LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, February 29, 2024

I am in awe of the nature of God expressed in today’s passage of Scripture. The nation of Israel has rebelled against God. While Moses was receiving the law of God on the mountain, the people were making a golden calf to replace God as the object of their worship. In his anger at discovering their sin, Moses smashed the tablets of stone that had been personally engraved by the finger of God. His anger had caused him to disrespect and dishonor what God had given him. God punished the people who had sinned, and then He invited Moses back up onto the mountain to replace the engraved stones. When Moses received the first tablets, they had been carved by God himself. This time Moses had to carve the tablets. With each strike of the hammer on the chisel Moses must have felt the guilt of knowing that he had allowed his anger to destroy something God had given him. He would have to carry those tablets with the shame of knowing that they were not God’s original design. No matter how closely he tried to duplicate the originals, they would still be man-made and not God-made. Imagine the fear and shame Moses must have been feeling as he approached the Presence of God on the mountain.

When Moses arrived, the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with Him. Then he passed in front of Moses and spoke. He did not destroy Moses’ spirit with words of condemnation and shame. He did not speak in anger. God did not strike Moses down. Instead, He declared His nature. It is a declaration of hope for us all. He said, “I Am the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Exodus 34:5-7) What incredible words of hope for all of us who have sinned. Spend a moment and review each statement and bask in the wonder of God’s forgiveness.

 God is compassionate.

God is gracious

God is slow to anger

God is abounding in love

God is abounding in faithfulness

God has sufficient love for everyone

God forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin

This also makes for an incredible challenge for all of us who have been sinned against. How do we respond when someone has hurt us with wickedness, rebellion, or sin? Maybe this illustration will help us apply God’s nature to our own choices.

A small boy at a summer camp received a large package of cookies in the mail from his mother. He ate a few, then placed the remainder under his bed. The next day, after lunch, he went to his tent to get a cookie. The box was gone.

That afternoon a camp counselor, who had been told of the theft, saw another boy sitting behind a tree eating the stolen cookies. He said to himself, “That young man must be taught not to steal.”

He returned to the group and sought out the boy whose cookies had been stolen. He said, “Billy, I know who stole your cookies. Will you help me teach him a lesson?” The puzzled boy replied, “Well, yes—but aren’t you going to punish him?”

The counselor explained, “No, that would only make him resent and hate you. No, I want you to call your mother and ask her to send you another box of cookies.”

The boy did as the counselor asked and a few days later received another box of cookies in the mail. The counselor said, “Now, the boy who stole your cookies is down by the lake. Go down there and share your cookies with him.”

The boy protested, “But he’s the thief.”

“I know. But try it—see what happens.”

Half an hour later the camp counselor saw the two come up the hill, arm and arm. The boy who had stolen the cookies was earnestly trying to get the other to accept his jackknife in payment for the stolen cookies, and the victim was just as earnestly refusing the gift from his new friend, saying that a few old cookies weren’t that important anyway.

The Apostle Paul said it this way in Ephesians 4 – “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (emphasis added). As you have been forgiven by God, go and forgive others.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Our study of forgiveness continues in the book of Exodus with God wanting people to be free from the bondage of sin.  God had called Moses to lead the people of Israel out of their physical slavery in Egypt. Now God wanted Moses to lead the people out of their slavery to sin. To accomplish that, God called Moses up onto a mountain for a personal consultation about the law. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, along with all the social and spiritual regulations for everyday life. Included in those laws was the gift of God’s grace for the forgiveness of sins through the atoning sacrifices that would be offered in the tabernacle.  

The word atonement is formally introduced to the people of Israel. Atonement means to cover over, and is the word God chose to describe what happens to our sin when we confess it and repent. Our sins are covered over by the blood of the sacrifice for sin so that God’s justice is satisfied.  

The first time this word is used is in Genesis 6, when Noah is building the ark. In the description of the building process we are told that Noah covered the inside and the outside of the ark with pitch. This made the ark waterproof and allowed the boat to float without fear of springing a leak and sinking. When the judgment of rain came to destroy the sinners, the people inside the ship were saved because the ship had been covered.

The other time the word for atonement is used prior to Exodus was when Jacob was about to meet his brother Esau for the first time since stealing the firstborn’s inheritance from him. Jacob sent three groups of servants ahead of himself with livestock as gifts for Esau. He told the servants, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”  The word pacify that Jacob used is the word to cover over. Jacob hoped his gifts would make atonement for his sin against his brother and they would bring peace between them.

When God introduces atonement to Moses, he would have had these two thoughts in his mind. The sacrifices they would offer on the altar of God would cover their lives against judgment for sin and bring peace between them and God. But Moses also grasped a far deeper meaning when he came down off the mountain. While Moses was on the mountain receiving the law of God, the people of Israel were rebelling against God and making idols. When Moses came down he saw the golden calf that had been crafted, and he was furious. He knew that God’s judgment against sin would be swift and severe. God’s judgment for sin is death, and eternal separation from His glory. The names of sinners are blotted out forever from His book of life. But Moses also knew that God was willing to forgive based on a sacrifice that would pay the penalty for the sin. Moses does something incredible – he offers himself to God as the sacrifice. Before any of the sacrifices of animals took place on the altar, Moses knew that the blood of those animals was insufficient to pay for the sins of mankind. He knew that a person would have to die for the sins of people. He volunteered to be that person.

Exodus 32:30-34 “The next day Moses said to the people, ‘You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold.  But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.  Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

God rejected his offer because Moses was also guilty of sin and deserved the punishment of eternal separation from God. When God says to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book” he is telling Moses that he is not qualified to be that sacrifice. But Moses had not been a part of this sin. Why was he guilty? Was it because he had sinned previously in his life? Yes, but the real reason is the same for us as it was for Moses – we are born with a sin nature that is eternally separated from God unless a sufficient sacrifice is offered for that sin. Moses tried to be that sacrifice for his people, but he was not qualified. But in His great and eternal love for us God sent a perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins – Jesus Christ. He was born of a virgin so He had no sin nature from earthly parents. He lived a sinless life so he did not deserve to be punished with death. He gave Himself voluntarily so that our sins could be covered by His blood and we could be at peace with God. In the New Testament the Apostle John says it this way – “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  (1 John 4:10).   Hallelujah! Our sins are covered and we are forgiven by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ!  

Now, as a result, be like Moses and put your life on the line to bring forgiveness to others.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, February 27, 2024

In 2006, University of Maine officials fired a 20-year employee of the university after she admitted she had allowed off- campus hockey players to eat breakfast for free, which was a violation of NCAA rules. Head coach Shawn Walsh required the players to eat breakfast every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the season. When they would come through the line at the cafeteria, the players told her that they didn’t have any money and that they didn’t have any meal tickets. She felt sorry for them, and she let them go by and eat. The daughter of the fired woman said, “They knew she was a softy and if they came in saying they were hungry and they didn’t have any money and no card she’d let them through.”

I’m afraid that many people today think God is a softy too. To pursue their own goals and accomplish their own agendas, they have redefined God so they can justify their choices and behavior. They believe that the compassionate and loving heart of God will overshadow any sense of justice He might have. No matter what they have done, they believe that a moment spent on their knees in an act (and it is an act) of humility will earn the forgiveness of God, knowing all the while that in their hearts they have no intention of changing their ways. They truly believe they can fake God out with their false remorse and that God will respond with forgiveness.

When the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt and were on their way to the Promised Land, God gave Moses the law which would accomplish two things: first, it would reveal the holy nature of God, and second, it would reveal the sinfulness of man. Then God promised that He would send an Angel ahead of them to bring them to the place that had been prepared for them. God warns the people to be careful not to rebel against the Angel.

Exodus 23:20-21 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.  Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him.” 

God said that if they did rebel, they’d better not try and weasel their way out of it. The Angel would offer them no forgiveness for any rebellion that persisted. The reason is this – the Name of God was in the Angel.

When the Bible speaks of the Name of God, it means more than just a series of letters in the alphabet that spell out a word. In the Bible, a name represented the nature, character, attributes, and reputation of the person. It embodied the fullness of that person’s nature.

My grandfather’s name was Jacob, and he hated it. He always went by his initials when he signed anything, and everyone who didn’t call him pastor called him “van”. He refused to use the name Jacob because the name means “deceiver” and he did not want anyone to think that was his nature.

With the Name of God in the Angel, the Angel would respond to every situation in the exact same way that God Himself would. The Angel was the exact representation of the nature and character of God. There would be no compromising the holy nature of God based on man’s attempts to negotiate a settlement. There would be no forgiveness for rebellion based on an insincere attempt at appeasing the nature of God with acts of remorse. Black and white justice would be the rule, because that is the perfect nature of God, and it is the perfect expression of His love. True love cannot allow someone to believe they are forgiven when they are not. True love brings a person to true repentance.

There are two important lessons for us in this:

1.      Don’t try to fake out God with insincere repentance. You cannot earn the favor or forgiveness of God with acts of remorse that don’t come from a true heart of humility before the holiness of God.

2.      Don’t let other people try to fake you out. Each of us who knows Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord has the Name of God in us. We are to be the representation of God’s nature and character to the people of the world. That means loving them with the love of God. But love does not overlook sin. Love does not condone sin for the sake of peace or acceptance. Love does not compromise holiness with compassion. Love does not let people pass through the food line because they have a good story to tell. Love seeks to bring people to true repentance so they can be truly forgiven.

We are to forgive others as God forgave us in Christ Jesus. We are to offer forgiveness freely, but not cheaply. Our forgiveness was only granted when we asked for it from a broken and humbled heart of repentance. It is only in that moment of brokenness that the true love of God can be experienced. We show the true love of God to others when we join the Holy Spirit in His ministry to bring them to the same point of repentance.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, February 26, 2024

Four hundred years have passed since Friday’s devotional. No, you were not a victim of cryogenics. I’m referring to the timeline between the life of Joseph and the coming of Moses to deliver the nation of Israel from slavery to the Egyptians in the book of Exodus. The current Pharaoh, or ruler of Egypt, is a cruel dictator who abuses the Jewish people for his own purposes. God has heard the cries of the people and has appointed Moses and Aaron to bring His message of deliverance to Pharaoh.

Everything about Pharaoh is self-centered and self-serving. His heart has become hardened to any form of compassion for people. When presented with the opportunity to let the people of Israel leave his land, he refuses. He even challenges the power of God with his own demonic miracles. So, God began a series of plagues that would eventually force Pharaoh to submit to God’s authority. God turned the Nile River into blood. Pharaoh simply went into his house and ignored the problem. The plagues continued. God sent frogs and gnats and flies, but Pharaoh refused to listen to God. God sent more plagues. All the livestock of the Egyptians died. God covered all the Egyptians with boils. When Pharaoh refused to comply with God’s command to release His people, God made an important statement to Pharaoh. He said, “You are still exalting yourself.”  Here we discover the root of the problem that keeps us from experiencing true forgiveness from God – we exalt self over God. Remember that because it will be important in a moment.

When Pharaoh again rejects God’s direction, God sends a plague of hail that destroys everything that was outside. Pharaoh finally admits he has sinned.

But Moses is given insight into the true condition of his heart and says to Pharaoh, “I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.” Pharaoh’s admission of sin was still short of God’s forgiveness because it was only an admission of wanting relief from the consequences. He had not yet seen God for who He was and come into agreement with God about his nature of sin. Pharaoh models what far too many of us live each day – false repentance based solely on the hope of relief from pain and suffering. The proof is in the fact that as soon as the hail stopped, Pharaoh sinned again and turned his back on God. His intentions were clear. He would say whatever was necessary to accomplish his own desired outcomes.

So God sends yet another plague – locusts that covered the face of the land. That’s when Pharaoh again admits sin, but this time in a more personal seemingly sincere way.

Exodus 10:16-17 “Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, ‘I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the LORD your God only to remove this death from me.’” 

But he is not sincere. Look closely. Pharaoh admits he has sinned, but he is asking for forgiveness for that sin only, and for God to remove from him the consequences of that plague only. His statement of confession and repentance is nothing more than an act of self-preservation. It will not be honored by God with forgiveness.

Pharaoh was not forgiven because he refused to repent of his sin nature. He may have admitted individual sins, but he only did so to avoid consequences or to be relieved from the pain and suffering that resulted from his choices. He never admitted to God that his very nature and character was sinful and needed to be forgiven and transformed. He wanted mercy only for his actions but he wanted to keep on being who he was. He was still exalting himself. God does not forgive anyone on those terms.

What about you? Do you believe you are a Christian because you have asked God to forgive your sins so that you can avoid the fire of hell, and yet you have never repented of who you are as a person? If you have never come face to face with the holiness of God and seen your own deserved doom, then you are not saved. If you have never confessed your sin nature, not just individual sins, then you are not saved. If you have never come into agreement with God about the true condition of your heart, which is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), then you are not saved. If you have only come to God so that you can learn to behave like a Christian and hopefully somehow earn the favor of God, then you are not saved. God forgives only those who agree with Him about the corruption of their very nature and character by sin and who reject that nature and accept the nature of Jesus Christ in its place.

We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and there is no other way. But grace cannot save if we have faith in ourselves rather than faith in God alone. Grace is the undeserved gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. It is not grace if we believe in any way that we deserve it. That requires us to see ourselves exactly the way God sees us in our sin – absolutely guilty. It is at that point of humility that God will forgive you, save you, and exalt you to the glorious position of His child. There is no other way. Pharaoh tried to appease God but still had his own agenda. It didn’t work. God wanted Pharaoh and the Egyptians to know that He alone is God and to humble themselves before Him. If they had, they would have been forgiven. Salvation comes only to the humble, and being truly humble means leaving everything of worth from your life on the altar of repentance, and receiving only the worth of God into your life. Please make sure you have done that.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, February 23, 2024

I remember a big news story from several years back about a missing teen who had been found after four years. He had been abducted from his community by a man who lived within an hour of the boy’s home. This man lived without suspicion with this boy as his own for the entire time. What a reunion it must have been when the boy and his parents were reunited. Of course, the United States judicial system will determine the guilt and punishment of the man who did this, but the real issue that must be addressed by the parents and the boy is this – how do we forgive this man so we can move on with our lives?

It is important for us to forgive people who have wronged us. But how do we forgive when the crime against us has been so brutal?  We must not be deceived into thinking that somehow we will feel better if we stay angry. No matter how severe the sin that was committed, the long term effects of unforgiveness are worse. Bitterness and resentment are the thorns that will grow in the soil of an unforgiving heart, and when they do they quickly choke out any harvest of the fruit of the Spirit that you could experience.

One of my favorite Bible characters, Joseph, had to make such a choice. You can read his story of forgiveness in Genesis 50, verses 15-21. I will wait while you do that.

Put yourself in Joseph’s place for a moment. Imagine that years ago several family members had conspired to kill you because of jealousy. Instead, they decided to ship you off to a foreign land as a slave. They then informed your parents that you were dead. Time for your first choice: rebel against your new master and attempt to rectify the situation or surrender to your plight and do your best to succeed for your master because you trust God with the outcome of your life. Joseph chose the latter. And he kept choosing to trust God with the outcome of his life through continuing difficulties. He was thrown in prison after being falsely accused of adultery. He was lied to by two prison friends who were to help him get released and they did not. Then, when he was finally in a position of leadership and had the power and authority to bring justice to those who had hurt him, he forgave them and gave them the best that he had. He could have had them all killed, or made slaves as he had been, but instead he chose to trust God. In one of the greatest statements of faith in the entire Bible Joseph says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done.” 

What would your choice have been? I suspect that for many of us we would have docked the ship of resentment in the harbor of our heart waiting for the day we could sail it on the sea of revenge. Maybe you have one or more ships like that already tied up. I heard an interesting statement the other day on a radio program that involved finances. It was this – “Don’t sit and wait for your ship to come in if you haven’t sent any out.” That principle applies here. Don’t wait for the ship of God’s blessing to come into your heart until you have sent out the ships of bitterness and resentment. God’s blessings cannot sail on the waters of unforgiveness. Where there is resentment there can be no hope. Where there is bitterness there can be no joy.  Where there is unforgiveness there can be no peace.

Think carefully and prayerfully – who do you need to forgive? Who do you need to call today and reassure them and speak kindly to them as Joseph did to his brothers? No matter what they did to you, the pain you are enduring because you have not forgiven them is greater than the pain of the sin that was committed. Untie those ships and send them out to the sea of forgiveness where they will be sunk in the grace of God and buried forever. Then open up the port of your heart because God is going to pour out a blessing on you – the blessing of restored relationships, just like the one you now have with Him.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, February 22, 2024

Our study of forgiveness brings us to a powerful story in the first book of the Bible. It would be good for you to read Genesis chapter 22, verses one through 14 right now.

Thanks for taking the time to read the entire story of Abraham and Isaac again. It is a beautiful picture of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for our sins so that we could be forgiven. The story is filled with many truths and we could spend days on their applications, but for today let me show you just one.

Twice in this story our key word nasa (the Hebrew word for forgiveness) is used, and both times it is translated as lifted. If Abraham had lived his life according to the flesh and the rules of society, he would never have agreed to take his son, his one and only son with his wife Sarah, and make a trip to a mountain to kill him as a sacrifice to God. Isaac was the son God had promised him, and now that he had him, and had an inheritance to pass on to him, he would never in his human reason consider such a thing. But Abraham’s eyes were not on the world and what he had, but they were on God and what God would do.

When I go on a trip, I can’t wait to see the finish line. The closer I get to the destination the more excited I become. I can recall two specific times that was not true. Each time it was because the final destination was the home of a parent who had just died or was about to die. I did not look forward to that destination. In fact, the closer I got the more I wanted to hang my head and cry. But look at Abraham. Three days into the journey he looks up and sees the destination. He knew where the place was. He didn’t have to look up to know where he was. He could have hung his head the closer he got, but he didn’t. He lifted up his eyes and saw the place where the sacrifice would take place, and he hurried on.

I think it’s significant that he lifted up his eyes on the third day. Why? Because I believe Abraham had a clear vision of faith that saw the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sin that would take place on a hill called Calvary. He lifted up his eyes and saw what God was going to do for all of us. By faith he told Isaac that God himself would provide a lamb. Some translators even state that the verse should read God would provide himself as a lamb. Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw Jesus as the Lamb of God. Then, at the moment he was prepared to sacrifice his son as a statement of absolute faith and trust in God to carry out His purpose even when it made no human sense, God intervened and told him to stop. Without any other words, Abraham again lifted up his eyes and saw the ram that the Lord had provided for the sacrifice. Then Abraham gave the mountain a new name – Jehovah-Jireh, meaning the Lord sees and will provide.

Listen, my friend, the Lord sees your need. The Lord has lifted up his eyes towards you. Psalms 11:4 says, “The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them.” The Lord sees that your greatest need is the forgiveness of your sin. The Lord sees that you are not able to forgive yourself. The Lord sees that you need a Savior who can rescue you from your sin and its consequences. And when the Lord sees, the Lord acts. He has provided a Lamb as a sacrifice for your sin. All that is necessary is for you to lift up your eyes towards the place of sacrifice and see the Lamb God has provided for your sin. Stop hanging your head in shame. Don’t be afraid of the final destination. On the mountain of the Lord there is forgiveness. Take all that is precious to you in this life and put it on the altar of sacrifice. Be willing to give up everything of earthly significance, and God will rescue you from your sin.

For those of you who have already done that, consider this: What have you taken back off the altar? In what areas of your life are you not lifting up your eyes to the Lord and trusting Him to be your provider? If our eyes are fixed on the world and the provision of the world, we will get only what the world can provide. When our eyes are lifted up and fixed on the mountain of sacrifice – the cross of Calvary – we will experience the provisions of heaven, the riches of glory available through Jesus Christ. The greatest of those riches is the knowledge of complete and unconditional acceptance by God, and that is only possible through the forgiveness of our sin. And such forgiveness is only possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.  

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, February 21, 2024

To fully grasp the wonder of forgiveness we must fully comprehend the wonder of the One who forgives. When God decided it was time to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin, He came to visit Abraham. Abraham’s nephew Lot was living in Sodom. Lot had become a somewhat worldly follower of God, but was still viewed by God as a man who was sensitive to righteousness. That’s why the angels of the Lord rescued him from the destruction. Lot had been taught about obedience to God. Lot had lived with Abraham and been mentored by him. But Lot loved the world and what it had to offer. He made his decisions based on the attractiveness of what the world offered rather than on faith in God’s provision. Lot’s life had little or no spiritual impact upon the people with whom he lived. Most of us today would consider him to be a lost cause. We would probably not spend much time trying to rescue him from the grips of sin, assuming that since he made his own bed, he has the right to lie in it. We might even go so far as to think that he deserves whatever punishment is coming his way.

Not Abraham. He pleads with God to allow not only Lot but also the whole city to survive for the sake of Lot.

Genesis 18:22-25 “The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.  Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?  Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Abraham asks God to spare them all. The word spare is our key word nasa, the Hebrew word for forgive. And what is the rationale for Abraham’s argument? The nature and character of God. Abraham appeals to what he knows to be true about God – that God forgives the righteous and does not punish them for their sin. He does not treat the righteous and the wicked alike. Even when the righteous are acting like the wicked, God, by His very nature, will do right.

Forgiveness is not dependent upon the perfection of the violator, but rather on the character of the one who was violated. Forgiveness is not earned but rather it is granted by a Righteous Judge who honors the humble confession of a repentant heart. He can do nothing less because His nature demands it. Forgiveness cannot be rescinded because efforts of behavior modification have failed, but it is granted once and for all for all eternity. At the moment of salvation, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is applied to the life of a sinner. They are declared justified by a righteous God, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The old nature of sin will never again be considered by God in determining our eternal destiny. Only the righteousness of Christ can be seen by God, and that will be honored for all eternity. We who are in Christ will be spared from the entire wrath of God against sin.

Jesus taught us to forgive others the same way. We are to model the nature and character of God when we forgive, and not make forgiveness contingent upon the offender’s perfection. The response of Jesus to Peter’s question in Matthew 18:21-22 take on a whole new significance in light of this truth. “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” When a fellow Christian – a brother as Peter defines him – sins against us, we are to forgive as Christ forgave and continues to forgive us. You know how many sins there are in your life that you hate and wish you would never do again. But you still do them. So do I. But each time we repent with a humble heart before God, he forgives us. We must do the same for each other. If our forgiveness from God depended upon our character rather than His, none of us would yet be forgiven.

We have been forgiven and will be spared from all punishment for sin. With that glorious truth resounding in our lives, forgive others the same way.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Genesis 7:16-17  “Then the LORD shut him in. ¹⁷For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.” 

I don’t remember ever being afraid of water. I love to swim. I met my wife while we were both working as lifeguards at a city pool. If there’s water around, I want to be in it or on it. When I was a boy, I was the first one out in the spring getting in trouble with my mom for playing in the water. I love water. I’ve swum in both oceans and 4 of the 5 Great Lakes, including Lake Superior in early June while wearing a sweatshirt to try and stay warm. Only once have I come close to drowning, and although it really scared me, it did not stop me from getting right back into the water. The water was not to blame for what happened – I was. The water was only doing what water does. I was doing what I shouldn’t have been doing. I trust water. I don’t always trust me.

Like water, God can be trusted also, so long as we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. In the days of Noah, mankind was not doing what they were supposed to be doing. All but eight of the people on the earth at the time were living in total rejection of God. They are described this way in Genesis 6 – “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” They had become so self-centered and self-sufficient that they had no thoughts of God and only thoughts of evil all the time. They would not and could not hear the voice of God any longer and refused to believe that God would do anything about it. Their hearts were so hard against God and so focused on sin that God himself came to the conclusion that they were beyond hope. How horribly sad that is!

So God decided to destroy them all – except for Noah and his family. God chose water as the means of destruction. But that same water that would bury all of the sinners in eternal judgment would also lift Noah and his family to safety from the judgment. The word lift in today’s Scripture is the Hebrew word for forgiveness as we learned in yesterday’s devotional. The very process God chose to bring judgment upon the people who were living proudly in their sin is the same process by which God saved those who were living in obedience to Him. While millions were drowning, eight were being lifted high above the destruction. Noah and his family heard the call of God to “come into the ark.” (Gen. 7:1) They made the choice to accept that invitation, and “entered the ark.” (Gen. 7:13)  When they did, the power of God took over and “shut them in,” securing their safety from the storm. (Gen. 7:16)

God has always judged sin with death. But God has also provided a way for that judgment to become our salvation. God came to the earth in person when Jesus Christ His Son came to live among us. Then, after living a perfect life, God judged the sin of the world in the death of Jesus. Jesus became the water of judgment that will destroy all who do not believe in Him. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” But the same standard by which the sinner will be condemned has become the standard by which we escape condemnation. Once again Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” 

You see, when Jesus rose  from the dead He also became the water of salvation for those who trust Him. Here’s how the Apostle Peter describes it – “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Please note carefully that the water of baptism does not save you, but your trust and faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ saves you. The water of baptism is a symbol of what has happened in your heart when you chose to repent of your sin and be forgiven. You heard the call of Jesus to “Come unto me.”  You accepted His invitation by rejecting your sin and accepting Him as your Savior. Then God’s power took over and shut you in permanently, making you His child forever and guaranteeing you eternal life. Hallelujah!

The choice is yours. Water will do what water does. God will do what His Nature requires Him to do. He is pure and holy and just, and He will punish sin with death. The good news is that He has already punished it in Christ, and if we are in Christ then we are free from death and sin forever. Where do you stand? Are you in Christ seeking to serve Christ, or are you still in the world, seeking to serve self? If you are in Christ, your sins are forgiven, and you are free from judgment. If you are still in the world and have not trusted Christ, your judgment is still coming. What will you do? Jesus invites you into the ark to be saved.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, February 19, 2024

I have a weight problem. I’m carrying around far too much of it. Much more than I am supposed to be carrying. You’ve probably not noticed it, but it is a big problem for me. I’m not talking about my large belly. You’ve seen that, and it is a problem I am addressing. I’m talking about another weight problem – a much more serious one. God is making me more aware of it now than ever before in my life. I’m talking about the weight of sin.

God has placed a word on my heart and I am convinced that I am supposed to spend some time investigating it. Every day this word runs across the flashing billboard of my brain. Songs that have the word in them come to my mind and I find myself singing them. It is obviously the place that God wants me to be for right now. For some reason known only to Him and to be revealed to me as I follow His leading, God wants me to spend some time digging for nuggets of gold in the mine of forgiveness. I invite you to come along on this daily expedition as we seek to discover the wealth of this truth – we are forgiven!

We begin where the Bible begins – in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word translated forgive is used some 650 times in its root form in the Old Testament. The word is nasa, and means “to lift, to carry, and to take away.”  The first time the word is used in the Bible is in Genesis 4:13, where following the murder of his brother Abel, Cain is punished by God and responds to Him by saying, “My punishment is more than I can bear.” 

The weight of sin on any of our lives is more than we can lift or carry. Our attempts to be free from the burden are varied. We may deny that the sin really exists, as Cain did when God rejected his offering, and he became angry at God. God gave Cain a chance to do the right thing, but Cain rejected God’s offer of acceptance. We sometimes do the same. We choose to believe that our way is right even when God calls it wrong. We try to convince ourselves and others that what we are doing is not sin. We try to earn our acceptance by making ourselves right, even if it means eliminating from our lives those that make us feel guilty for what we are doing.

Sometimes we lie in an attempt to cover our guilt and personal responsibility for our choices. When God asked Cain where his brother was, Cain responded, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”  He lied about what he had done. Denial is of the Devil. Satan is the father of lies. Lying begins in the heart of a self-centered person who requires approval and acceptance from people. Lying is the product of pride. Lies are designed by a deceived person trying to avoid rejection and protect image. We fail to understand that lies are yet another sin which add to the weight of the burden we cannot lift. We quickly fall into the humanly inescapable quicksand of sin. The more we try to struggle against it, the deeper we sink.

Sometimes we seek the comfort of the world to relieve the pain of our sin. When Cain was expelled from the presence of the Lord because of his choice to protect his position rather than repent, he began to build a city. He put all his energy into finding satisfaction from what the world had to offer. He even named the city after his son. He did not include God in any of his plans. The world became his opiate. The world offers many empty promises of relief from sin: promises we quickly and easily accept as truth. Financial success, social status, sex, alcohol, drugs, and on goes the list. Each promise proves itself addictive to the process of pursuing more promises. The temporary relief we may experience ultimately compounds the burden of our sin because we have failed to realize that each promise is itself another sin.

But in the middle of all of this was a promise from God to Cain that is made to all of us as well – “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” There is a solution to our weight problem. God will carry the total weight of our sin if we release it to Him and do what is right. It is in that moment of repentance that we find forgiveness.

In the days ahead we will dig out many nuggets of treasured truth about forgiveness, but the first lesson is this – the weight of our sin is more than we can carry. We cannot take it away by ourselves. We must give it to the One who can carry it, and once we do, we NEVER have to carry it again. That means surrendering our rights, telling the truth, and living according to God’s purpose and not the world’s pursuits. Isn’t it time to have the weight of sin lifted off of your life? God wants to do it, and He can. Turn to Him today!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, September 16, 2024

For the third time in his second letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul addresses the subject of hardships. In his first reference to trials and trouble (2 Cor. 1:8-9) we learned that hardship is designed by God to teach us to trust Him. In his second reference to hardships, we learned that they are the measuring stick of our true Christ-like character. Now in this passage, Paul teaches us that hardships are how God controls our pride and keeps us humble.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 “To keep me from getting puffed up, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from getting proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

In a moment of great transparency Paul reveals to us that he struggled with pride. Some may argue that telling the truth is not always prideful, but for Paul it would have been. The truth was that Paul had been granted a privilege that no other person has experienced since the ascension of Jesus into glory. He saw the risen Lord in person. Then he was taken up into glory to see things so astounding he was commanded by Jesus to not speak of them. Paul had every reason to boast about his spiritual experiences and to use them as a validation of his authority over the people of the local churches. But Paul also knew that his pride would soon cause him to displace God as the focus of His ministry and draw all of the attention to Himself. So he adds a qualifier at the end of his statement – “but I am not going to do it. I am going to boast only about my weaknesses.”

God also knew that Paul would struggle with pride, as we all do, so He gave Satan permission to torment Paul with a thorn in the flesh. We are not told what it was, and that’s a good thing. If we knew what the specific thorn was, then we might be tempted to believe that because we don’t have it we are not proud and don’t need to be humbled – which in itself is an indication of pride. The Holy Spirit does not tell us what the thorn is because He wants to teach us a principle – hardships are designed by God to keep us from becoming proud. Hardships reveal our weaknesses. Hardships reveal our inability to control life and its circumstances. Hardships reveal our need for companionship and comfort. Hardships humble us so that we see ourselves in relationship to the reality of God. Hardships allow the power of God to be fully expressed in us, because we finally admit that our power is useless to handle the hardship.

According to Paul, there are two ways live our lives each day: first, we can live them according to our own strengths and experiences, using our knowledge to determine the context and outcome of each event. In this choice, hardships are the opportunities provided to us to prove ourselves and to gain confidence in who we are. Or, second, we can live our lives humbly before God, recognizing that every hardship is an opportunity for God to prove Himself to us and for our faith in Him to grow.

Consider the two alternatives carefully. Paul says that the second option makes him the strongest. The rules of logic say this – if we are strongest when we admit we are weak, then we must be weakest when we think we are strong. If you are trying to accentuate your strengths and handle your hardships in your own abilities, you will be proven weak. You really don’t want to go there. But if you admit your weaknesses then the power of God is able to work through you and you will experience His strength. It all boils down to what our motives are – do we want recognition or do we want what Paul wanted – for the focus to be on God and not self. Remember what he said – “I don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than what they can actually see in my life and my message.” How you let God handle your hardships becomes the evidence ofyour faith.

Your present hardships, whether a temporary or a permanent thorn, are a gift from God to keep His power fully working in your life by reminding you of how weak you really are. Stop fighting it. Stop trying to fix it. God is using your weakness to reveal His power to you. Let your faith and trust in Him grow by letting go. His outcomes are perfect for His glory and your good. Trust His grace to be sufficient for you today and every day.

Pastor John