LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Since God is in control, and all things are working out exactly as He has planned for His glory and for our ultimate good, then it makes perfect rational sense to not be critical complainers but rather to be filled with hope.

Maybe you missed the preliminaries from our study of Isaiah that led up to that statement. God has spoken directly to the issue of our past and our present and given us a vision of our future. He has declared the past to be forgotten and hidden from His eyes (Isaiah 65:16). He has declared that anything and everything about the past and the present will be wiped away in a new creation so that we will no longer remember the former things (vs. 17). Now, in place of complaining there can be rejoicing. In place of sadness there can be gladness (vs. 18).

Isaiah 65:18  “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create…”

On one of my trips to the Philippines I was introduced to the now former Dean of Men at the Bible College that serves as the headquarters for the Evangelical Christian Outreach Foundation Incorporated (ECOFI), which is the ministry that I am privileged to partner with. His name is Christopher Bocboc. We talked for a few minutes, and then he helped me remember something from nine years earlier. I had been invited to an all-night prayer meeting with the students at the college, and he was one of them. I had spent an extended period of time counseling him about his spiritual life and God’s call on his life to full-time ministry. Now, nine years later, there he was as the Dean of Men at the Bible College.

One day on Facebook, Chris posted this, and I wanted to share it with you to encourage you to become people of praise.

“Most of us give praise quite naturally. For example, we love watching our favorite sports heroes perform magnificent feats of athletic brilliance. Then we praise them to our friends as we share in their secret wish, just for a moment, that we could feel what it’s like to be in their spotlight! We also praise musical artists and bands when their music entertains or moves us .Do you praise your friends? How about a boyfriend or a girlfriend? There’s nothing wrong with giving praise to others or even receiving some well earned praise. Yet the one we often forget to praise is the One who is the most deserving of it—God. No person is totally praiseworthy in the same sense that God is praiseworthy. We’re all human. We make mistakes. We let others down. We let ourselves down. But God is faithful. He is always true to Himself and to his word. When was the last time you paused to give praise to God? Is it something you do naturally?

“THINK ABOUT IT! David recognized all God had done for Him and paused to praise God for God’s faithfulness. Second Samuel 22:4 says” the Lord should be praised.” The next time you hear a great song, instead of praising the band, praise God, the creator of music. The next time you watch an exciting sporting event, praise God, the giver of all talent. Set aside each day to praise God for who He is and what He has done for you.”

Be glad and rejoice in what God has created, and to Him alone be all the praise and glory.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

How did it go yesterday as you intentionally sought to conquer discouragement by forgetting the past? I trust you started to see some victory and a smile is returning to your soul.

But it’s hard to forget, isn’t it? We have been created by God with incredible brains capable of storing countless pieces of information. The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. The neurons combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes).

For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage. Now just think how long it would take to erase all those discs.

The process of forgetting is difficult. It starts with a choice to trust God with the outcome of every event that is bothering us. Another choice must follow the first one, and that is to begin to act as if we don’t remember what happened, even though we do. Eventually the event will become so insignificant that it will be as if we don’t remember it unless we choose to resurrect it.

The fact that our brains are incapable of truly forgetting anything is a reminder that we must trust God. We trust Him because He has promised not only to provide us with sufficient grace for each day’s trouble, but that He has promised to one day wipe our memories away.

I remember doing some computer work for someone and they wanted the memory wiped clean. I got to thinking about that – clean memories. Actually, that’s an oxymoron. You cannot have a memory that doesn’t exist. But you can have clean memory capacity.

Everything that still haunts us in our minds will one day be wiped away when God reboots the entire system. This earth will be destroyed, along with everything in the universe. Once again there will be absolute nothing apart from the spiritual reality of God and the souls of all human beings.

Then, in a grand and glorious event, God will create new heavens and a new earth. It will be inhabited by all those who were saved by the blood of Jesus Christ while on the old earth, while those who rejected Him will be sent to eternal punishment and have nothing to do with life as we will know it. And as a part of the new eternal bodies that we will possess, we will have clean memories. Nothing of the former things will be remembered. They will not pop into our head unexpectedly. There will be absolutely nothing to recall because God will apply His power to forget the past to our lives as well.

Isaiah 65:17  “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”

This brings an answer to all those who wonder whether or not we will remember things from this life when the new world is created. The answer is no. For now, there may be awareness of things from this life for the people who are already in the presence of the Lord – as is the case for all the martyred saints described in Revelation – but when the current heavens and earth are destroyed in God’s final act of judgment against sin, every single memory of the past will be gone.

What an incredible promise that is from our Great and Glorious God. When in His presence, no earthly thing matters. No earthly thing will ever be allowed to disrupt our perfect fellowship with Him.

Here’s the application for right now while we are still on this earth. Why are we working so hard to remember all that will someday be wiped clean? And how many of our current memories actually restrict our access to the fullness of the presence of God? I truly believe that God designed us intentionally to more easily forget the things of the past the older we get, so that in our last days of life in this sinful world we can more clearly see Him and enjoy His presence. I know that is true of me, and I’m not that old yet.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Monday, January 15, 2024

Discouragement happens. But what causes it? Our first impulse is to blame our circumstances. But if we would conquer the very essence of our sin nature which denies personal responsibility and transfers blame (check out Adam and Eve after they sinned in the Garden of Eden), we would see that our circumstances have no real power in and of themselves and should have no power over us. They do not dictate or control our emotional responses – we do. We are responsible for our responses. We made the choice to be discouraged.

One choice that we make that leads to discouragement is to continually focus on our past, especially the failure parts of it. D. L. Moody once said, “Some people go back into the past and rake up all the troubles they ever had, and then they look into the future and anticipate that they will have still more trouble, and then they go reeling and staggering all through life.”

It has been said that the past is valuable as a guidepost, but dangerous if used as a hitching post. When God’s vision for the future is darkened by our longing for the past, our minds and our hearts become similarly dark. If we are to once again see the light of God’s grace and glory we must recognize the truth that “the past cannot be changed, but our response to it can be.”(Erwin Lutzer)

Isaiah 65:16 “For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.”

There are several choices we have when it comes to the past:

• We can dwell on it and hope to change it by the power of our imagination, leading ultimately to discouragement, despondency, and death.
• We can hold it in our memory ready to be used at a moment’s notice to manipulate, suppress, or attack another person.
• OR, we can learn from its mistakes, accept God’s forgiveness for it and look to the future as if it never happened.

Bernard Meltzer, the host of the 1970’s syndicated radio program entitled “What’s Your Problem?” spoke this truth – “When you forgive you in no way change the past—but you sure do change the future.”

In Isaiah 65:13-16, the LORD offers forgiveness of the past and change for the future. Here’s the hope He offers each of us.

• My servants will eat
• My servants will drink
• My servants will rejoice
• My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts  
• To His servants He will give another name.

Contrast that with what happens if we stay focused on the past:

• You will go hungry
• You will go thirsty
• You will be put to shame
• You will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit
• You will leave your name to my chosen ones as a curse
• The Sovereign LORD will put you to death

The Apostle Paul said it well when He wrote, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

I pray that today you will allow the Holy Spirit to have access to your heart. As the great writer Oswald Chambers said, “If you. . . begin to find that the Holy Spirit is scrutinizing you, let his searchlight go straight down, and he will not only search you, he will put everything right that is wrong; he will make the past as though it had never been.”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Friday, January 12, 2024

“Good luck.”

“Have a good day.”

“Live long and prosper.”

“It’s Karma.”

“It’s my destiny.”

“My horoscope says…”

All the above statements are contradictory to faith in God. Think about it. God is sovereign. He is always in control of all things. He has a specific purpose for our lives, and that purpose has already been revealed in the command of Jesus to “go into all the world and make disciples.” He has already determined our destiny based on our acceptance of or rejection of His Son Jesus Christ. He has condemned the practice of seeking guidance from the stars because it is the worship of creation rather than the Creator.

I admire the way the Dr. Woodrow Kroll ends his “Back to the Bible” radio broadcasts – “Have a good and Godly day; for of what value is a good day if it is not also a Godly day?”

Pay attention to the warning of God in Isaiah 65:11-12. It is entirely possible and most probable that we have forsaken the Lord for the worldly worship of Fortune and Destiny.

Isaiah 65:11-12 “But as for you who forsake the LORD and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.”

Both terms used by God in this passage refer to pagan gods. According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia,  “the two names Gadh (the Hyades) and M^enı̄ (the Pleiades) taken together give the meaning of the “Fortunate Number,” i.e. seven. The spreading of the table and mingling the wine to Gadh and M^enı̄̌—at the beginning of the year to secure good fortune throughout its course, were therefore held about the time of the Passover, as if in parody, if indeed they were not a desecration of it: heathen rites added to one of the most solemn services of Yahweh.”

People were actually perverting the Passover – God’s ordained feast to reveal His plan of salvation for people through the shed blood of a Lamb – by seeking the favor and good fortune of false gods. They were throwing the dice as it were hoping to hit seven all the time. They sought the counsel of the stars when they should have sought the Creator of the stars.

It was the propagation of the problem of Eden, when Eve was convinced by Satan that God’s purpose and provision were not sufficient to fully satisfy the human heart. How could the people of Israel, after all God had done for them in delivering them from the bondage of slavery to sin and directing them to the Promised Land, turn their backs on Him and declare that He alone was not sufficient for them? How could they turn instead to the gods that are not gods to seek their fortunes and destinies?

STOP! We cannot condemn in others, past or present, what we ourselves do. There are things in our lives that we trust to add fulfillment, joy, peace, and prosperity that stand in direct contradiction to absolute trust in God. Bank accounts, retirement plans, recreational activities, vacations, possessions, sports, social media, and the list could go on and on. If even one aspect of this list is allowed to become a means of providing personal value and worth to our lives, we are guilty of forsaking the LORD. We spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny every time we use the creation to attempt to fulfill what only the Creator can provide. We are guilty of false worship. We even forsake corporate worship with God’s people to pursue these other gods.

My friends, we are all excited about the opportunities ahead of us to enjoy activities and adventures in this life.  Be very careful that all of it is done in the context of worship to the Creator, not as an attempt to replace what we have chosen to believe God can’t give. Our choices truly do reveal what we love and whom we worship. Do not forsake the LORD, or forget His holy mountain.

Pastor John

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LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Have you ever had raisin juice? Me either. Raisin juice is an oxymoron. You can’t get juice from something that is dried – at least not enough to be practical.

The nation of Israel had dried up spiritually. Not only were they no longer ripe for a harvest of righteousness, but they were also juiceless – the Living Water of God was no longer in them.

Isaiah 65:8-9  “This is what the LORD says: “As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and men say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is yet some good in it,’ so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all.  I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live.”

But not all of them were spiritually shriveled. There was a remnant of people who had remained juicy with the joy of the Lord. They were justified by their faith in Jesus, the coming Messiah. They were plump with promise. They were fat with faithfulness. They were sweet with servant hearts.

The LORD spoke to Isaiah and said, “At first glance it looks like the grapes are becoming raisins, which are useless to me. But if you squeeze them you will discover there is still juice in them. That juice is good, so I will not destroy those grapes, but will instead use them for their intended purpose of possessing a new Kingdom.”

There are at least two lessons here for us:

• We are surrounded by people who are shriveling up spiritually. Maybe you are one of them. By your own evaluation or according to the scrutiny of others, you have determined that there is nothing good left in you. Many people around you have the same belief about themselves. But there’s Good News! God sees good juice in you yet. You are not a raisin. You are a grape plump with promise. God is calling you to an inheritance on His holy mountain. You! Wrinkles and all. You are still valuable to the Savior.
• We must be squeezed a little for the good to come out. This may hurt a little, but the squeezing of grapes produces wine. Wine is very symbolic in the Bible. Wine is the symbol of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ squeezed out on Calvary for the forgiveness of sins. Wine is the symbol of judgment, as God squeezes sinners in the winepress of His wrath in mankind’s last days on earth. Wine is the symbol of rejoicing, when Jesus again drinks it with all His faithful followers when the new Kingdom is established. Wine is the symbol of the adultery of mankind in false religions and self-serving spiritualism. So here is the point: when you feel squeezed by the circumstances and hardships of life, what is coming out of you? Is it good, God-honoring juice that will become new wine for the celebration of the King, or is it raisin juice that needs to be destroyed?

Your response to the squeeze is your responsibility. Your response reveals your real character. When God’s people are squeezed, good juice of righteousness comes out.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Is it possible that there is a time limit on God’s grace?

Before you try to answer that, be advised that the question is fundamentally flawed. When we attempt to put any sort of human limitations like time and space on God then we have asked the wrong question. God is God because He never ceases to be perfect. He does not set aside justice to be merciful – He is both always. He doesn’t set aside love to judge sin and sinners – He is both always.

Beyond our understanding, God is eternally perfect, not limited as we are to time and space, and certainly not limited to single expressions of the heart. He is always fully God in every way all the time.

But when God became incarnate in human existence in the life of Jesus, He took on time and space. Humanity was able to see, for the first time, the glory of God. It’s described for us in John 1:14 when the disciple Jesus loved wrote under the power of the Holy Spirit of God these words: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Grace and Truth – the glory of God. Both always. In human time, He showed love to those who were lost, while showing truth to those who claimed to already know it. He spoke words of grace and compassion to the needy and spoke words of anger and judgment to those who were self-righteous. Different times – same Jesus who was God in human flesh. He was Truth when He showed Grace, and He was Grace when He spoke Truth.

Why have I spent time on this? Because God reveals to us today through the prophet Isaiah that from a human perspective there is a time coming for many people when God’s grace will come to an end. For now, though they reject Him, He is still making Himself available to them. Even though they do not ask for Him, He is still responding to them. When they are not looking for Him, He keeps showing up in their lives. He is offering His grace to them.

Isaiah 65:1-5 “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations—a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick;  who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat;  who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.”

God’s grace is being extended even to those who are in constant rebellion against Him. But the time is coming when He will manifest His judgment on them. Look at what else Isaiah says: “See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps—both your sins and the sins of your fathers,” says the LORD. “Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.” (verses 6-7)

Do you see it? Do you see the truth that God is both always? While He is extending grace, it stands written before Him that He is also just and will impose judgment on all those who have rejected Him.

The time of His judgment has not yet arrived. We are living in the age of grace. Yet we tend to seek justice before its time. We tend to be judgmental and critical rather than the expressions of grace and love. We who cannot be all things at all times as God is have chosen to be the wrong thing. We have chosen justice over grace when we are to live as the expressions of God’s grace until His time of judgement comes.

We are called to a mission to make disciples, expressing the love of God to a lost world that rejects Him. It is by our love for God and for one another that the world will know we are the followers of Jesus. Repeatedly we are both commanded and encouraged to grow in love and grace, but never in judgment. It is time for us to rise up as the people of God and reflect the expression of God’s grace to the world around us. Let us boldly and courageously live according to the heart of our Lord so that it may be said of us –

“To those who have not asked; to those who have not sought; to those who have rejected and rebelled; WE SHOWED THEM GOD’S GRACE AND LOVE.”

Maybe then they will finally hear Him.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Isaiah 64:4  “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”

It’s still true today – since ancient times no one has heard about, heard from, nor have they seen any God besides YHWH – Jehovah – the One and Only God who exists as the Triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Every proposed option for God is the fabrication of man’s imagination and designed as an imitation of the One and Only so that ultimately man can be his own god.

Need proof? Isaiah 64:4 offers it. God acts! He acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. No imaginary God can. For a time, it may seem that our imaginary gods are acting on our behalf, but ultimately no action has taken place therefore no enduring benefit can be realized.

Our gods of resources, responsibilities, relationships, recreation, and religion produce only temporary satisfaction and fulfillment that never truly satisfy. But we are such creatures of the immediate that we are content with those temporary feelings, and we embrace the false belief that we will somehow avoid the pain and loss that have been experienced by everyone else.

The reality is that there is eternal fulfillment for every soul that surrenders by faith to the One True God for salvation. Yet even those of us who have done that still struggle with the need for immediate gratification. We have acceptance issues. We have value doubts. We have personal ambitions that we believe will compliment what God has given and supplement what He hasn’t.

But God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. We are not good at waiting. We want what we want when we want it. Yet God says some things are worth waiting for. The apostle Jesus loved was directed by the Holy Spirit to write these words: “It does not yet appear to us what we shall be, but we know this, that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)

We work so hard at our appearance in this world, when what we should be waiting for is Christ’s glorious appearance. Why is it that how we appear now is so important when that will all be changed when we see the One whose appearance we will become? There is only one appearance that we should desire right now, and that is to be the reflection of our Savior’s appearance. Then, when He returns and we see Him as He is, our transformation into His appearance will be an easy step rather than a shock to us.

We all have other gods we have chosen to fulfill some need we believe we have. They are all a product of our imagination based on what we believe is best for us. We are our own gods, and it will end badly. Today, get rid of the idols you have determined bring value to your life, and trust the One True God to totally satisfy and fulfill you. He is acting on your behalf if you choose to wait for the eternal good He has in store. Let the world see that your appearance is nothing but a reflection of Jesus.

Pastor John

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LifeLink Devotions

Monday, January 8, 2024

My wife is a wonderful seamstress. When our kids were little she made them a lot of clothing. Then she made clothing for the grandchildren. She even made clothes for the granddaughters’ 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. I would really encourage you to spend a few minutes right now and read it. Isaiah 63:7-19

Did you see the remnant? 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 in the midst of the dark days of the present, there arose a remnant that recognized their Redeemer. (vs. 16) Now their hearts are crying out to God for His return and His deliverance.

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:

1. Jesus is coming back and the nation of Israel will be the political, spiritual, and economic capital of the world;
2. and before He does return, we will see a great falling away from the Gospel by the people of the world and the true followers of Jesus being identified and persecuted for their faith that 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 His people so that the Gospel is having a profound and eternal effect on the unsaved. I praise God that there is a remnant being identified that, while small and seemingly with limited applications, has the power of the resurrected Christ to exalt the glorious name of Jesus Christ. 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 me and the Holy Spirit empowering me, I challenge you to consider your connection to the kingdom of this world and repent. I urge you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, to place your total faith and confidence in Jesus Christ alone that He can and will provide every one of your needs if you once again permit Him to be the priority of your love. I beg you as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to reflect on your family life, and the priorities you are teaching to your children about dependence on the world’s activities to provide personal and emotional value. 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.”

I implore you to be identified with the remnant of those who will stand apart from their culture and remind its people that Jesus is coming again in power and great glory!

Pastor John

OKAY, I have NEVER done this before, but I have been encouraged by some subscribers to offer a convenient way to contribute to the cost of this blog. I would NEVER demand income from doing the Lord’s work, but here’s your opportunity to participate as God leads you to do so.

LifeLink Devotions

Friday, January 5, 2024

Isaiah 63:8  “He said, “They are my very own people. Surely they will not be false again.” And he became their Savior.”

Read that last sentence again.

“And He became their Savior.”

Excuse me while I look for my socks, because they have just been blown off. It’s a little hard to walk around because my world has been rocked.  I’m floppin’ around like a scared bird whose cage has been rattled. STOP!

Seriously, I am overwhelmed with that statement. Think about it. They had rebelled. They had committed spiritual adultery by embracing idolatry. They had become completely self-centered and self-serving. They manipulated the laws of God to serve their own purposes. To remove guilt and shame they indulged in every form of pain relief known to man. They were drunkards, drug addicts, sex addicts, rapists, and murderers. They offered their children as human sacrifices to false gods. They were corrupt to the core.

Yet God said, “’They are my very own people. Surely they will not be false again.’ And he became their Savior.”

Let me tell you about two people I knew years ago.

The man was an ex-con, released from jail several years before I met him. The woman was totally opposed to anything spiritual. They hooked up after he got out of jail and now have a beautiful set of twin daughters. They are not married – yet. After investing time and love into them, a young married couple from our church invited them to come see the movie “Courageous.” The next day they were in church. At the conclusion of the service, both responded in faith to the offer of God’s grace. He became their Savior.

Two weeks later, the husband of the couple who brought them to the Lord for salvation will have the honor of baptizing them. Our congregation shouted and praised the Lord. We rejoiced because once again we saw the power of Jesus Christ to save. No matter how bad the past, there is a Living Hope for the future.

Maybe it’s time for you to finally see the love that God has for you. Maybe it’s time to realize that the affirmation you have been searching for is found in the words of the Lord when He says, “Surely they will not be false again.” Maybe now is the time to trust the One who gave His life in exchange for you when He died on the cross as the ultimate expression of God’s love. That’s how much He loves you.

There is hope for you, no matter where you are or what you have done. God is not counting the number of failures; He’s planting the seed of faith in your heart right now so He can guarantee your future.

Isn’t it time to trust Him to be your Savior?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, January 4, 2024

My memory is changing.  I feel like an obsolete computer that’s in need of a major upgrade. My hard drive has become fragmented, and access to the filing system is substantially slower than it used to be. When I finally do locate the file, it is corrupted and unreadable.

Yet some parts of this change are very good. I have discovered that the first files to become corrupted are the ones containing all the bad memories of life. I had a specific password-protected folder named “Hurts and Hard Feelings” (HHF) and I’m having a terrible time remembering the password. It used to be the first folder to be opened every day. Now it’s hard to get into it at all.

As I was going through a bunch of old paperwork in my office, I found a letter I had written to a church that had deeply hurt me in the past. As I read the letter, I tried to access the HHF folder and couldn’t. Instead, I saw the glory of God’s work to refine me and mature me into the man I am today.

Several years ago, I ran a diagnostic check on my filing system. (I’m still speaking about my brain, not an actual computer.) I discovered that the corrupted files were not being repaired or deleted. I checked my Virus Protection Software and discovered a setting I never knew was there before. There’s an option in the Program that allows It to automatically repair and/or delete corrupted files.

When I first set the computer up with the new Operating System I remember hearing about this feature, but never turned it on. I was afraid that it would delete things in those files that I might need to access at a later date. I really believed that information might be able to be used to my advantage in the future. Little did I know that the viruses in those files would slowly infect all the other files in my system as well.

So, I turned on the Automatically Repair or Delete feature in my Virus Protection Software. My HHF folder is almost empty. The Virus Protector is working. There are days when I want to put a file in there, but the VP has changed the password, and I cannot even save the file. And when I try to save it to a different location, the VP brings up a dialogue box and asks me if I really want to save this corrupted file to my computer. Then, even on the days when I really want to save it and click “Yes”, the Operating System shuts down until I authorize the VP to scan and clean my computer.

Isaiah 63:7  “I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us…”

I am amazed at how well my computer is running these days since I downloaded and accepted all these manufacturer’s recommended updates. Now when I wake up every morning, my mind is filled with memories of the steadfast love of the Lord rather than the events filed in the HHF folder. The Virus Protector is constantly scanning my computer for any downloads or inputs that will harm the Operating System.

You see, loss of memory can be a good thing. However, don’t wait for the memory system to start to deteriorate to experience the benefits of lost files. Let go of the control of your filing system and turn on the automatic features in your Virus Protection Software called SLL – the Steadfast Love of the Lord. Then you can start experiencing the full benefits of your upgraded Operating System.

Pastor John