LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

When I was in college, I had the ability to imitate Billy Graham. I could produce the accent and the tone. I am a little embarrassed to reveal to you that once, while in college, some friends and I went to the Minneapolis International airport in the days prior to security protocols. As we walked the passageways to all the gates, we came across a large poster of the upcoming Billy Graham crusade. I stood in front of it and began to preach as Dr. Graham would. People even stopped and listened. I remember well the opening line of the sermon. “Do you have a hole in your soul?”

I am reasonably sure I have heard that line used by many preachers in an attempt to share the Gospel. Somehow we have come to believe that Jesus comes to us as an addition to what we already are. We want to think of Jesus as the final piece of life’s puzzle, only to be put in place after we have provided all the previous pieces. Yet this is so wrong.

In John twelve, some worshipers of God who were of Greek descent asked one of the disciples if they could meet Jesus. The response Jesus gives to their request seems to be out of place. Yet a careful reading of it makes perfect sense.

John 12:23-25  And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

The one truth that sticks out above the others in this passage, at least for today, is this: Jesus is not an addition to your present life; His life replaces whatever you now call life.

The assumption we can justifiably make about the Greeks from Christ’s response is that the seekers wanted to meet Jesus so they could add Him to their spiritual repertoire. They wanted to be a part of a movement without moving from the preferred parts of their life.

We do the same. We tend to add Jesus only where we feel a need, but Jesus demands that we lose everything we cherish about our earthly life and live only in the context of His life.

My friends, PLEASE evaluate your relationship with Jesus. Is He there only to fill a hole in your soul for which you have found no other solution? Or has Jesus captured your entire soul, and all of life is built on Him alone?

Pastor John