LifeLink Devotions for Friday, May 31, 2024

As we continue our study of Wisdom for Living, we come to a subject within the context of financial integrity that requires serious personal evaluation, and it will probably be painful. Over the next few devotionals, we will learn four principles of financial integrity from the writings of King Solomon. I pray that the Holy Spirit will encourage us as followers of Jesus to be completely honest with ourselves about where we may need to make some changes to become people of integrity.

First, we are told that we are not to pursue wealth that comes from dishonest means.

Proverbs 10:2-5  “Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death. The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.”

Proverbs 13:11   “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.”

Proverbs 21:6  “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.”

I don’t believe that this applies to our normal salaries and income from employment, but rather to those other methods we use to make extra money for ourselves. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with making extra money, but how we do it can be wrong. We have all been tempted by those “get-rich-quick” schemes that appeal to the greed of our materialistic nature. They can be so attractive to us that we fail to investigate their legality or even try to determine if they are ethical.

]I remember the pyramid money schemes of the 70’s and early 80’s, when we were told to send twenty dollars to each of five people, and then add our name and the names of twenty more people to a list. We were promised that in 10 days we would receive thousands of dollars in the mail. It worked for the first few people in the pyramid, but then the law caught up with those who originated it and a bunch of people got in deep trouble. Praise God I chose not to be involved. Listen to this wisdom from Prov. 13:11 – “he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.”

There are innumerable marketing schemes out there today to tempt us to elevate riches to a higher priority than integrity. Many of them seem legitimate and may even provide a valuable service or product. But let me ask you to consider two things.

First, how many people have to be paid in the marketing line of this service or product, and how much does it inflate the price? Does it matter to your financial integrity to sell something for more than it’s worth?

Second, how much has the pursuit of riches influenced your decision to make extra money, and is it competing with your trust in Jesus to provide for you?

Serious questions to consider today.  We will give you more food for thought next time.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, May 30, 2024

Yesterday we laid out six wisdom principles to develop a successful work ethic which will result in financial security. Today we look at the other side of that coin and discover what makes for failure from the story of a man who owned a vineyard.

Proverbs 24:30-34  “I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest- and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.”

Here are five characteristics of financial failure:

1.      Laziness – “I went past the field of the sluggard”

2.      Poor decision-making ability – “past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment;”

3.      Procrastination – no discipline to do a job when it needs to be done – “thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.”

4.      A progressive downward spiral into pleasing self by resting whenever it is convenient for him – “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest”

5.      Denial – being oblivious to the consequences and taking no personal responsibility for causing them – “and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.”

Maybe you can relate to one or more of these characteristics in your own life right now. Their presence in your life may be the cause of your financial worries. Go back to yesterday’s devotional and review the six principles of financial security, and make some changes. Put an end to a poor work ethic and bring an end to your insecurity. You will be glad you did.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Maybe you have heard the adage, “Give a person a fish, and feed him for a day: teach a person to fish, and feed him for a lifetime.”  That bit of wisdom has one unstated implication that is very important – the person who is taught to fish needs to take action and catch fish to be fed. Teaching doesn’t feed him. Fishing doesn’t even feed him. Catching feeds him. Any person will starve on good intentions. What we need is production. We need fish in the fry pan.

Today and tomorrow we will compare two passages of Wisdom Scripture. They describe two different people. Both have the same opportunity for success. Both have been provided a means of making a living – one has sheep and the other has grapevines. One will make it, one will not. Why does one succeed and the other fail? There are principles that determine who does and who does not have some degree of financial security. Today, let’s look at the principles of financial security found in Proverbs 27:23-27.

“Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations. When the hay is removed and new growth appears and the grass from the hills is gathered in, the lambs will provide you with clothing, and the goats with the price of a field. You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed you and your family and to nourish your servant girls.”

Principles for Financial Security

1.      Be diligent to take care of what you already have: make the most of what you have been given. Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;

2.      Recognize the temporary nature of wealth: without discipline and proper management it will not last. for riches do not endure forever,

3.      Do not assume that past successes guarantee future success without increased knowledge and effort. and a crown is not secure for all generations

4.      Do your work in a timely and energetic way, applying yourself wholeheartedly until the task is completed. When the hay is removed and new growth appears and the grass from the hills is gathered in,

5.      Use your income to provide for your basic needs first. the lambs will provide you with clothing…You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed you and your family and to nourish your servant girls.

6.      Use your increase to improve your financial security. and the goats with the price of a field.

Let’s all take some quality time today to reflect on our attitudes towards work, and let the Holy Spirit teach us. But don’t stop there. Put it into action! You’ll feed yourself for a lifetime.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, May 28,2024

Yesterday we taught the Divine eternal principle that life is lived to it’s fullest when we give it all away. God’s principle of life is that after death, multiplication occurs. But what if we are looking for material and financial blessing?

That brings us to what Solomon says in Proverbs 11:24-28. “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell. Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.”

Some would like us to believe that we can use this principle to make ourselves wealthier. Well, in God’s system, principles are only valid when proper motives are in place. If we attempt to use God’s principles for personal gain, we will lose. We must re-evaluate our primary motives and life principles, because the pursuit of wealth should never be what we are seeking from this life. But if our motive for giving away resources is totally an act of thanksgiving and humble service to the King, so that God is honored and God’s kingdom receives all the benefit, then there is a divine principle at work that says we will be abundantly blessed. Life is experienced to the fullest when it is given away.

So when we talk about generosity, we are talking about more than just money. We who have been loved by God with the grace of salvation, and who in turn love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, have an uncontrollable desire to give life away, just as Jesus gave His away for us. Generosity is not an action; it is an attitude that results in action. Test your spirit today and see if the dynamic principle of generosity is active. If it is, act on it! If it isn’t, what needs to be given away so you can experience it?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, May 27, 2024

 Solomon understood a dynamic principle of God’s kingdom – life is experienced to the fullest when it is given away.

This principle applies to every area of our lives, and yes, even to life itself. Just think of the truths presented in Scripture to support this principle:

       Acts 20:24 – Paul says, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”

       Philippians 3:7 – Paul says, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.”

Mark 10:28 – Peter said to Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you!”

Luke 9:23 – Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

All these examples, and many more like them from Scripture, give us a clear statement that in God’s eternal plan for the fulfillment of man’s existence, there must be death for real life to occur. In John 12:23-25, Jesus said,  “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  

When we finally reach the point of admitting that the life we are trying to attain is unattainable in our own strength and by our own efforts, and we choose to die to that pursuit of what the world calls life, we will cry out to the God who created all life and who is able to provide true life abundantly, and He will give it to us through His Son Jesus Christ!

When we have received that incredible and generous gift of forgiveness and eternal life, we will be filled with the Holy Spirit’s power and motivation to apply the “give it away” principle to every area of our lives. If we are looking for joy, then we must give joy away. If we are looking for peace, then be a peacemaker. If we are looking for security, then we must give away our trust in all the world offers as security and trust God alone. I challenge you to live by this principle in all areas of your life and discover the fullness that God brings that goes beyond my explanation. I have never felt better about life and who I am than when I am giving myself away for the sake of another person. You will feel the same fulfillment.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, May 24, 2024

If you want to ruin a relationship, start talking about how to give more money to the Lord. Finances are one of the biggest reasons for broken relationships. So if we are going to be people of wisdom, we’d better come to a mutual understanding of what God says about money.

Proverbs 23:4-5 “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”

Whenever the church of Jesus Christ takes up a discussion on money and finances there is the potential for great disagreement and conflict. If the church were to be compared to a car, then finances would be the potholes in the road waiting to throw the car’s steering out of alignment. Simple conversations between Christians can quickly become overheated when either the giving or the spending of money is the topic. It should not be so, but there are two potholes we have hit that have ruined our alignment with God’s values.

1.      Money has captured our affections. Let’s be realistic – we love money. We love the status it brings us when we have it. We have determined that the value of who we are as a person is directly related to the amount of money we have and are able to spend. We have given money the power to determine our personal worth. We also love the things money can provide for us, because we have also given possessions the power to determine our personal worth. We have adopted the secular standards of success by believing that the more we have and are able to manage the more successful we are. Money has captured our affections because we believe that God alone cannot fulfill our lives and give us a total sense of worth and purpose. That’s a big pothole we hit, and we need an alignment!

2.      Our Biblical understanding of giving and our obedience to it has become a pride issue for us. We try to convince others in the church to give the way we give. We even use the guidelines we believe in to justify the personal use of our funds. Whether we believe in tithing, or proportional giving, or generous giving, or sacrificial giving, or cheerful giving is not the real issue. What matters most is that we believe that all that we have is God’s and is available for His use for His glory at any time. There should never be a discussion in our minds about what is God’s and what is mine. It is all God’s, and we are simply the stewards, or managers, of His resources. Whatever we believe about the Biblical guidelines for purposeful, planned giving to the church, there should be an underlying philosophy that guides the management of our money, and it is this: I will honor the owner with every decision that involves the use of His resources. Proverbs 3:9-10 says, “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”

I think we will stop there for today, because hitting two potholes has caused a major steering problem and I’m afraid that I won’t be able to safely drive until I get an alignment. So, as soon as I’m done here, I’ll make a call to the owner of Priority Alignment and let the head mechanic, the Holy Spirit, make any necessary adjustments. I’ll bet if you called, He’d have time to align you as well.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, May 23, 2024

I want to share a story that illustrates the wisdom principle we discovered yesterday about being compassionate.

Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the clinic.

 One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. “Why, he’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old,” I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw. Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, “Good evening. I’ve come to see if you’ve a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no bus ‘til morning.”

He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no success, no one seemed to have a room. “I guess it’s my face. I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments…”

For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: “I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning.”

I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us. “No thank you. I have plenty.” And he held up a brown paper bag.

When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn’t take a long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.

He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going.

At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children’s room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded, and the little man was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, “Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won’t put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair.” He paused a moment and then added, “Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don’t seem to mind.”

I told him he was welcome to come again. And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they’d be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.

 In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden. Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious.

When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. “Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!”

Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God.

Recently I was visiting a friend, who has a greenhouse. As she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, “If this were my plant, I’d put it in the loveliest container I had!”

My friend changed my mind. “I ran short of pots,” she explained, and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn’t mind starting out in this old pail. It’s just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden.”

She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven. “Here’s an especially beautiful one,” God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman. “He won’t mind starting in this small body.”

All this happened long ago—and now, in God’s garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7b)

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, May 22, 2024

For 25 years I was friends with a chaplain at a local hospital. I remember one instance when the chaplain came into the room of a patient I was visiting. This was three years after he had retired. I thought to myself, “Here is a man who understands the heart of God for people in need and is available at any time to reach out a warm and loving hand to help them.” In all my years of knowing him and observing him I never saw him put his own needs ahead of the needs of others, and I never heard from anyone a discouraging word about his ministry. He is a master of great relationship because he puts others ahead of himself. 

If we are going to be people of great relationships, that must be true of us as well. Here’s today’s relationship wisdom – With the compassion of Christ put the needs of others ahead of your own.

Prov. 24:11-12  “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?”

God is absolutely and unmistakenly aware of every need of every person. He is also just as aware of whether we are informed about the need. We cannot play the ignorance card with God. We cannot pretend to not have heard about the need. There is nothing that justifies our avoidance of involvement in meeting the need. There is no priority in our lives that can be argued into first place when we know there is a hurting person that we can touch with God’s grace and love.

Think about this carefully: any decision on our part to do anything for self, when we know there is another person in need and we have the ability and opportunity to get involved in meeting that need, is seen and felt by God, and will not go unnoticed or unpunished. “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.” (Prov. 21:13)

The older I get and the longer I minister, the more I realize that it is not how much I know or how well I preach or how great I administrate and lead that matters most to people – it is how much I care! A loving and serving heart is the single most important asset to great relationships.

Look around, if you dare, there are hurting people everywhere;

All they want is someone to care, a person to share,

Their burdens to bear, who is always there.

Such people are rare, be one, if you dare.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, May 21, 2024

 One of the hardest things we face in our relationships with others is when they give us advice about who can be our friend and who we should stay away from. It seems to hit at the very core of who we believe we are, because it seems as if they are saying, “You’re not perceptive enough to see what this will do to you so I need to tell you.” Most of us don’t like being told we need help in any area of our lives, and especially in the area of choosing our friends. This is an incredible area of tension between parents and teenagers.

But let’s be honest – we are blinded to the dangers of certain people’s influence in our lives because of a self-centered attitude we have in the relationship: we focus only on the value and pleasure they bring to us in a purely fleshly, worldly, sensual, and materialistic way. It may even be that they have an exterior resemblance to a spiritually minded person, and they seem to be trying hard to do the right thing. Don’t be suckered. They are only playing a game based on their own insecurities and desire to find value in what you give them. Their hearts are plotting personal gain and pleasure, not true self-sacrificing love. That’s our word of relationship wisdom for today, found in  Prov. 24:1-2.

“Do not envy wicked men, do not desire their company; for their hearts plot violence, and their lips talk about making trouble.”  

We all have a desire to be a part of something bigger than we are as individuals. The world and its cronies seem to have the most appealing opportunities. That’s because the basic need of our heart is for relational acceptance that offers a meaningful existence.  The world thinks the local bar is the place that provides that for everyone. Oh, it does offer relational acceptance, but what about the meaningful existence part. One huge aspect of a meaningful existence is security, and where is that found in what the world offers? Only Jesus Christ can provide a truly meaningful, fulfilling, and abundant existence. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly (or to the fullest).

We have been looking in the wrong places and looking to the wrong people for our place and purpose. We have also been the wrong kind of people to those who are still looking as well. When Jesus provides us with the full abundance of life through His unconditional love and acceptance and empowerment, shouldn’t that make us who know Him the core group of a movement in the world that attracts people looking to be a part of something bigger than they are? Yes it should. But we are still stuck in the flesh looking for additional acceptance and approval, and we are being dragged back into the mud of mediocrity rather than standing on the Rock of real relationship.

 The choices we make about who we allow to have an influence in our lives are probably the single most important choices we ever make. Listen to what God’s Word says about it:

1 Corinthians 15:33 – “Bad company corrupts good character.”

Exodus 23:2 – “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.”

 Psalm 1:1 – “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.”

Proverbs 4:14 – “Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men.”

 2 Corinthians 6:14 – “Do not be yolked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?”

Now remember, we are not talking about separation from all sinners so that we never have contact with them. We must reach out to them in Christ’s love and draw the to Jesus for salvation. What we must do is separate ourselves from their influence. Think of it this way: if you are in a relationship of any kind with an unsaved person in which the major flow of influence moves from them to you, put up some boundaries quick. You will be dragged down. When you are strong enough to take a stand and the major flow of influence moves from you to them, then go for it and win them to Jesus. That will make for a great relationship!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, May 20, 2024

What expectations do you have for what your children will be when they grow up? That’s an important question. But here’s an even more important one. How are you seeking to control their lives so they meet your expectations?

I see so many parents micro-managing their children’s lives to accomplish their own personal goals in life, and I believe that’s why we see so many frustrated and rebellious children. But there is a solution, and it’s found in Proverbs 22:6, which says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” 

This verse gives us our third wisdom principle for parenting. The responsibility of a parent is to train the child to become the fullness of whom God created them to be, not to become what we wish they would be.

It is vital that we understand the phrase “in the way he should go” in today’s verse. It does not mean that we as parents get to determine what they will be when they grow up. The Hebrew expression means to train them “according to their natural bent.” It is the wonderful privilege of a parent to observe the natural strengths and abilities of their child and then train them, within the context of God’s righteousness, to become all that God created them to be. So many parents make the mistake of imposing their desires on their children, and the children go through life rebelling because inside they know the real person God created has not been allowed to bloom.  It would be very unwise to expect our children to pursue our goals for them when God made them for a different purpose. It is very wise of our children to pursue the fullness of what God made them to be.

We will experience ultimate joy when we see our children fulfilling God’s purpose for their lives. Here’s how King Solomon sees it.

Prov. 23:24-25  “The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him. May your father and mother be glad; may she who gave you birth rejoice!”

Train your children in God’s righteousness, but let God show them His purpose for their lives. That’s wise parenting.

Pastor John