LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Happy Valentine’s Day. I say that to you to acknowledge the fact of the holiday and to wish you well, but there is only one person in the world to whom I say Happy Valentine’s Day with all the love this heart can muster, and that’s my precious wife. She is God’s gift to me. She has my heart for the rest of my life.

Of all the passages in Scripture about love, there is none more descriptive of the love between a man and a woman than this one.

Song of Songs 8:6-7 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

I have used it as the basis for more wedding ceremonies than any other passage next to the famous love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. It speaks to my heart about the permanence and public nature of one’s love for their husband or wife.

• The one you love is to seal your heart for a lifetime from any and all other options.
• Your love is to be displayed publicly as an armband, but also as a seal keeping you from ever touching another person in an attempt to woo then or satisfy some lust of your heart.
• Your love is to be as permanent as death.
• You are to never stop fighting to keep your love (jealousy is a Godly attribute – it is the fight to keep what is rightfully yours).
• Your love should ignite every other emotion of your life and burn visibly to all others.
• Nothing in this world can ever quench true love, not matter how fast and furiously they flow into your life.
• Love cannot be bought or sold. You must never exchange the pure gold of true love for any other option or temporary passion.

True love between a man and a woman in marriage (and might I add that is the only kind of marriage God honors), is designed by God to last a lifetime if both individual’s hearts are in love with Jesus Christ as their Savior.

If only we could love like God intends us to love. If only we could move from the emotional side of love to the commitment side of love, then maybe more people would stay married. Love is not an emotion. Emotions are the product of love. Love is a decision to sacrifice self for the sake of another, like Jesus did when He loved us even though we were in rebellion against Him because of our sin. Love ceases – it absolutely ceases – in the moment that we consider ourselves better than or more important than anyone else. You cannot love self and seek to serve self at the same time you claim to love someone else.

That’s convicting, but it’s true. Just look at the reminders of that in 1 Corinthians 13 –

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

So nail it down – there is only one other person in this world that you can truly love with all your heart while you are loving God with all your heart and that’s your spouse. Be proud of that. It’s not a punishment. It’s to be made public and displayed as a testimony to the world of the love God has for us.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Monday, February 13, 2023

The rest of Second Peter chapter two gives a further description of the lifestyle and attitudes of false teachers. Read it carefully and let the Holy Spirit bring increased discernment to your mind and make application to your own life where He needs to.

• False teachers claim authority not given to them by God. “These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling. But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings.” 
• False teachers appeal to human instinct not spiritual discernment. “These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done.”
• False teachers show no shame for their choices. “They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you.”
• False teachers prey on those who are weak in their faith by appealing to their unconquered flesh. “They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse.” 
• False teachers are covetous and will exchange the truth for personal gain, like Balaam. “They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.”
• False teachers draw attention to themselves. “These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting.”
• False teachers approve of anything just to please their followers. “With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.” 
• False teachers have never been saved, nor have their followers if they return to their sin. “And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.” 

Tomorrow we will go back and look at a few verses we skipped, but this has been an important study on false teachers because they are so prevalent in our world today. It may not be what you normally expect in these daily devotionals, but feel-good stuff isn’t what I’m about. I want us to grow into the depths of knowledge that bring us spiritual maturity, and I hope this study is doing that for you. Please don’t gloss over these things. Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten your understanding and sharpen your discernment so you can stand against all the attacks of the enemy coming at you through false teaching. Stand strong for Jesus.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Friday, February 10, 2023

2 Peter 2:10 (NIV)  “This is especially true of those who … despise authority.”

The next characteristic of a false teacher is the display of disrespect for authority. They even go so far as to despise it. Their message is filled with animosity towards government leaders, bosses, and even parents. They use anger as a rallying point. They encourage revolution, not repentance. They focus on rebellion not reconciliation. They are known more for what they are against than what they favor.

These are some good practical points for us to watch in our lives as well.

• How often are we caught belittling and disrespecting our government leaders? Romans 13:1-2  “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.”
• How much time do we spend in the break room at work or elsewhere talking down about our bosses? Ephesians 6:5-7  “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” 
• How often are we involved in discussions that disrespect our parents or memory of them because we blame them for the choices we are currently making? Ephesians 6:2-3  “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”

Respect is an attribute of character that is not taught very well by our modern society. I found this tragic quote:

“Our youths love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority—they show disrespect for their elders and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up food, and tyrannize teachers.”

What may surprise you is that this statement of the condition of the culture was made in the year 400 B.C. by Socrates.

But the disrespect of youth for authority is not our only problem. As adults we are in denial about how much disrespect we show towards the youth. Here’s a story that illustrates the point.

“A waitress was taking orders from a couple and their young son; she was one of the class of veteran waitresses who never show outright disrespect to their customers, but who frequently make it quietly evident by their unhurried pace and their level stare that they fear no mortal, not even parents. She jotted on her order pad deliberately and silently as the father and mother gave their luncheon selection and gratuitous instructions as to what was to be substituted for what, and which dressing changed to what sauce. When she finally turned to the boy, he began his order with a kind of fearful desperation.

“I want a hot dog—,” he started. And both parents barked at once, “No hot dog!” The mother went on. “Bring him the lyonnaise potatoes and the beef, both vegetables, and a hard roll and etc. etc.”

“The waitress wasn’t even listening. She look right at the child and said calmly, “What do you want on your hot dog?” He flashed an amazed smile. “Ketchup, lots of ketchup, and—and bring a glass of milk.”

“Coming up,” she said as she turned from the table, leaving behind her the stunned silence of utter parental dismay. The boy watched her go before he turned to his father and mother with astonished elation to say, “You know what? She thinks I’m real! She thinks I’m real!” 

We can argue about the waitresses tactics of not respecting the parent’s wishes and authority over their son, but maybe…just maybe the real cause of disrespectful adults is parental modeling. Just a thought for you…and me.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, February 9, 2023

If you are following along in Second Peter verse by verse, don’t be alarmed: you haven’t been in a coma. I skipped a few verses to continue the study of false teachers. We’ll come back to the ones we jumped over.

The next two attributes that we need to recognize in those “religious” leaders who speak the language and gather large followings but are doing it for the wrong reasons are these –

• they are motivated by the gratification of the flesh and…
• they attempt to enhance their own status and authority by disrespecting true authority.

2 Peter 2:10 (NIV)  “This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.”

As always, we need to personally check our own hearts on these issues before we even begin to point the finger at others.

The news is consistently reporting the activity of religious people who have been caught in the corruption of sexual sin. They seem to get their own warped sense of fulfillment from tearing down the lives of those who are already being beaten up by the real enemy of our souls. But that does not diminish the fact that each one of us is responsible before God for our moral purity. Those who claim to proclaim the Gospel are even more accountable.

From my perspective, and I humbly say from my experience, moral failures start with an unresolved need for emotional attachment and approval. I have talked to many men and women over the years who have been trapped in the bondage of sexual perversions of all kinds. As we whittle away the layers of excuses and justifications, it usually comes down to an admission of the need to be accepted and approved by someone. This HUGE need we all have is the result of the sin nature within us which destroyed our ability to see the image of God in which we were created. We don’t know who we are apart from Christ.

However, even after we come to Christ, this sin nature still exists, and for many of us it still holds us captive to its desires. The emotional bondage of being rejected or constantly criticized as a child is powerful. The bondage of being convinced that one’s worth and value is only earned through performance is debilitating. We all experience it to one degree or another.

The words of Peter are important to look at carefully if we are ever going to experience the victory of Jesus Christ over the desires of the flesh. Most importantly he calls such desires corrupt. We have convinced ourselves they are not. In fact, we even call them necessary for fulfillment. That is the great deception of Satan. Remember how he deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden? He said that God was holding out on her, and that she could have more if she opened her mind to the knowledge of good and evil both. Same lie. Different era.

The desire to satisfy the flesh – through sex, prestige, or power – is corrupt. We must face that fact, admit that it is true, and confess that we are guilty of it. We must come into agreement with God about our flesh if we are going to experience His victory over it. For most of us we do that in the “big” things. But it’s those small nagging desires for approval and acceptance that continue to motivate our choices and behaviors. It’s time to resolve them. We must stand in the authority of our relationship with Jesus and not succumb to the abuse of reasoning with the enemy. 

The way I remind myself of my standing with Jesus is to quote Colossians 1:10-14 over and over in my mind. They are the verses God led me to as I started the still ongoing journey of victory. They may help you…

“Live worthy of the Lord and…please him in every way: bear fruit in every good work, grow in the knowledge of God, be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

2 Peter 2:3 (NLT)  “In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money.”

Today Peter addresses another of the characteristics of false teachers and false churches – the issue of motivation. It’s a topic we don’t always enjoy looking at in our own lives. We prefer to be graded on our performance not our motives. We insist on hiding the depths of our heart to impress others and earn their approval with external appearances. We even intentionally choose wrong motives thinking that other people will be shallow enough to only see the action and reward us. Many times – more than we probably choose to admit – we are motivated by greed – that deep desire for personal benefit.

For example, many years ago, some vandals cut down six royal palms along Miami’s Flagler Street. Since the palms were very expensive, Dade County authorities weren’t sure if they could replace them very soon. But then someone donated six more and even had them planted. The old ones had been about fifteen feet tall and provided a nice foreground for a “Fly Delta” billboard. The new palms were thirty-five feet tall—completely hiding the sign. The new donor: Eastern Airlines.

Or what about the motivation of making oneself look good to others? We tend to talk down about others. Sometimes we go on and on talking about the flaws of others and the only real reason is because we think it will improve our own status or image in someone’s eyes. But nothing makes a long story short like the arrival of the person you happen to be talking about. At that moment we have proven that our motivation was not for their benefit but for ours.

M. Scott Peck writes, “Utterly dedicated to preserving their self-image of perfection, they are unceasingly engaged in the effort to maintain the appearance of moral purity. They worry about this a great deal. They are acutely sensitive to social norms and what others might think of them…. They dress well, go to work on time, pay their taxes, and outwardly seem to live lives that are above reproach.

“The words “image,” “appearance,” and “outwardly” are crucial to understanding the morality of the evil. While they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their “goodness” is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. That is why they are the “people of the lie.”

“Actually, the lie is designed not so much to deceive others as to deceive themselves. They cannot or will not tolerate the pain of self-reproach.”

Before we even begin to talk about the motivation of money, which we will do tomorrow, we would all benefit from some personal introspection today on this issue of “image consciousness” and the power of its motivation in our lives. We must not be apathetic about this. It has become one of the strongholds of Satan in our lives, and He uses it daily to keep us from becoming truly surrendered to Jesus and effective as His servants. We must crucify daily the desire to please self and build self-worth. We must take up our cross and follow Jesus as people of integrity – people who are real and true to the core.

We would all benefit from following the advice of Albert Einstein, who said, “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

False teachers are self-centered. They have developed a system of theology that is attractive to the person who is seeking spirituality but is somewhat spiritually illiterate. Their teachings have a flair of emotionalism and appeal to the powerful need for acceptance. Many fall prey to the apparent grace they hear that permits their continuation of pursuing the pleasures of the flesh.

2 Peter 2:2  “Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.”

According to Peter, the next thing we need to identify about false teachers is this deadly combination of grace and flesh. False teachers are convinced, and convince many followers, that the two can coexist. The Apostle Paul knew that was an issue when he wrote to the Romans and said, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?…For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin…”

The hypocrisy of the false teachers is evil, deadly, and shameful. It embarrasses the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and puts a stain on those who truly call Him Lord. Our Lord himself was most angered at the self-serving hypocrisy of the spiritual leaders of His day.

John Boykin, writing in an article entitled “The Gospel of Coincidence,” says, “What was so bad about [the Pharisees’] hypocrisy? If we think of it as consisting merely in their teaching or pretending one thing while in fact practicing something contradictory, we will miss Jesus’ main point. What He nailed them for was that they were using God and the things of God as a means to some other end. That’s what was insidious about the Pharisees’ example. ‘They do all their deeds to be noticed by men’ (Matthew 23:5)… Theirs was a problem of priorities: their first priority was social status, to which end God was but a means. What greater affront to God could there be? Better to ignore Him altogether than to exploit Him as a means to something else you value more highly.”

This is one of the things that identifies the false teachers of today – they exploit people spiritually for the sake of personal gain. But we must examine our own lives before we simply turn in anger towards those we have already pictured in our minds. Let us not become focused on others until we have first dealt with the hypocrisy of our own lives, because there is probably some in there. The world is watching, and they form their opinion on the validity of Jesus by the impact He has had on our lives.

There is nothing more devastating to a believer’s testimony than looking spiritual while living in defeat. In his book “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” Larry Burkett tells this story:

“One couple shared how God shook them out of their complacency about deception. They were selling their home, which had a significant problem with flooding in a basement playroom. During the dry winter season, they replaced the carpet and put the house on the market.

“They were showing it to a very interested buyer, and when they went to the playroom the potential buyer mentioned that the carpet looked new.

“Sure,” the small daughter replied, “the old carpet got wet every time it rained.” This came as a shock since the couple had skillfully avoided any mention of a water problem. The buyer left, but not without a thorough discussion of ethics and Christianity. You see, the couple selling the home was a well-known pastor and his wife. Later he told me, “We allowed our personal needs to choke out our spiritual values. God simply used the honesty of a young child to expose us.”

The truth revealed will make you truly free; concealing facts will make you a captive of your own hypocrisy.

We bring shame to the Gospel of Jesus Christ when we try to combine our faith with the flesh. It makes us as guilty as the false teachers. Let’s all do a little inward reflection today under the influence of the Holy Spirit and give Him full permission to reveal any hypocrisy in us.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Monday, February 6, 2023

Secular journalists love exposing Christian charlatans. But is it a modern phenomenon? Not really. Lucian wrote satire in the mid-second century, and he loved to pick on Christians—especially when he smelled a fraud. In one of his works, he reports on a huckster named Peregrinus, a murderer and child molester who fled to Palestine and got involved with the Christians.

“In a trice he made them all look like children; for he was prophet, cult leader, head of the synagogue, and everything, all by himself. He interpreted and explained some of their books and even composed many, and they revered him as a god, made use of him as a lawgiver, and set him down as a protector, next after that other, to be sure, whom they still worship, the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world.”

Peregrinus was imprisoned for his involvement with the Christians. This, Lucian says, was an “asset to his future career” as a charlatan. Christians traveled from all around to visit him; some tried to rescue him.

“Much money came to him from them by reason of his imprisonment, and he procured not a little revenue from it.” Lucian comments on the strange beliefs of “these poor wretches,” the Christians, who “despise all things indiscriminately and consider them common property, receiving such doctrines traditionally without any definite evidence. So if any charlatan or trickster, able to profit by occasions, comes among them, he quickly acquires sudden wealth by imposing upon simple folk.”

Released from prison, Peregrinus wandered for a while, “possessing an ample source of funds in the Christians, through whose ministrations he lived in unalloyed prosperity.” But his defrauding of the Christians would not last forever. Lucian says he “transgressed in some way even against them (he was seen, I think, eating some of the food that is forbidden them) so that they no longer accepted him.”

Lucian’s tale continues, culminating in Peregrinus’s spectacular suicide. Before a crowd of Greeks at the Olympic festival, he jumped into a burning pyre. “So ended that poor wretch [Peregrinus], a man who (to put it briefly) never fixed his gaze on the verities, but always did and said everything with a view to glory and the praise of the multitude.”

Of course Lucian treated this story in his classic satirical fashion; he may have overstated the facts. A fraud like Peregrinus could never dupe Christians so thoroughly, could he?

2 Peter 2:1 “They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.”

The church of Jesus Christ is being duped by false teachers, as it has been since the time it started 2000 years ago. Peter wants us to be able to recognize the false teachers when they come. He begins his discernment training in verse one, and points out the following fundamental traits of a false teacher:

• They are sneaky – they will seem to know what they are talking about and be very convincing, but their hearts are blackened with pride. They will slowly infiltrate what little truth they teach with seemingly insignificant suggestions that bring doubt and questions to the follower’s mind, causing them to question what they really believe.
• Their teaching is destructive – This doubt leads to the destruction of true spiritual intimacy with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is quenched and fellowship with Jesus is minimized.
• Their teaching is heresy – heresy applies to any teaching that benefits self. The Greek word means to “choose what one wants for himself.” These teachers thrive on giving people choices of what they want to believe, all for personal benefit.
• Their goal is to renounce the Deity of Jesus Christ – Ultimately the goal of every false teacher is to discredit Jesus. They will deny that He is equal with God. They will deny that He needed to die to save man from sin. They will deny He is Lord of Lords. They seek to remove any and every reason for man to be dependent on anyone or any God other than self.

We are off to a good start, and our understanding is already growing. Take time to review these indicators of a false teacher. (Four today and one from the previous devotional) Learn them. Then ask the Holy Spirit to make you keenly alert to them in your church or in the churches of your friends and family. The true church of Jesus Christ must remain pure and strong against the evil of the day, and that evil is pretty sneaky.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Friday, February 3, 2023

For the next few days our devotions will not be easy. They will not be your average devotional that makes feel good points. They will make us think about the times in which we live and the tragedy that is occurring around us as we speak – the great turning away from the truth. It may be hard for some to understand. It may be harder still for some to accept. But the truth is that the truth is being denied for the sake of pleasing people and building large churches.

It is not a new problem. Peter spends the rest of this letter on the subject. For the next forty verses he warns the church about the dangers of false teachers who will infiltrate their midst with deception and destruction. There had been false prophets in the past. There were false teachers in Peter’s day. It is truer now in these last days than when Peter wrote these warnings.

I’m not sure enough of us recognize the dangers of compromise when it comes to the Gospel. Over the next few days we are going to discuss some of the very real ways that the deception of the devil is attacking the church and how many church-goers today are being blindly led down a path of exploitation. It is very important stuff, and I pray that you will not pass it off as irrelevant or boring.

2 Peter 2:1 “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.”

The first point I want to make is the most critical. It is the foundation upon which all other information is based. It must be the beginning and ending point of all discussion on this issue.

Peter just told us in chapter one that the Bible, God’s Divine revelation of Himself to mankind, is absolute truth. It was written by men carried along by the Holy Spirit who is truth. At the same time they were writing, there were false prophets just as there are today. The point Peter is making is this – the Bible is the one and only authority for truth and for the discernment of false teaching.

Far too many churches today deny the inerrant inspiration of Scripture. Many theories are accepted that allow for errors in the text and for man’s personal interpretation of God’s sacred Word. It would be very wise for you to ask your pastor what he believes about the Bible. If he denies in any way that it is the fully inspired and inerrant word of God, then you should consider what other doctrines he is falsely teaching. (I told you this wouldn’t be easy.)

If God’s revelation of Himself to us cannot be considered absolute truth, then God Himself is left open to scrutiny. How do we know He is truly God if what He reveals is not absolute truth? Far too many churches have fallen prey to slick-talking con men who present themselves as teachers of truth. They are simply using elements of truth to please people and pad their own pride. I will not go easy on them. I will not seek to understand them. I will rebuke and renounce them as Peter did. It is God’s call upon His Son’s body the true church.

So for today, evaluate your position on the Word of God. Do you fully and completely accept it as God’s truth? Do you trust that it is the source of all knowledge of the one true God? Will you commit yourself to not only studying it but believing it and living by its truth? I hope you will.

I promise I will not allow myself to fall into the sinful position of pride. I will speak of those under the deception with the grace of God and pray for their repentance and restoration to truth. But we must continue to warn God’s people about the dangers of falling into compliance with false teaching simply because it’s comfortable or gratifying. Let us pray together that God would use the rest of our study of Second Peter to equip and prepare His people for the great falling away that is now happening before the final return of Jesus.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, February 2, 2023

A Christian university student shared a room with a Muslim. As they became friends, their conversation turned to their beliefs. The believer asked the Muslim if he’d ever read the Bible. He answered no, but then asked if the Christian had ever read the Koran.

The believer responded, “No, I haven’t, but I’m sure it would be interesting. Why don’t we read both together, once a week, alternating books?” The young man accepted the challenge, their friendship deepened, and during the second term he became a believer in Jesus.

One evening, late in the term, he burst into the room and shouted at the long-time believer, “You deceived me!”

“What are you talking about?” the believer asked.

The new believer opened his Bible and said, “I’ve been reading it through, like you told me, and just read that the Word is living and active!” He grinned. “You knew all along that the Bible contained God’s power and that the Koran is a book like any other. I never had a chance!”

“And now you’ll hate me for life?” queried the believer.

“No,” he answered, “but it was an unfair contest.”

2 Peter 1:21  “… men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 

My friends, there is no greater challenge that I can give you than this – read the Bible. Study it.

The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to mankind.

It is the only way to know the Redeemer Jesus Christ.

It is the only way to know His specific purpose for your life.

It will bring you to life because it is alive!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

The Word of God – the Bible – is the full and complete revelation of what God wants mankind to know about Himself. Written by over 40 different authors under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit over a period of 1500 years, it remains the one and only source of absolute spiritual truth in written form. Yet so many people reject it.

2 Peter 1:20-21  “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 

What people reject is the truth about Jesus Christ. Not because there is reasonable doubt, but because they choose to remain comfortable in their sin. People love the darkness rather than the light. So they must reject the Light to enjoy their darkness.

In Peter’s day, not unlike our own time, there was serious doubt in the religious community about the identity of Jesus. Was He the promised Messiah? Is He THE one and only Christ, the Son of the living God?

Peter offered some simple yet profound proofs that Jesus is the Promised Redeemer.

Peter was one of many eyewitnesses of the life, death, and life again of Jesus.

Peter wrote down what He saw, as did other eyewitnesses.  (NOTE: Time is used by doubters as the enemy of fact. The Holocaust is questioned more and more as fewer and fewer survivors remain. The great stories of American History are subverted in modern day textbooks for purposes of cultural and political gain. Doubt is cast upon the credibility of written records by the so-called discovery of other records. HOWEVER, no such credible contradiction to the record of Holy Scripture exists. Time cannot change the written testimony of the eyewitnesses because they were writing under the inspiration of One who cannot lie.)

What they wrote down is also credible because it completely and absolutely matches what was recognized as written truth in their day – the Old Testament prophets. Remember what Peter said, “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain.”

Every prophecy in the Old Testament about Jesus Christ has been fulfilled except for those relating to a time yet to come. That’s an amazing fact, considering that out of the 30 authors of the Old Testament, only a few knew each other and had any contact with one another. 1400 years of writing by 30 different people who didn’t read each other’s books and yet every statement about the promised Messiah came true in one man, Jesus Christ.

No group of men could contrive such a literary marvel. No group of individuals, writing by their own authority and knowledge, could unanimously agree in every detail when separated by such vast periods of time unless one thing was true – Someone else, namely the Holy Spirit of God, gave them the very words to write.

The Bible is the error-free, fully inspired revelation of God and His Redeemer.  Read it. Study it. Find the fullness of understanding the life and ministry of Jesus in it. Every part of it supports and enhances every other part. It all fits. Trust the Holy Spirit to give you understanding. Commit yourself to reading God’s revelation of Himself to you. It’s the only way you can really grow in your knowledge of God.

“A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.”  W. H. Auden (1907–1973)

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”   Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)

“All things desirable to men are contained in the Bible.”  Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

Pastor John