessed. And God brought peace to their land and to their individual hearts.

God will do the same for us when we confess our sin the moment we are made aware of it. His grace will wash it away. His love will overflow into us. Our relationship with him and with those who have been hurt will be restored.

Stop trying to protect yourself from additional pain by burying the sin. Open up your heart and confess what you have done on the day that you are made aware of it and you will find the restoration of peace and contentment.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Yesterday I related one of the joys of being a grandparent. But I confess that there are challenging times as well. One such challenge is to see your grandchildren behaving in a way that is disrespectful to others and to God and not feel comfortable correcting them. After all, that’s the parent’s job, right? But we live in a world that minimizes correction and exaggerates personal choice. To whatever degree we did it as parents we would have been offended if our parents tried to correct us. So, we don’t believe we have the freedom to correct other parents as they raise their children, and we certainly get in trouble if we try to correct the grandkids.

Such is the context of the story of Eli in the book of 1 Samuel. Eli’s sons are described by the Lord as “worthless.” That seems offensive but look at what caused such an evaluation. The sons were extremely selfish, taking anything they wanted from the temple worship for themselves. That included taking women who were dedicated to service in the temple and using them for their own sexual gratification. They blasphemed the name of the Lord, and in the Lord’s eyes that made them worthless to His service.

Eli tried to rebuke them and correct them, but only after the effects of sin had totally captured their hearts and they were unwilling to listen to him. God was about to take action, and He would use Samuel to deliver the message of the consequences or Eli’s poor parenting.

Now let me say something right now so you don’t misunderstand. Great parenting can still produce rebellious children because they all make their own choices. But poor parenting that tolerates sin and disrespect for the Lord will not go unpunished.

God sends a man to tell Eli that his family is going to be cut off from Israel and his sons would be killed. You can read it in 1 Samuel chapter 2. Then because God is also compassionate along with His justice, He comes to tell Samuel, Eli’s ministry assistant, what He is about to do, He says, “Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

Oh dear people of God, there are severe consequences to rebelling against God. There are also severe consequences for not getting involved in correcting those who are rebelling. One day the Lord will hold us all accountable for how we parented our children. We live in a culture that is constantly bombarding our children with images and words that are in direct rebellion against God, and we do nothing about it. We allow our children to become involved in the corruption of sin and we justify it by saying it’s their freedom to choose for themselves. That’s what Eli did and look at the price he paid on that day when the Lord visited him..

Parents. Grandparents. Don’t minimize the activity of sin in your family’s life. Correct their disrespect. Remove the access to the images and influence of Satanically motivated movies and music. Work together as parents and grandparents to raise children who fear the Lord and desire to remain pure before Him. The reward will be far greater than any temporary pain your children may try to inflict on you for being unreasonable.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, September 14, 2026

One of the great joys of being a grandfather is to pay attention to what the grandkids like and then plan to do things with them according to those likes. This summer has been a perfect example. Several of my grandkids truly love fishing and golfing. So I take it upon myself to plan fishing trips and golf outings and then invite them to participate in them with me. But what I fail to recognize sometimes is that my invitation is perceived by them to be a promise. So if I talk to them on a Friday and say on Monday we could go golfing, they hear that as a guarantee that we’re going golfing on Monday. Now if it rains they understand but there’s not very many legitimate excuses for not fulfilling the promise.

You see the promise made on Friday becomes the objective for Monday. It captivates their thinking. It fills them with hope. They lay out their clothing and their golf clubs and their water bottles the night before because they fully expect that the promise will be fulfilled.

God does the same thing for us with the one difference being that there will never be a promise that will ever be broken for any reason.

As we continue our study looking at the various ways the phrase “ on that day” is used in Scripture We come to a place in the book of Joshua where it’s used multiple times. It’s the story of the people of Israel conquering the promised land. They have captured a large portion of it already and many of the tribes have already taken up residence. One man named Caleb comes to the nation’s leader Joshua and makes a request based on a promise that was given to him. Forty years earlier, when the nation failed to enter the promised land the first time because of the unfaithfulness of the people, Caleb had been recognized by Moses as a faithful servant, and Caleb reminds Joshua what Moses had said.

“And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’”

Then a few verses later Caleb reminds Joshua that on that day it was the Lord who had given him that promise through Moses and that this was the day that it would be fulfilled. So Joshua awards the land that Caleb had walked on as one of the twelve spies forty years earlier. God always fulfills his promises.

There’s a great lesson in this for us today. How many of us are actually living in the constant hope that God will fulfill every promise he ever gave us in his word? I think we probably have to admit that we fall short of living in that kind of hope. Caleb carried that hope for forty years. We seem to forget after forty minutes. And yet we have the opportunity to look into his word every day and remind ourselves of his promises. The promise for peace. The promise for contentment and joy. The promise for the provisions for every part of our life. The promise for a mansion being prepared for us in glory and that Jesus is coming soon to take us there. The promise that once he does there’ll be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more heartbreak. The promise that when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be.

My friends it’s time to start focusing on the promises of God rather than the problems of today. May the joy of Jesus swell up from the springs of living water in your life as you focus on the promises of God and the faithfulness of God to fulfill them on that day.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, September 11, 2026

On this day twenty-five years ago the nation reeled in fear because of terrorist attacks on our land. Today many people are still living in fear because the same political and philosophical agendas are being supported by voters across this land and are threating our countries founding principles. But one day, maybe soon, the Lord Jesus Christ will reveal Himself to the world and all people will stand in awe of Him. Until then, we who follow Jesus must remain vigilant to stand in constant awe of and obedience to Jesus so others can see the reality of His presence.

Joshua, the successor of Moses, lived such a life as an example to us all. The Lord instructed him to lead the people across the Jordan river to conquer the promised land. He gave specific instructions of how it should be done. And when Joshua and the people obeyed every detail of God’s plan God revealed himself in a powerful way to all the people.  Here’s what we read in Joshua chapter 4 verse 14.

“On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.”

The people of Israel got to see two things that day. They saw the mighty workings of God on their behalf and they were in awe. But they also saw the mighty workings of God in an individual life and they also stood in awe.

I’m challenged by this. Am I only looking for the mighty workings of God externally in all the circumstances of my life so that I can be thankful for what God is doing or am I also looking for the mighty workings of God in my own heart that are transforming me into a living example of God’s power so that others may see him?

Seems like a very simple lesson but it’s also a very difficult one. So many times we pray to ask God to do something so powerful that other people can’t ignore it and will turn to him. But God has chosen you to be the one through whom other people will be able to see his power. They should see His power to transform a life from one driven by sin to one driven by the love of God. That’s you. They should see God’s power to reprioritize a life around His purpose rather than selfish purposes. That’s you. They should see the character of a person who has been transformed by the Holy Spirit’s fruit of love and joy and peace and more. That’s you!

Every one of us has been called and empowered to be a Joshua. May the people of the world stand in awe of who God is because they see the power of God in us!

Pastor John