LifeLink Devotions for Friday, March 29, 2024

This morning while chatting on facebook with an unsaved friend, I was asked how I was. You know, the typical conversation starter. I said I was fantastic, and he asked me why. I responded, “This is the day out of all human history that God chose to solve man’s sin problem.” The friend responded, “I thought this was the day the Easter bunny got his eggs ready for Sunday.”  It opened the door for a time of planting seeds of truth.

“This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” That verse from Psalms directly refers to this day – the day that we traditionally celebrate the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross. It was much more than a horrifying death at the hands of man: it was a substitutionary death at the hands of a loving God. Hard to comprehend, isn’t it? Love forcing suffering doesn’t make sense to our finite minds. But to those of us who are being saved by the blood of Jesus, it is the splendor of the Gospel. Unfortunately to the unsaved it is foolishness.

The payment of sin’s debt of death to a holy and righteous God is required from each one of us. We will either pay it ourselves or we will accept a payment already made and be debt-free. That payment was Jesus Christ who died on the cross. The payment was accepted and eternally validated when God raised Jesus from the dead and restored Him to His position of exalted honor on the throne of Heaven. That’s where those who accept His life in exchange for our own will meet Him and spend eternity with Him.

Here’s what God the Father says about what Jesus will accomplish on the cross in Isaiah 42:6-7.  “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

The suffering of Jesus brings us freedom. Blind eyes that cannot see God are opened when the light of God’s love is seen in Jesus. Bondage to sinful behaviors is broken when Jesus takes hold of our hand. Jesus became our sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him!

Isaiah chapter fifty-three has incredible significance and meaning when understood as a prophecy of Christ’s death on the cross. Read it slowly and carefully and let the impact of it bless you and send you into a time of rejoicing, for this is the day the Lord planned for us.

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.^ He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD’S will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”

“Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, March 28, 2024

The earthly ministry of Jesus is almost over. There are just a few more details to teach His disciples about what will be happening in the next few days and beyond. According to the traditional timeline, tonight Jesus will meet with His disciples in the upper room. The things He will tell them will deeply distress them. They will be confused and concerned for their own futures, not only their Lord’s. Each one will respond differently to the things they will hear to try to cover their pain.

Peter will get very vocal and bold, refusing to have his feet washed and claiming that he will endure to the end and suffer death if need be. It was a cover-up for his pain to keep his assumed image intact.

They will all question the sincerity of their hearts and their commitment levels when Jesus announces that one of them will betray Him. They quickly have a meeting and elect John to ask Him who it is so they can hopefully ease their own minds.

When Jesus announces that He is leaving, and that they will join Him someday, Thomas reveals the confusion of all of them when he says that they don’t get it. “Where are you going, and how do we get there?”

Even after answering them and telling them that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that they could arrive at the Father’s home through Him, Philip asked to see the Father. How embarrassing to ask a question for which you should have already known the answer.

Imagine the pain they must have been experiencing. For three years they have followed Jesus based on some cultural and religious presuppositions. Every step of the way Jesus had gently addressed those assumptions and declared to them nuggets of truth that could have changed their perceptions. They didn’t understand. They still thought that the outcome was going to be the installation of a King on the throne of David and that they were going to get to be in the inner circle of leadership in the new Kingdom. Now it was beginning to dawn in the darkness of their minds that there was a different plan. It hurt to see the brightness of the light that began to shine.

Their hearts were wounded. They were bending severely under the weight of their misunderstanding. The fire of their enthusiasm was reduced to a mere smolder of smoke as they struggled with their own identity and worth.

But Jesus – the servant of God in whom He delights – does not cry out or raise His voice. He does not bend them further until they break. He does not extinguish what remains of their fire. Instead, He says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^£ in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” 

What comfort that was! What compassion was revealed! Jesus the encourager. Preparing Himself to suffer and die he reached out to help those who were hurting far less than Himself. They could not know the depth of their Lord’s pain, even if they were not so focused on their own. But that did not matter to Jesus. He reached out to them and lifted them out of their gloom and despair and gave them hope.

Take heart, my friend. Whatever it is in your life that is bending you to the breaking point or extinguishing all the fires of enthusiasm in your heart, Jesus will not break you or snuff you out. He will respond to your need with compassion and lift you out of your gloom and give you hope. Let Him adjust your perspective!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, March 27, 2024

One of the highlights of ministry life for me is to see people from radically different religious backgrounds coming together in Christ and forming a loving, unified body because of the peace provided for them at the cross. I am especially blessed to have experienced this in another culture.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the Philippines lately. It happens every year at this time around my birthday, because friends in Davao City hosted some of my greatest birthday parties. As I watched videos recently of the college graduation and the Pastor’s Conference, I realize how much I miss all of them. I am especially moved by the transforming power of the cross when I think about the tribal churches that have been planted up in the mountains. I have visited many of those churches, and I remember one in particular. The church met in a community shelter in this extremely poverty stricken area. Now you must not visualize a community center according to American standards. This is the Philippines. The building was 8’ x 8’ made of bamboo with a palm branch roof, and a small 15’ x 10’ dirt courtyard surrounded by a broken down bamboo fence. We had church there on Sunday morning in the courtyard, with around 45 people in attendance. They had walked for miles down the mountain trails to get there that morning so that we would not have to try to take the mission vehicle up the muddy trail to their village. We sang some songs to the sounds of a crude guitar played by one of the tribal boys who was learning to praise God with an instrument. No worship band – just worshipping people! It was awesome. I preached that morning on Elijah and the prophets of Baal when they met on the mountain and God’s power conquered the false worshippers.

The reason I had chosen that story was because of the living reality of it in those people. They came from a tribe of false worshippers and spiritism, and they had never heard the truth of Jesus until one of the graduates of our Bible college went there to plant a church. These had been people who had never seen a white man, and who probably would have killed one in their village area if he had gone there unannounced and unescorted. They were dressed as well as their meager means would allow. A few of them still had some teeth. By any American standards they were to be avoided if met on the street. But now, because of the cross, we were worshipping together. We were smiling at each other with a joy that is only shared between family members. In fact, I am crying my eyes out right now as I write this because of the joy in my heart that Jesus saves equally and completely. Just think, in Christ we have equal access to the Father! I receive no preferential treatment from God because I am American or have a home or money or cars or because I dress right, and especially not because I have a particular color of skin. In Christ we are all one!

That’s the power of the cross – it brings peace that passes all human reason. Let’s not draw lines of separation between people when Jesus came to obliterate those lines and make us one!

Ephesians 2:11-18 “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace…”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, March 26, 2024

When I was in high school in the Twin Cities, with a graduating class of 825, I was an unnoticed nerd – or at least I thought I was. I was very insecure, I hated my appearance, and I had nothing that identified me except my trombone, and according to the cool kids, band was for geeks. But one day in English class, one of the most popular girls in school came up to me and said, “I love it when you wear blue because it brings out the color of your eyes. I love blue too.” Well, you can imagine how I felt after they revived me from fainting. I had found a connection point to the cool kids. I wore blue every day. I started to choose my clothing carefully, and I became one of the best-dressed kids in school. No jeans ever. Only dress pants and nice shirts and sweaters. All my clothes had to be the latest fashion. I even wore shirts with French cuffs and cufflinks, and they were always blue, except for one purple one. I was compelled to make a good impression outwardly. No one had ever noticed me for who I was inwardly, and I didn’t believe they ever would. For sure if they saw the real me they would reject me, and there was no way I was about to put myself through that pain. No one wants to be persecuted for who they are.

Now, let’s make an application to our spiritual lives. In Galatians chapter 6 the Apostle Paul makes this point – don’t use an external image of religious conformity to avoid the pain of rejection.

Galatians 6:12-15 “Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.”

The Judaizers, those Jewish Christians who believed that salvation was only available to those who believed in Jesus and conformed to the Jewish law, were trying to force Gentile Christians to get circumcised. I don’t believe they were doing this because they theologically believed it, but because they socially needed it for their own approval rating. They could remain active in their Jewish sub-culture if they minimized the effect of the cross and kept some of their socially and religiously accepted traditions.

How often are we guilty of this in our lives? We add an external appearance or behavior standard to the message of the cross so that we can stay in our comfort zone and be recognized as superior to others? But let’s be clear about this. The message of the cross is simple and powerful. By the shed blood of Jesus as God’s sacrifice for our sin, all sin is forgiven in the life of any person who repents and receives its cleansing power by faith. At that instant they are made a new creation by the power of the resurrected Christ in them. 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” They are blessed with every spiritual blessing from on high. Ephesians 1:3 – “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” They are made joint heirs of all eternity with all the saints in glory, including you and me. Romans 8:16-17 – “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” Everyone who believes is equally saved!  

There is the very real possibility that within your family or your circle of friends, or even in your church, that you will be rejected and persecuted for living this way. Yet Paul was so convinced of the power of the cross that he said he would never boast about anything else in his life except that. He did not take pride in his pattern of behavior or in his theology and use those things as a means of gaining acceptance with anyone. He simply loved what Jesus did on the cross. He simply loved people who love what Jesus did on the cross. He knew that the power to affect the external had to come from the power of the eternal in them. 

When the Holy Spirit brings the new creation of Christ into a spiritually dead person, His ministry is just beginning. He will bring the external changes necessary to complete His work. He uses all of us to help influence that development, but we must be willing to let the finished work be unique, not cloned. What we do for Christ must be for the glory of the cross, not for the approval of people.

 Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, March 25, 2024

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ must remain the central focus of all that we are and all that we do. That is the conclusion to which Paul attempts to bring the church at Corinth as he opens his first letter to them. You may remember that this church was going through a lot of difficulties, and the first major issue that Paul addresses is the tendency churchgoers have to be people-followers. There were divisions in the church because some people liked Apollos better than Paul or Peter, and some were even taking pride in the fact that they had stayed true to Jesus. They were arguing and bickering about who taught better, who led better, and who gave them the best spiritual benefits.

In addressing these divisions, Paul makes it clear that the following of any human wisdom diminishes the power of the cross in our personal lives and in the life of the church.

1 Corinthians 1:17-18 “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

When the focus and form of our teaching and preaching becomes self-centered rather than Christ-centered, we lose power. Let me illustrate.  Once there was a professional football team that had incredible talent but couldn’t win the big games, primarily because the focus of the team was on an individual rather than the purpose of the team. It was so bad that free agents from other teams were refusing to even consider becoming a part of this team. Then it happened – the team changed its focus from the problems caused by an individual to the goal of accomplishing their purpose, and a huge change occurred. Weaknesses in the team were suddenly made strengths. Free agents from other teams were anxious to become a part of the organization. Franchise players from other teams are begging to be traded to this team. Why? Because the self-centered focus has been replaced with a team spirit based on a unified purpose.

That’s what must happen in the church. People must move from a self-centered, people-following, people-pleasing lifestyle to one of surrendered, sacrificial commitment to Christ and His purpose. When it does, people who are not part of the body of Christ will want to be. They will ask to join us because that is the power of the cross.

We hear a lot today about the progressive church, and one of the characteristics of such churches is a non-offensive presentation of the Gospel. I have a very serious question in that regard: How can the Gospel message of the cross of Christ be non-offensive to an unbeliever when Paul states here in today’s Scripture that the cross is considered foolishness to the unsaved, and in Galatians 5:11 he states that if the Gospel is compromised in any way the cross loses its offense to the unsaved?

So many churches today are avoiding the real issue of people’s lives by speaking only to the perceived or surface issues because they believe it will attract more people and offend fewer people. My friends, I do not wish to purposely offend anyone, but I most definitely will not offend my Lord and Savior by turning the church or the ministry to which He has called me into an effort of human wisdom. I will preach the cross of Jesus Christ, and those who respond will be transformed by the power of God and not by human reason. And they will respond, because the power of God will draw them to the place where their spiritual need can be truly met in Christ. May we all, in the power of the resurrected Christ, boldly tell others about the power of the cross to save people from sin and death. 

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, March 22, 2024

There’s another wonderful truth about the death of Jesus Christ our Savior from Acts chapter two that we read yesterday. It answers to the criticism that Jesus was weak and therefore deserved to die. Peter makes it very clear that it was not because of the weakness of Jesus or His failure that He was put to death, but rather by the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God.

Acts 2:23 “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

This is so very important for several reasons:

1.      Man can take no credit for anything that has been done for our salvation. No man or government can claim any credit or be given any specific blame for the crucifixion of Christ. The religious leaders of Israel cannot now claim any reward from God for having been willing participants in the plan of salvation. The Romans cannot claim any earned favor from God for having done what He wanted. All participants in the crucifixion are called wicked, and all the credit for it goes to God who ordained it to happen. Salvation is God’s plan done God’s way in God’s time.

2.      The crucifixion of Jesus does not cancel the validating of Jesus that came through the miracles, wonders, and signs, but rather is a part of the accrediting process. Only by death could the power and glory of Jesus be seen in a resurrection. We know from yesterday’s devotional that it was the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead, but look carefully again at the phrase, “it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” Itpoints directly to the divinity of Jesus. Eternal life was the nature of Jesus. Death had no power over Him. He went into it knowing He would conquer it. His resurrection was more than the outside force of God working on His dead body to raise it up; His resurrection was the force and power of His own nature coming forth. He is declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection. Romans 1:3-4 says, “regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

How does this apply to us in a practical way today? First, none of us can take any credit for our salvation in any way. God planned it, provided for it, and prepared us to receive it. We have earned nothing. We have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus, and we are to live lives of gratitude and praise for His magnificent grace!

Second, in our salvation Jesus Christ, in the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit, has made our lives into a temple in which He permanently resides, bringing the power of His life to conquer our death. We are alive in Christ because it is now our nature to be alive. When we do the deeds of a dead person we are acting in contradiction to our nature. So many people claim that it is easier to fall back into sin than it is to stay holy. This points to a serious lack of understanding of their salvation. It is always easier to follow our nature, and in Christ our nature is to live, not to die. It should be more natural for us to be holy than to sin, and if it is not, then we need some spiritual refreshment.

Spend time today contemplating the wonder of your salvation, and when you are experiencing the joy of that moment, you will discover that the nature of Jesus Christ is constantly conquering any thoughts of sin so that the resurrection power of Jesus Christ reigns supreme in you. How awesome to know that Jesus lives, and He lives in us, giving us the power to be more than conquerors over sin and death.  

Have a joyous day of victory.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, March 21, 2024

When Peter stood up to preach the first sermon ever delivered under the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, he became the first Gospel evangelist, and his sermon was very simple. It presented to the people the truth that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah based on His death and resurrection.

In these days leading up to Easter and beyond, we are going to look at some of the various New Testament passages on the cross and resurrection, and discover some wonderful truths about God’s indescribable gift of salvation to us. For today, let’s look at one thing from Peter’s sermon in Acts chapter two.

Acts 2:22-24 “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

Peter tells the people that they know who Jesus is because God accredited Him to them by the miracles, wonders, and signs God performed through Him. Jesus was affirmed as the Son of God by the supernatural work of God in His life, and these unsaved people to whom Peter was preaching knew it. They had not yet placed their faith in Him, but in their heads they knew who Jesus was. I find that to be all too true in our world today – people who have head knowledge of the truth, but it has not yet penetrated their heart. They will admit that they know the truth about Jesus, and have seen His work in the lives of His followers, but they deny any need to surrender their own life to Him.

There is one part of a sentence in the last paragraph that should jump out at us with conviction. It is this – “and have seen His work in the lives of His followers.” They may have heard about Jesus, but have they really seen the resurrection power of Jesus at work in the lives of His followers? What a challenge this is to us. Is God continuing to accredit the reality of Jesus to a lost world through His powerful work in us as believers? Oh, we may not all be gifted to do miracles and signs and wonders, but we are all gifted with the Holy Spirit who produces the character of Christ in our lives so that the fruit of the Spirit is visible. When love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control rule our lives, God is affirming the reality of Jesus Christ to a world that does not know Him.

In Ephesians 1, 18-20, Paul the Apostle says, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.” The same power that God exerted when He raised Jesus from the dead is the power that He exerts in us when He raises us from spiritual death to new life in Christ. You see, God is still accrediting Christ to the world through the miracle of a transformed life. How are we doing at showing it and living it? 

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, March 20, 2024

It was their first night. They enthusiastically joined sixty-five other children between the ages of four and fifth grade at the County Fair.  Not a real fair, but real enough to all of them – complete with farmers and fruit and animal noises. There was singing and games and crafts and of course stories, as the children were taught how to harvest the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. I am referring to the Son Harvest County Fair at church for Vacation Bible School.
It was their first night. They enthusiastically joined sixty-five other children between the ages of four and fifth grade at the County Fair.  Not a real fair, but real enough to all of them – complete with farmers and fruit and animal noises. There was singing and games and crafts and of course stories, as the children were taught how to harvest the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. I am referring to the Son Harvest County Fair at church for Vacation Bible School.

One night the class of first-graders that my wife and I are teaching was a little smaller. On Monday we had fifteen of them. Last night we had twelve, and two of them were there for the first time. Both listened intently as Mrs. Van told them the stories of the lost coin and the lost sheep. They could relate to losing things. They knew how to rejoice when Mrs. Van found the candy and the coin she had lost.

When she was done it was my turn to talk to the class. I asked them if they had ever been lost. Several said they had, but that someone had come looking for them. It was perfectly planned by the Holy Spirit. I told them how they were lost from God, and that God loved them so much that He sent someone to look for them. They knew His name – Jesus. They listened intently. God was at work in their hearts.

Then came the time to ask them if there were any of them that would like to come with me to another room and talk some more about what Jesus did to find them. Several said yes. Both first timers were in the group that followed me and two assistants to a rare location in our church – an empty room. We sat with legs crossed on the floor. I needed help to get up when we were done. I didn’t care how much it hurt because there were children hungry to hear how to be found by Jesus.

When the time came I asked each of them personally whether they were sinners. Each one said yes. I asked each one individually if they had ever asked Jesus to forgive them for their sin. Two of them said they had. I rejoiced with them for a moment and explained that they were permanently the children of God. They smiled. I was bursting inside. There were three that said they had never talked to God about forgiveness. One by one I asked each of them if they wanted Jesus to find them tonight and be forgiven for their sin. They all said yes!  Two of them were the two first timers.

Hallelujah!  Can you hear the angels?

Luke 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” 

We prayed, and they repeated the prayer. One little girl really impacted my heart, because she prayed with such enthusiasm and meaning. It was the new girl to the class. It was possibly her first time ever exposed to the gospel, and she responded to God’s incredible offer of forgiveness.

I hope I never ever ever get bored or tired with the presentation of forgiveness that is available through Jesus Christ! I pray that more often than not I get to be a part of the heavenly rejoicing that takes place when one sinner repents and receives God’s forgiveness in Christ the Lord. I hope there is no amount of discomfort or inconvenience that would ever keep me from doing what Jesus did – seeking the lost so that they might be saved.

I sure hope the same is true of you.

I pray that you know the forgiveness of God. If not, I want you to know Jesus is looking for you, and He has set up a connecting point to meet you. Just go to cross. He’s waiting there to show you His love.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, March 19, 2024

In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Time magazine, the satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter’s magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target.

But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; then Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. Perhaps most remarkable is that those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light. The signals take more than nine hours to reach Earth.

The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. (How many of you just saw a bunny with a drum?) Pioneer 10 has accomplished more than anyone thought possible. It just keeps doing what it was designed to do.

When we consider the reasons we tend to give up and quit in various areas of our lives, we must dig deep enough to reach the primary cause. When we do, we will discover that there is one thing lacking that has caused us to not persevere, and that thing is love. Follow along closely here. We have been designed by God to love. But let’s make sure we are defining love correctly. Love, according to the Designer, is a choice to sacrifice one’s own well-being, preferences, and pleasure for the sake of another. God demonstrated that kind of love to all of us when He sent Jesus to die for us while we were still in our sin (Romans 5:8). Since we have been created in the image of God, and God is love, then the compelling force behind everything we accomplish is love. If we quit before we reached the conclusion, then we really didn’t love what we were doing. We don’t quit on what we really love.

This may sound like an oversimplification to some of you, but in reality it is as deep and complex as it needs to be. We have not persevered because we have not truly loved. We have given up on marriages, friendships, careers, and goals because we chose to pursue our own well-being, preferences, and pleasure rather than those of the person or plan we claimed to have loved. When times got tough we chose to move into self-protection mode. In other words, we chose to love self more than anything. 

If Pioneer 10 had been given the right to choose, it would have had limitless options when it was launched. But the designer programmed only one course. Our Designer programmed into us one true course also, but gave us a choice. When we came to Christ for salvation, we were supposed to have surrendered the right to choose. When the choice was made to follow Jesus, the Designers course was to become our only course. But we have wrongly reserved the right to continue to choose, and that’s why we can’t persevere. That’s why Jesus warned us that we are not worthy to be His disciples if we put our hands to the plow and then look back at other options. We have become the puppets of love for self, and we change our course as often as we change our minds. “Keep your options open” has become the buzzword of Satan that grabs our attention. The bottom line is that we are in love with us, and not truly living in the love of God.

But God has designed us for something much greater, and He has given us an earthly example to follow. Jesus Christ, because of His sincere and undying love for the Father, persevered to the point of shedding His blood to accomplish God’s purpose. In today’s Scripture passage in 2 Thessalonians 3:5, Paul says, “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” 

It is love for God, and the complete trust in God’s love for us that compels us to persevere as Christ did. So the next time you’re considering giving up and quitting on a person, a goal, or on God, check your heart. You’ll probably find that you have lost your first love, and your love for self has become the compelling force that drives your decisions. Fall to your knees and repent and come back to the Designer’s love. He knows how far you will be able to go.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, March 18, 2024

Have you ever started an exercise program with good intentions of reaching a goal, but then quit before reaching the goal? I’ve done it too many times. 

Each of us has areas in our lives where we have been hindered from accomplishing a well-intentioned goal. How we respond to that hindrance is an indication of how strongly we believe in the goal. Ouch! That hurts, doesn’t it? When we reflect on our lives and all the things we failed to finish, we realize that we have convinced ourselves that they really weren’t that significant after all. That’s the only way we can live with ourselves and dampen the guilt and shame we would otherwise feel. At the time we set the goal it was significant, but we allow hindrances and our inability to persevere to redefine the importance of the goal. If we really stop to think about it, we’re not too happy with ourselves for falling into that pattern.

The solution begins with our true beliefs about what is significant. We get emotionally motivated over many things, but how many of them are finished? The difference between goals that are met and goals that are dropped is not found in the significance of the goal or in the deterrents to reaching the goal, but in the heart of each one of us. We can redefine the significance of the goals and we can blame the hindrances that occur, but in the final analysis the real reason we gave up on the goal was because we changed our minds about its importance. We stopped believing in it. If we are going to be persevering people, then we must be consistent in our belief that the goal is worth any effort.

In our Christian walk with Jesus, there are huge hindrances. We are bombarded every day with cultural messages to fix our eyes on personal pleasure, performance, and protection from rejection. The sin of pride easily entangles us. The benefits and urgency of the immediate redefine the significance of the eternal. We are tempted daily to believe that what we can have from the world now is of far greater importance than what we can have from God later. But let the words of the author of Hebrews sink in.

Hebrews 12:1-3 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” 

God has set a goal in front of us. It is waiting at the finish line of life. It is the same goal that Jesus had set before Him. That goal is joy – the joy of being accepted into the presence of our Heavenly Father knowing that we persevered and overcame all obstacles so that our lives would reflect His glory. It is the joy of hearing Him personally and intimately say to us, “Well done. You are a good and faithful servant.”  It is the joy of receiving from the Father the full inheritance prepared for us with all the saints in glory. The Apostle Paul says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) So throw off all of the hindrances and untangle yourself from the sins that have held you back, and run the race with perseverance. Run with all your heart. Don’t give up. Fix your eyes on the finish line where Jesus is waiting to give you your crown of glory. 

Pastor John