LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

My wife is a wonderful seamstress. When our kids were little, she made them a lot of clothing. She did it for the grandchildren. She even makes clothing for the granddaughter’s dolls.

Years ago, when the kids were small and I was in business, I was the manager of a retail department store while the Lord was training me for ministry. There was a fabric department in the store. Bolts of fabric would come in on the truck, and it seemed like all the seamstresses in town knew our shipping schedule. No sooner did we have the material on display than the department would be filled with women searching for just the right fabric to sew into a new garment for their kids or even themselves.

One table in the department was reserved for remnants. Whenever a bolt of fabric would be sold off to the point where less than two yards were left, we would mark down the price and put it on the remnant table. The fabric left on the bolt was just as good as the previously sold yardage, but the limited quantity also limited the available applications. The remnant was a small reminder of a previous abundance.

That’s the picture we have in the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah. If you read the whole chapter, you would see reference made to the remnant of Israel. The nation is in shambles. (vs. 18-19) They have rebelled against the Lord God. (vs. 10) Throughout their history God has revealed His glory to them. (vs. 11-14) But during the dark days there arose a remnant that recognized their Redeemer. (vs. 16) Their hearts cried out to God for His return and His deliverance. (64:1)

Isaiah 64:1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!

I believe that we are living in a world that is on the precipice of prophetic fulfillment. Soon the remnant of those who truly believe that Jesus is the Messiah will begin to grow.

Two things are certain from the prophecies of God’s Word: Jesus is coming back to restore the nation of Israel as the political, spiritual, and economic capital of the world; and before He does return, we will see a great falling away from the Gospel by the people of the world. During this falling away, the true followers of Jesus will be identified and persecuted for their faith because it stands opposed to the cultural consensus of humanism.

I thank God that I live in this day, and that the Lord has chosen to pour out His Spirit on our church so that the Gospel is having a profound and eternal effect on people’s lives. I am humbled that He has chosen to use our weaknesses to magnify His strength. I am honored to be surrounded by so many who have also chosen to set aside all their earthly pursuits for the sake of the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in the resurrected Lord.

May I implore you to consider the call of Jesus Christ to true discipleship? With the love of Christ compelling us and the Holy Spirit empowering us, let us consider our connection to the kingdom of this world and repent. Let us place our total faith and confidence in Jesus Christ alone that He can and will provide every one of our needs. Let us choose to love God above all.   Let us reflect on our family life, and the priorities we are teaching our children by the priority we place on the secular over the spiritual. I charge you, as Paul charged Timothy, to not have a form of godliness without the power of it to transform your life.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Let us be identified with the remnant of those who will stand apart from culture and point to the coming of Jesus!

Pastor John