LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, May 6, 2025

I remember a time when the oldest of my grandchildren were still very young and afraid to climb up into the playhouse we had for them in the back yard. No matter how many times I would stand behind them and encourage them to “go to the top”, they just wouldn’t climb the ladder. Then it dawned on me to climb up first and invite them to come up to where I was. It worked! With my hand extended and a simple “Come on up here,” they climbed right up.

We enjoy getting invitations. It seems like we interpret them as a means of escape from the drudgery of our routine lives. But not all invitations are accepted.

Isaiah reminds us of the invitation the Lord offers to anyone and everyone who wants to “come on up here” in chapter one verse eighteen.

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Jesus invites us to come together with him and reason with Him so that we can be forgiven of our sins. The Hebrew word for “reason” has several meanings. It means,

• to prove – come together with God and let Him prove to you who He is and what He says
• decide – God always gives you the choice to believe or not
• judge – He wants everyone to know He is the ultimate Judge and will condemn all sin
• rebuke – He rebukes all sin and offers an alternative of righteousness
• correct – He will provide the power of His Holy Spirit to correct all our sin issues
• be right – He will make us right

The invitation God extends is for the forgiveness of sins and the removal of shame. That’s what Jesus paid for on the cross. Hebrews tells us that, in an act of enormous courage and defiance, Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2) and then adds, significantly, that he is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and ascension—the going down and coming up of the Son of God—open the way not only for the forgiveness of our sins, but also for the lifting of our shame. For these are ingredients in the accepting grace of God and in the invitation to union with God’s Son.

What a marvelous invitation from Jesus – the forgiveness of sins and the abolishment of shame. No matter how dark the stain of sin, the blood of Jesus Christ makes us white as snow.

For those who have already said yes to His invitation, there is still a responsibility. We are now the ones who stand at the cross with the resurrected Jesus and extend the invitation to others. We do not walk through life telling people to go to the cross: we walk with them and invite them to come with us to the cross. Today, and every day, become the living invitation others need to experience the grace of God. They are looking for what we have.

Pastor John