LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

The last few devotionals have been good for me. I needed an oasis in which to rest and let the things I have observed on my journey with Moses sink in and make a difference in how I live. The hypocrisy of learning and not doing is offensive to God. I want to make sure I apply what I learn so that I please the One that I love.

It has not been without opposition from the enemy. Satan made it clear in his attacks that he hates the damage born again Christians will do to his kingdom when they start living out their spiritual DNA. He opposes a world filled with people who have the overall qualities of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness. He cannot stand by and let people truly love one another as Christ loves them. He vehemently fights against those people who then overcome their emotional responses to circumstances and develop Christ-like attitudes, knowing that when they do they will thrive in relationship with one another. Marriages will be restored and revitalized. Parents will pass on a heritage of love and faith and be both present and participating in their child’s development. Children will grow in the Lord, respecting and obeying their parents, being nurtured and disciplined by the truth. Employees will respect their employers and give them an honest and full day’s work. Employers will be fair to their employees and look beyond the bottom line of profit to the production line of people.

But Satan’s most vicious war is being waged against the final stage of maturity as our spiritual DNA transforms our lives. There is a serious problem in Christian circles today with people who talk a good talk but don’t walk a corresponding walk. Their actions don’t match their testimony.

But there is another serious issue that is on the flip side of this coin, and that is when people whose lives have been transformed into the character and activities of Christ refuse to tell people why. The world has gotten rather adept at imitating the characteristics of Christ. We all know people who are compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient, forbearing, forgiving, and loving. They are good husbands and wives, good parents, good employees or employers, and have no visible issues that should disqualify them from being called a Christian – except one: they have never by faith received Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord because no one told them they needed to.

This is where Satan is winning a huge albeit temporary victory against the Kingdom of God and His people. We have somehow become convinced that our good neighbors are good enough and that the good life we are living will not soon end. We think somehow that there is plenty of time to continue to enjoy benefits of this world before we must deal with the consequences of eternity. Satan has done a superior job of stopping the spread of the Gospel in far too many of our communities and churches.

Colossians 4:2-6  Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Paul tells us that the final stage of our spiritual transformation occurs when our character and our words come together to witness to the lost world of the saving power of Jesus Christ. He calls us to prayer, and says that we are to be praying for open doors of ministry so the Gospel message of Jesus can be clearly proclaimed. But not just by others. He specifically tells us to be wise in the way we interact with those who are unsaved so that our speech is always filled with grace and we are prepared to answer anyone who wonders why our lives are so consistently uncharacteristic of this world’s value system. The influence of Christ’s DNA in us is most obvious when we seek to reproduce it in the lives of others.

We are in a spiritual war. Our enemy wants us to be silent. The Holy Spirit has come upon us to be witnesses. Win the war of silence. Demolish the strongholds of Satan in your life. Liberate your tongue to speak the praises and provisions of God to a lost world. Let’s get people saved!

Pastor John