LifeLink Devotional

Monday, October 16, 2017

Psalms 102:18 – 20  Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD: “The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.”

Everyone gets discouraged occasionally. Left unresolved, it can lead some to get downright downcast, leading to despair, depression, and despondency. We naturally, because of our human nature, gravitate towards hopelessness.

In those times of severe hopelessness, tragedy may strike. How hopeless life must have appeared in May of 2007 for the 25-year old mother in Texas who hung her four children and then herself. A broken relationship, abuse, restraining orders, and the worries of surviving a potential financial crisis, all may have compounded into a bleak outlook on life that justified the ending of life.

Contrast that tragedy with the prayer of an afflicted man who is also nearly hopeless. Psalm 102 is written by one who is in severe pain and fainting from the afflictions of life. He has health issues, deep discouragement issues, and serious doubt issues about God. Yet in the midst of his despair, when life is changing for the worst, he remembers one eternal truth that shines light at the end of his tragic tunnel – But you, O LORD, sit enthroned forever. (vs. 12)

Have you ever noticed how often we use the word but in our everyday conversations? Most people I know use the word to argue from the positive to the negative.

• It’s sunny now, but it will probably rain.
• I’m feeling good now, but I bet it won’t last.
• I got all the bills paid this month, but I wonder what will happen next month.

On and on we go in our periods of pessimism. But the man writing this Psalm uses the word but to argue from the negative to the positive.

Life stinks, BUT God is still on the throne and in control.

Then, because he chooses to look at life from God’s perspective, he writes these words of encouragement for all of us:

“The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.”

The eternal God, who sits on the throne and governs all things, sees every need that we have. He hears the groans we utter under the bondage of our circumstances. He provides for a way to escape the condemnation of death. His ultimate provision for everything that seeks to destroy our lives is this – He sent His Son Jesus as our one and only hope.

Billions of people are living under the condemnation of death. You have neighbors and friends who are living in various stages of hopelessness. Maybe you are attempting to survive a crisis in your own strength and slowly slipping into serious despair. If only there was a truth that would heal and restore.

Good news! There is. God looked down from His holy sanctuary and saw our need. Then, with compassion, mercy, and grace, He sent Jesus to meet our need and give us hope.

Once we see the healing power of Jesus, the Psalmist encourages us to write the message of Jesus Christ into the everyday language of our lives so that future generations will praise the Lord. Verse 21 says, “that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise…”

The power of Jesus to save lives from the prison of sin and death is not to be experienced and then preserved: it is to be experienced and then professed.

We will all meet numerous individuals today who need Jesus. Instead of asking, “Who will tell them” we should be asking, “How will I tell them?”

God has heard the groans of the prisoners. Have we, and are we prepared to give them hope?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional
Friday, October 13, 2017

Psalms 101:2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life—

When Denise decides it’s time to do some redecorating or painting, I’m the touch-up guy. My main job is to put the paint on the ceiling edges. In painting terms it’s called “cutting in.”

I seem to have a very steady hand for jobs like that, and I generally don’t need to use tape. But it seems uncharacteristic to most people’s perceptions of me. If I were using a roller or a big brush on the middle sections of the wall, I would get careless and sloppy, and paint would spatter and spray. Not so around the edges, where the wall and ceiling meet. Much more care is needed there, because any mistake will be obvious. It seems I really like being that careful. If even a single bristle of the brush touches the white ceiling, it will leave an ugly mark.

I remember the last time I painted and put the final touches on all the edges. In the morning, I inspected what I had done. It was pretty good, but right along the ceiling line there were spots where the new paint was slightly on the ceiling, and the line between wall and ceiling was not perfectly straight. I didn’t like it.

I think my life is a lot like that wall. For the sake of the analogy, let’s assume God is my ceiling. When I’m in the middle of my life, I can get sloppy and careless, and it probably won’t show.

Now be careful; I am not advocating carelessness, but it is the reality of our lives. We have big, open spaces of normal where we tend to get comfortable and careless. We move quickly from one thing to the next, and with just a few extra brush strokes or another pass of the roller we cover any mistakes we made, blending one area into another. Pretty soon our whole life appears to be consistent, except for that edge between wall and ceiling. That edge always shows us who we really are.

When I paint, no matter how careful I am, my color always seems to obscure some of the pure white of the ceiling. In my life, it’s when I’m at the edge of God’s perfection that my imperfections become the most obvious.
It seems to me that there are three responses we can adopt:

1. Stay away from the edges. Live life in the middle of the wall where it’s easy to blend and cover mistakes and sin. Get sloppy. Be careless. No one will know, because with a quick pass of the roller anything can be made to look like it was never there.

2. Put tape over the edges before you get near them with paint. Just cover up God’s color so that your color doesn’t bleed into His. Then, when you’ve lived your life, in your color, right to the edge, you can pull off the tape and look at the beautiful contrast between your life and God’s.

3. Paint your wall the same color as the ceiling.

There really is only one choice, you know. #3. When decorating a house this may not be the preferred way, because we want the attention to be drawn to the walls. We want the color to highlight the decorating choices we have made. We want our walls to represent our preferences and personality.

But when coloring a life, it is not our only goal to not have sloppy edges, but to let the life of God become the focal point. Our lives are to be the house of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. If we would just paint our walls the same color as the ceiling, we would never have to worry about the edges.

The rooms of our lives can still be decorated with the adornments of our personality and passions, but they must be accentuated by the color of God all over the walls.

When you come to my house, don’t look too closely at the edges – I’m not proud of all of them.

I hope I never have to give you the same warning about my life.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Psalms 100:1 – 5 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Several years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit an amazing woman who truly lives the 100th Psalm every day of her life. She is a wife, a mother, and a young grandmother. She is living in a wheel chair in a rehab facility, trying to recover from brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. The tumor has returned and is growing again, and there’s nothing more they can do. When I asked her how she is responding spiritually to all of this, she replied, with tears in her eyes, “This is the best thing that ever happened to me.” I asked her why. Her response overwhelmed me.

She began talking about all the ways she had tried to relate to God in the past through her activity for Him, trying to earn His approval. She knew what faith was, and that her faith had saved her, but she was stuck in a performance cycle of trying to earn the ongoing approval of God and make herself worthy of His presence in her life. She admitted that she thought God was only interested in what she did for Him, and that she was primarily interested in what God would do for her.

Now that she was not able to do anything anymore, she passionately proclaimed that she has discovered the secret to having a meaningful and fulfilling relationship with Christ – He just wanted to know her heart and occupy it.

She told us about a vision God gave her that will stick in my mind forever. She was on top of a big hill overlooking a beautiful meadow in the valley below. About halfway down the hill was a large pier that extended out over the valley. A little girl played in the grassy field while an old man sat on a bench at the end of the pier. As she walked out onto the pier she noticed that the old man’s shoulders were shaking gently. As she approached him she discovered why. He was chuckling with delight as he watched the little girl play. She instantly knew that she was the little girl in the meadow, and the old man on the pier was God. He was taking delight in her life.

I thought of how many times I have found myself just sitting and watching my children and grandchildren playing and being overwhelmed with joy that they are mine. They don’t need to do anything to prove themselves to earn my love.

That is how God loves us. He made us, and we are His. We are His people; the sheep of His pasture. He delights to watch us from above while we play in the meadow.

This wonderful woman of God, who has had all her ability to perform for God removed, is living the ultimate life of joy. How significant it is that her name is Joy. She has taught me a tremendous and unforgettable lesson – the Lord is good, and His love endures forever. I did not earn it. I do not need to perform to keep it. God just wants me to experience it. He desires to fully experience me. Knowing that makes me want to come before Him with singing.

Joy admitted she wanted to sing to Him also, but she can’t sing anymore. I reminded her of the verse in Zephaniah 3:17 which says, “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Now she listens to God singing to her.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional
Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Psalms 99:8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds.

I get very excited this time of year. It’s the beginning of the whitetail deer mating season, and for the next five weeks my thoughts are easily distracted by deer hunting.

Earlier this week I spent a few hours on one of my stands in a new location and I saw two deer come down the hill into the bottom land of the woods. My heart raced, then fell back to normal as they turned and walked towards my old stand location.

One of my tree stands is called a self-climber, meaning that I carry it to the woods, attach it to the tree, get on it, and gradually climb it up the tree to the height that I want. It can be dangerous. I have a very healthy fear of what could happen if I do not follow all the safety precautions necessary. I fell out of that same stand several years ago. Since then I’ve added some check points to my safety list to ensure that I don’t fall again. Falls from tree stands not only hurt, but they can kill.

Fear can be a good thing. There are two kinds of fear – fear generated by perception and fear generated by reality. Fear of the dark is based on the perception of what could be lurking ready to pounce, when in reality there may be nothing there at all. Fear of grizzly bears is based on the reality of what that bear could do if provoked.
My fear of heights is based on both the reality of having fallen and the perception that at any moment while I am in the air I could fall again. The perception is immobilizing at times. That’s why my safety precautions and safety harness are so important to me. If I obey the rules and stay attached to the tree with the harness, I am safe and can climb 15 to 25 feet up into a tree so I can have a chance at a monster buck.

It is crucial that we put fear back into our spiritual lives. It has been the mission of the enemy of Jesus Christ to undermine and destroy a healthy fear of God. We currently live in an age of destructive spiritual thought within Christianity itself. The majority of people who call themselves Christians might choose to end our Scripture verse for today with the phrase a forgiving God. There has been a steady and purposeful elimination of the fear of the justice of God.

As Christians, we have bought into the perception that God is only loving and forgiving, and as a result we have thrown away the safety checklist and the safety harness. We believe there is nothing to fear from God because that’s what we want to be true.
But the reality is that God is just. He forgives sin that has been confessed in true repentance, but He also punishes any sin that is left unconfessed.
Now, to be clear, the life of a born-again Christian is free from all eternal condemnation, but the Enemy has done a magnificent job of removing our fear of the Father’s discipline of His true children. We have lost the Biblical concept of the fear of the Lord.

I spend time almost every week counseling people who are being destroyed by the consequences of sin in their lives because they don’t have a healthy fear and respect of the holiness of God. They have chosen to believe that God is only a forgiving God. They do not want to face the reality that the hardships and suffering they are experiencing may be the discipline of God necessitated by their choice to sin.

I am perplexed that so many people do not have a fear of the justice of Almighty God. The desire for immediate gratification and fulfillment of the flesh has destroyed the fear of the reality of God’s punishment. The immediate pleasure far outweighs the pain of the consequences. It is the same deception that the Serpent used on Eve in the Garden of Eden. As a result, we throw out the checklist and remove the safety harness, and then wonder why we fell.

We must bring back the balance to our understanding of God. He is a forgiving God who, in Christ, accepts us as His children; but He is also a loving Father who disciplines His children so that they might be like Him in holiness.

It’s imperative that we have a healthy fear of that reality. It’s necessary so that we will stop sinning. God has given us the power of the Holy Spirit to be holy. When we cease to pursue that holiness, He will discipline us. He does it to mature us and grow us up into the image of Jesus.

Take a look at the current hardships in your life. Then, rather than focus on a fix to the problem, focusing on fixing the sin that caused it – then stop doing it. God will answer with His love and grace.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

 Psalms 98:1 – 3  Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Ten years ago I arrived at the Bayou DuLarge Baptist Church on the southernmost point of Louisiana as a part of a four person mission team. Randy, the man who would lead worship in church the next day, was inside setting up the platform for worship band practice. He and one of the high school students who plays bass guitar helped us unload the van and get all our stuff inside.

Suddenly there she was, running towards me to give me a big welcome hug. I greeted her with, “Hi, Index.” Everyone else looked at me funny. The members of our team wanted to know if that was her real name. The people from the church started to correct me. I quickly told them that “Index” was the nickname I had given to this freshman in high school the last time I had visited the church. Nicknames help me remember real names, and I gave her that nickname because she has a real name that sounds like another part of a book.

Index came from a difficult family background. She lived three houses up the bayou from the church in a house that was still at ground level and was dilapidated from the hurricanes. She is the only member of her family that knows Jesus. The rest of her family is recognized by the residents of the bayou as the most unlikely family to ever overcome the bondage of drugs, alcohol, and sin. They are, to put it in the words of Jesus, the least of these.

On the last night of our trip, we sat around the table with Pastor Jerry Moser and talked about future project needs for upcoming mission trips. He reminded me that our last group that had been there in June had put up the pillars for a house that needed to be built up off the ground. The next step was to get the beams up so the floor could be built and then the house could be started. I remembered the pictures of Pastor Dennis from our church sitting in the bucket of a Bobcat loader and working on those pillars.

I asked Pastor Jerry where that house was, and he said it was Index’s house. Then Jerry said something that deeply touched my heart. He said, “We’re building a house for the most unlikely family on the Bayou.”  Then he added, “Pray for us that we’ll know who the next unlikely family is that we can help.”

Pastor Jerry is the living example of the point Jesus was making when He told this story:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’  Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

I truly believe that it is in activity like this that the words of Psalm 98 are fulfilled in our day. Helping the most unlikely is how the salvation and righteousness of God is revealed to all the people of the world. We are the extensions of the right hand and holy arm of God.

Let’s extend ourselves to the most unlikely person we know, and pour the love of God into their lives. God will do a marvelous thing in them.

It’s easy to minister to people who don’t offend us. Jesus has called us to minister to those who do.

Pray today for God to show you the most unlikely person to ever get saved. He will answer your prayer by first directing you to the mirror. Then, when you fully understand His grace, you will be able to extend His love to those you have previously considered unworthy.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, October 09, 2017

Psalms 97:10 – 12  Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.

The older I get (and believe me there are days I feel very old) the more I understand the direct relationship between the experience of joy and the choice to be righteous.

We live in an age where the predominant philosophy is that joy is self-generated rather than the product of a sacred and holy relationship with Almighty God. We are pressured by our culture to believe that joy is not contingent upon our choices. To even suggest that difficulty, hardship, and suffering may somehow be our own responsibility raises the hair on the back of our necks and stiffens our resolve to justify what we are doing.

As Christians, we have reached a dangerous precipice where we are precariously balanced between preserving our belief in the absolute holy nature of God and pursuing the promotion of self. One more step in the direction of the flesh and we will lose all solid footing and slip into a faithless freefall.

Satan would have us believe that we can balance there forever with an appearance of spiritual life while denying the power of it by continuing to seek self-fulfillment. The holiness of God has been declared irrelevant and has been relegated to a place of insignificance while the desires of the flesh are satisfied. God’s righteousness is being replaced with self-righteousness, which is based on moral relativity so that all of our choices may be justified. We have exchanged the image of God for the golden calf of the flesh, and have sought to explain away the consequences as naturally occurring events that would have happened anyway.

When God led the people of Israel out of their captivity in Egypt, He positioned Himself in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The people were told to only move when God moved, and to keep their eyes fixed solely on Him for direction. In return, He would guide and provide for them. The 97^th Psalm further confirms that God wanted the people to see His holiness and glory and never follow anything else. Without ever using the word holy until the very end, this Psalm declares the holiness of God and the benefits He provides to those who participate in personal holiness.

The nature and character of God are so perfect and pure that we cannot look on Him and live. When He came to lead the people of Israel, clouds and thick darkness surrounded Him during the day because He would otherwise outshine the sun and destroy everything and everyone. His righteousness and justice are so perfect that all that is unrighteous would be instantly judged with death and destruction. He protected the people He loved and led by shielding them with the clouds and thick darkness.

Unquenchable fire came from His presence at night so that no matter how dark the world became, He could still be seen and followed and the people would know His power to destroy all enemies.

We can rejoice in these two great truths today. First, God is righteous and just, and we are shielded from a justified sentence of death by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, where clouds and thick darkness came upon the world while His life was judged in exchange for ours.

Second, no matter how dark our world becomes with sin and hardship, light is still visible in the fire of God’s glory and is seen by those who are righteous. There is not only a light at the end of the tunnel, but there is light in the tunnel.

However, the benefits of God’s presence are only realized if we choose to hate evil and walk in the light. His presence is found nowhere but in the perfect light. If we say we love the Lord, then we must first and foremost love Him for who He is and not for what He can do for us. He is holy and righteous and just. He hates evil and will at His appointed time destroy it all. He is absolutely holy, and there is no shadow in Him. There is no place of compromise. There is no single particle of anything even remotely related to sin in His being.

Those who love Him not only understand God’s holy nature, but also seek that same holiness. “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” says the Lord. The promises of a guarded life, a directed life, a hopeful life, and a joyful life, are only redeemable in the life of one who is upright in heart. Rejoicing in the reign of God is only possible for those who are being personally reigned by His holiness and righteousness.

Some of you are going to ask some very important questions at this point. Does God guarantee the removal of all suffering if I am holy? Why do holy people still suffer? And so on.

Holiness of heart does not remove us from the consequences of our own previous sins or from the sinfulness of this age. We will suffer and our bodies will still die. God will still discipline those that He loves, and we are all in need of discipline. My point today is not to argue the reason for suffering, but to declare the need for us to live our lives according to the holy nature of God.

Let it not be said of us that we are suffering because we do not honor the holiness of God. Let us not balance any longer on the precipice of personal pursuits at the expense of righteousness. Let us move far away from the slippery slope of sin and onto the Rock of our salvation, and let us stand in faithful righteousness. Then, being filled with the joy of the Lord, we can praise His Holy Name.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Friday, October 06, 2017

Psalms 96:11 – 13  Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.

One of the highlights of my years in ministry has to be the years spent serving the people of Bayou du Large, Louisiana following the devastating effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I specifically remember one trip that was especially meaningful.

We traveled twelve hundred forty-nine miles one way. My wife and I were joined by another couple as we spent four days in the van and five full days ministering to the people. Our primary purpose for going was to help the pastor of the church and his wife relax by sending them on a seven day vacation trip while we did all of his work for the week. We handled the church service on Sunday, then spent Monday through Thursday working on his house so they could get closer to moving into it. The pastor spent all of his time working on other people’s homes, so this trip was to help him get his own home done.

As we drove along the many miles south, the changes in the scenery and topography were very obvious. We went from the rolling hills of Wisconsin covered with multi-colored trees in a spectacular fall display to the deep green forests of Mississippi where magnolia and hibiscus trees were still blooming.

In between we saw flat fields of dried corn and soybeans providing food for deer and turkeys while they waited to be harvested, and miles of dark brown plants covered with white pods of fluffy cotton.

Every state had its own beauty, and each part of nature seemed to unite in songs of praise to the Creator. The full moon rejoiced as it set in the west as the sun rose in the east making the earth glad. The fields were jubilant with the bounty of their harvest while everything in them was filled with joy as they filled themselves with food. The trees, clothed in multi-colored robes, sang in perfect harmony as their leaves and branches were moved by the wind. I am unable to adequately express in words the reality of seeing the diversity of nature unite in resounding songs of joy to the Lord.

But I was most deeply moved when I saw for the first time ever the cotton fields of Arkansas that were ready to harvest. As far as my eye could see towards the horizon they were white as if it had snowed in Wisconsin. I immediately thought of the words of Jesus in John 4:35 when He said, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

I  know that Jesus was not referring to cotton fields, but it was the most vivid example of that statement I had ever seen. I spent much time considering its importance to my life. I was never so overwhelmed with the desire to be a more effective worker in the harvest field as I was at that moment. The fields of the world are filled with souls that are ready to be harvested for Jesus Christ. And very soon Jesus is coming to collect His harvest.

Some of the cotton fields had already been picked, and around them were large semi-trailer sized bales of cotton waiting to be collected and redeemed for profit. The farmer is rejoicing that very soon he will be rewarded for his labor.

So it is with God’s harvest. The heavens are rejoicing and the earth is glad because the Lord is coming. The sea and everything in it resounds while the fields and everything in them are jubilant because the Lord comes to judge the earth. The trees sing for joy before the Lord because He comes in righteousness and truth to judge the peoples of the earth. Jesus is coming to collect His harvest.

But wait! If He comes today to judge the earth with righteousness and truth, how much of the harvest will be lost because the workers have not entered the fields? The fields are white and ready to be harvested, but the workers are few.

Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

But beware of praying for workers without a willingness to become one. When Jesus made His request for the disciples to pray for workers, He was speaking to men who were already committed to the work. Look at what Jesus says to them in the very next verse in Luke  – Go! I am sending you out…

We are to be praying for additional workers to join us in the fields where we are already working. Every day we live in a harvest field. Unfortunately, we don’t all assume the duties of a harvester. We live in a white field ready to be picked for the Lord but we spend our time on the weeds that meet our own needs. We are working, but we are working to meet our own desires rather than God’s.

We may not believe that the harvest is ready, but Jesus says it is. We may not believe that the people around us want to hear the Gospel, but Jesus says that there are some that are ready to hear.

So, GO!

Jesus has sent us into the fields to collect His harvest. Get busy with His work. It is the only work you can do that has eternal value.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, October 05, 2017

Psalms 95:6-8a  Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;  for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…

I am a dog lover. Dakota was my favorite dog our family ever had. He was a massive Yellow Lab, and he loved and protected our family. He was extremely loyal, except for one thing – he had this insatiable longing for freedom to do his own thing. He could not be kept tied up or penned in.

One day we found his five-stranded steel cable broken and he was two miles away dragging an eight foot portion of it while he had fun with a female friend. As a puppy, I had tried my very best to teach him to respond to my voice commands, and for the most part he would listen. But if he had a better idea or a better offer from someone else, he would do what he wanted and not what I wanted. When he had his heart set on something he would not even respond to the basic command to “come”. As he grew, he listened less to me and followed his own heart more. Eventually, when we moved into the city of Eau Claire from the farm we were renting, we had to sell him. He would not have survived in town, nor would the neighbors have let us keep him.

Many of us have “Dakota” hearts. We hear God saying “come” but we are only listening to the other offers. We follow our own selfish and corrupted hearts running after the fun we can have with other friends. We leave the security and care of the Master’s pasture to try and satisfy the impulses of our flesh. Then, even when the Master finds us in our filth, and lovingly asks us to come, intending to clean us up and restore us, we run again. Every time we hear His voice and choose our own way, our hearts become harder, and before long we find ourselves wandering in a wilderness of sin with no hope of rest.

Just think of how many devotional times you have had with the Lord when you have read His commands and heard His voice in your heart and then chosen not to listen to Him because it didn’t satisfy your personal agenda at that time.

Now think of how many more times you may have missed hearing His voice because your heart has become desensitized and hardened towards Him because of multiplicity of those previous choices. So many of the circumstances and situations in which we find ourselves are likely a direct result of our own choices and the growing hardness of our hearts.

But stop for a moment. Take a break from your business. Kneel down in a quiet place, and listen. Do you hear it? The Master is calling.

“Come.”

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Bow down and worship Him as the LORD your Maker. The Good Shepherd is calling you back to His pasture where He will care for you.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, October 04, 2017

Psalms 94:18 – 19 When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your love, O LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.

Jimmy was playing a make-believe game of soccer in the yard. His dad was working on the garden a few feet away. Jimmy would kick the ball against the fence, pretending it was a net, and then leap for joy at the thought of scoring the winning goal.

Suddenly one of Jimmy’s kicks sailed higher than expected, and it soared over the fence into the neighbor’s yard. Dad gave him permission to go through the gate at the other end of the fence and get his ball. Jimmy, however, had a more direct recovery route in his mind. Even though he knew that his dad had told him not to try and climb the 6-foot-high chain link fence, this 4-year old figured it was quicker to do so. He moved to a position on the fence that was directly behind his dad so he wouldn’t be seen, and started to climb.

His skills were apparent and his caution was commendable, but as he approached the top he stopped to figure out how to get over the sharp point of the fence. As he balanced there for a moment his foot slipped, and he began to fall backwards. At that very instant, his dad, who had been aware of Jimmy’s disobedient attempt to recover his ball, reached out and caught him, rescuing him from landing on the large rock that marked the corner of the garden and had been the launching pad of Jimmy’s climb. When Jimmy begins to cry because of fear, dad held him tight and comforted him before he began any form of correction.

We are so much like Jimmy, and his dad is so much like God. We know God’s will, and we know God’s way, but with our will we choose our own way. How thankful we can be that God is aware of what we are doing, and He is prepared to reach out and catch us when we begin to fall. No matter how many times Jimmy would attempt to climb that fence, every time he would start to fall his dad would spontaneously reach out and catch him. That’s what love does. He wouldn’t stand back and let him fall, hoping it would teach him a lesson. Even if he wanted to, his immediate reaction to seeing his son in danger would be to rescue him. His love would catch him, and then he would find a more appropriate and meaningful way to teach him how to obey. That’s the nature of love, and God is perfect at it!

What joy it brings to our hearts to know that God’s love will catch us, comfort us, and correct us. When we are slipping and about to fall, God’s love supports us. When we are worried and filled with anxiety, God’s comfort brings joy to our souls. Only then will He discipline us, and we will accept it because we now understand the nature of His care for us, and that He wants only good for us.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

Psalms 93:5 Your statutes stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days, O LORD.

I am not much of an interior decorator. When you walk into our house and notice the décor, it’s all because of Denise. Except, of course, for the family room in the basement where the head mount of a buck hangs next to a large pheasant, a turkey fan, and another rack of antlers. I’ll gladly add to the décor of that room.

Last week I spent three hours helping Denise redecorate our dining room. For several years there has been a stenciled Bible verse on the wall surrounded by a painted frame. Denise had a fabulous idea to create a grandchild clock on the wall. We have 11 grandchildren, so with a picture of Grandma and Grandpa for the 12, we have a huge clock on the wall signifying the birth order of the grandkids. It really looks great.

The problem was, Denise didn’t want to lose the Bible verse. So in comes Mr. “I love to do fine detail work” husband. I carefully peeled every individual letter off the wall and transferred them to a new location above the four dining room windows, making sure they were perfectly level and evenly spaced. It turned out rather well, if I get a vote.

It is important to us to have a house that reflects our love for Jesus Christ. Knowing that first impressions are important, we wanted visitors to our home to quickly notice that this was a sacred place where God dwelt.

But to just have a home decorated so that it looks like a spiritual place isn’t sufficient. Our verse for today from Psalm 93 reminds us that holiness adorns the house of the Lord forever. In this verse, the house of the Lord can refer to both the holy temple of heaven and the temple in Jerusalem. But I want to point out a significant application of the truth of God’s holiness adorning two other temples.

First, the church is called the temple of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 3:16, which says, Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

Paul is speaking here to the body of believers called the church, and, as a whole, the church is the dwelling place of God. Therefore, our churches are to adorn the holiness of God. Our churches are to be a place where people’s first impression is that the Spirit of God is present and powerfully active, producing the sacred fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).

Second, each one of us individually is called a temple of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.

Holiness should adorn our lives.

So let’s talk about first impressions again. When people meet you for the first time, what do they quickly notice about you? What is your décor? What adorns your life?

I think for most of us, we would have to humbly admit that we have chosen very worldly and materialistic things to adorn our lives. We wear football jerseys to announce to everyone what team we are on. We polish our possessions so they shine with the pride of our status. We even display our obedience to God’s law as a mark of spiritual superiority.

Maybe it is time to consider the following questions and evaluate the décor of our house of life.

• Do people see you primarily as the dwelling place of God, or the dwelling place of self?
• Does the holiness of the Lord shine through in your actions and your speech from the moment they meet you?
• What have you chosen to be in the prominent place of visibility in your life that will dictate how the rest of your house is decorated?
• When people meet you, do they have to work their way through all of the hallways and rooms of your house filled with sports, job success, or family issues before they finally find the place where God is obvious? Or are they able to see Him clearly displayed in every part of your life beginning with the entrance point?

The décor of our homes is the reflection of who we are and what we love. Our lives and lifestyles are to be no different: they are to be the reflection of who God is.

Maybe it’s time to do a little redecorating.

Pastor John