When I was in high school I had a job at a grocery store. As I was working to fill the cheese case, I had gone to the basement of the store to retrieve the items I needed from the walk-in cooler. I knew that the door latch had recently broken, but I was in my usual hurry and I accidentally shut the door behind me, locking myself inside. I started yelling for help. I yelled and shivered for about 45 minutes before someone found me. I was embarrassed and ashamed.
As I read the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah I cannot help but think of Abraham’s wife Sarah. I imagine she cried “HELP!” many times as she struggled with her barrenness. Even though she had the promise of God to Abraham that they would have a son, time kept ticking away, and there wasn’t much of it left. But as she cries out, the Lord answers her with these incredible words, re-written from the original according to my understanding of what God is saying –
“I am your Maker, and I am your husband. I am the Lord Almighty, and I am all you need. I have all things under control, and no matter how lost you feel in the darkness of your despair, I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 54:5)
I am overwhelmed with this thought – “Whatever my need, God is exactly what I need at that time.”
If I am lonely, He is my love.
If I am struggling, He is my strength.
If I am needy, He is my nurturer.
If I am discouraged, He is my deliverer.
If I am poor, He is my provider.
God is exactly what I need at all times.
He made me. He loves me. He has a purpose for me. He provides for me. He never leaves me. He never fails.
LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, November 27, 2025
Happy Thanksgiving
I wonder how long it will be today before I choose to say something that isn’t thankful?
“The potatoes are lumpy.”
“The turkey is dry.”
”My football team is losing.”
I hope today, and every day, can be filled with more thanksgiving. After all, it’s commanded.
Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
The key to thanksgiving is found in that verse. We can give thanks to the Father through Jesus Christ. In other words, because we have our identity in Him, not in the quality of the food, the family, the friends, or the football, we can be constantly thankful. When we live life through the perspective of Jesus we have sufficient reason to be thankful.
LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, November 26, 2025
When I rose this morning I was still thinking about the wonder of my justification through Jesus Christ. Then I read the last verse of Isaiah 53, and in a fresh way an old truth jumped out at me. Isaiah 53:12 “…because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” Jesus was numbered with the transgressors – He became one of us!
Jesus, as God, became one of us so He could bear our sins and make intercession for us to the Father.
That got me to thinking about intercession – you know – when we go to God the Father and pray for someone else for their benefit. As I was contemplating that from the perspective of Jesus making intercession for us, the Lord put a clear thought in my mind. “True intercession requires total identification.”
This was the case with Jesus, who now sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes with Him on our behalf. Romans 8:34 says, “Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” That is amazing – Jesus constantly talks to the Father on our behalf. In fact, the apostle John in First John 2:1-2 says Jesus is our advocate, defending us to the Father even when we sin.
But we must acknowledge that He is qualified to do that because He first totally identified with us in every way. Take the time to read and absorb these precious truths from the book of Hebrews that describe how Jesus identifies with us.
“For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:17-18)
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Jesus is able to intercede for us because He identifies with us. He identified with our sin. He identifies with our suffering. He identifies with our needs. He identifies with our circumstances and experiences. Therefore He can intercede on our behalf to the Father. He does this through His indwelling Holy Spirit. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” (Romans 8:26-27)
Just think, our intercessor not only knows us completely, but also knows the heart and mind of God completely. He identifies with both, which makes Him the perfect intercessor and able to meet our every need.
Besides the huge blessing I have received from the truth of Jesus as my intercessor, there’s a huge challenge in this for me when it comes to how I pray for others. Can I really say I am interceding to the Father on behalf of someone if I have not first identified with the person for whom I am praying? Can I truly be interceding if I do not fully, as much as is humanly possible, identify with the Father’s heart for that person? How would my prayer life be changed if I really identified with others when I promised to pray for them?
When I was on one of my trips to the Philippines fourteen years ago, my dear friend Glenn and I developed a little joke between us. It was actually more than a joke – it was a loving admonition. It involved the use of one word. In our conversations with each other or with other people, when we would hear any form of rationalization or defense of behavior, we would simply look at each other and say, “justification.”
I am amazed at how many times we had to say that to each other. I am embarrassed to admit how many times in any given day I attempt to justify my behavior or my choices. I think you can agree with me that we have become expert justifiers of self.
For example, I wonder how many hunters shoot at deer after sunset? I know I have heard it happen around me many times. I wonder how they would attempt to defend that action if confronted by a game warden.
How much justification of materialism will take place between now and Christmas? How much justification of gluttony will take place on Thursday? How much justification of setting aside our personal quiet time with our Lord because we are so busy is going on right now?
Justification simply means “to declare innocence.” The foundation for justification is laid out in the Old Testament law, where God declares that He will never punish the innocent or let the guilty off the hook. Exodus 23:7 says, “Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.” When King Solomon dedicated the temple he had built for the Lord, he reviewed the laws that would be upheld in the spiritually revived nation. “Declare the innocent not guilty, and so establish his innocence.” (1 Kings 8:31-32)
Justification is the declaration of innocence. But notice that in the Old Testament law, only the truly innocent were declared innocent. Justification was simply the acknowledgment of what was already true.
In contrast to that, consider the justification that was provided by Jesus Christ through His death on the cross. Isaiah 53:11 “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.” God has declared the guilty to be innocent! The Righteous Servant has born the iniquities of the unrighteous sinner. The innocent One has taken the punishment of the guilty.
But the guilty are not justified automatically. It is only by faith. The guilty cannot be declared innocent by earning it through obedience to the law. Galatians 2:16 says, ”A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.” The law cannot declare the guilty to be innocent nor can it declare the innocent to be guilty.
But what the law does do is lead us to faith in Jesus Christ’s work on the cross so that He can declare us to be innocent. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 3:24, “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” It is by faith alone in the finished work of Christ that we are justified. Paul specifically states this in Romans 5 where we read, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”
How marvelous! How magnificent! How incredible! Jesus the Innocent One bore the sins of all the guilty, and those who have faith in Him are eternally declared innocent. Oh the splendor of justification!
Fourteen years ago I discovered some significant truths from Isaiah 53:11. “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.”
I rose from bed that day at 4:20 A.M. to prepare for a day of deer hunting. I was in the car on the way to my tree stand at 5:00. When I got to within six miles of the hunting land, it started to snow. It snowed hard, and it was wet. I put on all of my hunting clothes and started walking the 500 yards through the swamp and forest to my stand. The snow was so heavy that the flashlight did nothing but reflect back into my eyes, so I had to go by memory, which isn’t so good. Somewhere in the thicket I took a wrong turn and ended up looking for my stand for over 20 minutes. I didn’t really make any progress until I waited for a little of the natural light to appear. When I got there I was wet and sweaty; not a good combination when the plan is to spend hours sitting still in a tree.
As the snow continued to fall everything became white. Deer hunters love the snow, and I’m no different. It makes the deer so much easier to see, and I saw deer. I didn’t shoot any of them, making the decision to let each one grow up a little more, but it was so great to see them and watch their movements as they related to each other during this breeding season. Up until this time I hadn’t seen a deer, but when everything was white I was able to see what I was pursuing.
As I sat in the tree that day I pondered the truths that had been revealed to me:
I thought about how long we wander around in the thickets of our circumstances looking for the tree from which we will have a better vantage point on life and be able to accomplish our goals. We think we know the way, but we constantly make the wrong turns and get lost.
We get angry that we can’t find our way because the snow keeps blinding us with the reflection of our own light. We are mad at it because it increases the awareness of our lost condition.
When we return to the place where we made the wrong turn, God is there waiting to reveal His way to us, and when we take it, we cease to be lost. We get to use His light, not ours, and that brings us to life.
When we let the snow cover everything in us and around us, we finally get to see what we’ve been looking for. The pursuit of our heart becomes obvious.
Simple thoughts, but I trust the Lord will use them to help you understand how great it is to know that our sins are forgiven, and through the blood of Jesus Christ we have been washed from all unrighteousness and are now whiter than snow. We now can see our true purpose.
Isaiah 53:7-8a “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.”
How could He do that? He was right; they were wrong. It was injustice to the max. He was falsely accused and unjustly abused. He was tortured without truth. Yet not once did He defend Himself, with words or with actions. How could He do that?
In my flesh, I can’t do what Jesus did. My first response to criticism is self-protection. My love for self motivates my response to threats against my value and worth. My pride protects what I believe are my rights. My words and my actions are defense mechanisms to justify my behavior. It appears that I would rather see others suffer from the expression of my pride than to experience any personal pain that might be caused by being humble. How foolish I am, for ultimately the pain I am seeking to avoid is magnified many times over by my pride.
In my spirit, under the influence of God’s Spirit, I have discovered how Jesus could do what He did. It is a simple answer, but oh so difficult to actually put into practice. The answer is found in Hebrews 12:2, which says, “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.”
Jesus understood and accepted the higher purpose of what was happening. He did not have his heart focused on the immediate, but the eternal. That is how He could endure the opposition of sinful men and scorn the shame of the cross – He saw the joy and glory that was to come, and He chose it as His own.
I know that my fleshly response to criticism and correction is completely driven by my focus on the immediate need for approval and acceptance. I am wrong to believe they cannot be granted if I am found guilty. I know that my pride pushes me to protect my rights because I have given them far too much value in determining my worth. I know my love for self causes me to do anything I can to avoid pain in the present because my heart is fixed on happiness rather than joy. I know that this is all true of me, and would destroy me were it not for the grace of God in me.
But praise God my flesh does not control me. My eyes are fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith, who was oppressed and afflicted unjustly, and was led away by oppression and judgment to suffer the shame of the cross. How could He do it? Because He saw me in my sin, and His love for me overcame any obstacle to saving me. He was completely focused on the higher purpose.
That will be my goal today and every day – to stay focused on God’s higher purpose. No more living for the immediate. No more unbelief in the joy of eternity which is manifested in the avoidance of pain today. No more self-protection by resisting oppression. No more defense mechanisms against injustice. No more exaltation of my rights. There will only be the quiet response of Jesus that shows the world that my eyes are fixed on eternal joy for which I am completely qualified in Christ. And as the world observes a life so lived, may they ask, “How can he do that?”
LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, November 20, 2025
Many years ago, after a mission service, the preacher of the evening was hurrying away to catch a late train back to his home. He had just three minutes to get through the station when he heard a man calling out to him as he ran after him.
“Oh, sir,” he said breathlessly as he came up, “can you help me? I am very anxious about my salvation.”
“Well,” replied the preacher, “my train is just here, and it is the last one; but look up Isaiah 53:6. Go in at the first ‘all’ and go out at the last ‘all.’ Good night.”
The man stood staring after him until he had disappeared into the station and then he muttered, “Go in at the first ‘all’ and go out at the last ‘all.’ What does he mean?”
When he arrived home he took down his Bible and turning to Isaiah 53:6 read these words, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
“Go in at the first ‘all,’ ” he repeated. “ ‘All we like sheep have gone astray.’ I am to go in with that ‘all.’ Yes, I see. It means that I am one of those who have gone astray. I am one who has turned to my own way. I am one who is responsible for my own sin.I am one who deserves to be punished for my sin.”
“And go out with the last ‘all.’ ‘The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ I see. God has chosen to punish Jesus Christ for my sin. Yes, I am to go out free with those whose iniquity has been laid on Christ.”
At last he realized his individual lost condition and his individual redemption available through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
“O praise the One who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead!”
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow!
LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, November 19, 2025
There can be no true understanding of God’s grace without a deep and heart-breaking recognition of our sin. A book I read years ago that was written by an acquaintance from my distant past has helped me see this connection between grace and sin. The book is entitled The Great Work of the Gospel: How We Experience God’s Grace. In the introduction, the author reviews the story of King David’s sin, he takes us through David’s confession in Psalm 51.
“Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. 3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. 5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. (New Living Translation)
Then he says this on pages 17-18 of the book:
“Nathan’s probing…forced David to consider his life before God. This is the prerequisite work of grace. We must own up to our real guilt. David wept and fasted before the Lord. David discovered what the old preachers called “the exceeding sinfulness of sin” and acknowledged the justice of God’s judgment.”
We would do well to change our attitude towards sin. We will never understand the depths of grace, which in turn will keep us from knowing the depths of God’s love, if we continue to love ourselves so much that we deny the horror of our sin before a holy God. We have adapted to a culture of cover-ups. We hide our sin. We underestimate its repulsiveness to God. We justify its presence in our lives because we think we need the immediate rewards. We choose to ignore the consequences, which far outweigh any of the perceived benefits.
With that in mind, read today’s Scripture verse in Isaiah 53:5. “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.”
Consider the cost of God’s judgment against sin. Consider the unworthiness of the Savior to be judged, but His willingness to suffer the wrath of God on our behalf. Consider carefully the consequences of sin, and the amazing grace that God showed to us because of His love for us. Nothing in us was worthy of that love, and until we come face to face with the desperateness of our condition, we will never truly know the grace of God nor will we be able live in the love of Jesus Christ.
We live in an “I win, you lose” world. Ever since the fall of man into sin in the Garden of Eden human nature has been corrupted with an exaggeration of self, resulting in a minimizing of others. Even when things go wrong for us, we defend our own positions by blaming others for what went wrong.
Even secular business leaders understand this flaw in human nature. While they may not understand it’s cause, they know how to define its existence. Luke Iorio is the CEO of the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). Recently, in a response to a blog about the blame game we play, he said, “ Individuals caught up in the blame game…tend to put themselves first and give little credit to others…We want to look good, look smart, look competent and that can come at the sacrifice of taking responsibility.”
Whether we consciously think about it or not, we all have determined our own criteria for measuring our personal value and worth. Some use the standard of financial success. Others choose professional status. Still others claim that job performance determines worth. Far too many choose to accept failure in all of the above areas and turn to other self-declared measures of human value, like sex, or they give up completely and get lost in a world of drugs and alcohol to minimize the pain of failure.
One thing is true of all of these people – when confronted with any failure, they immediately seek to protect whatever level of value they claim for themselves by transferring blame to someone else. If the project fails, then it was the project’s fault, but not mine. If the relationship fails, it must be something the other person did. If my position is threatened, it must be the fault of the people in charge for not truly understanding my worth and for making a bad decision. Oh how quickly the blame game starts.
It was no different in Jesus’ day. The religious leaders were threatened by the truth Jesus proclaimed. Their comfort zones became uncomfortable. They had built their reputations using religion as an expression of pride through self-advancement and self-valuation, yet it was all declared unrighteous by the Son of God.
So what did they do? They did what we do. As Isaiah 53:4 says, “…yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted.” They sought to find fault with Him. They conspired to produce falsified testimony that would have Him declared a heretic and sentenced to death. They shifted the blame to the blameless in an attempt to justify His death. They even went so far as to say that His punishment was justly imposed by God because of His sin. All this in an attempt to solidify their own positions and worth. They played the blame game to perfection.
Unfortunately, the result of the blame game is always the same – self-destruction. Because God is righteous and just, the blame always settles on the guilty. Someday, somewhere, somehow, whether in this life or for certain in eternity, the truth will be revealed and the price will be paid – double the price for the original sin if responsibility for the sin has been transferred to another.
In this life, people who play the blame game hoping to benefit from it actually suffer from it. But the bigger issue is what will happen before the throne of God when the truth about our lives is declared. We do not serve Jesus nor do we live like Jesus for the earthly benefits: we do so because we love Him and have found our value completely from Him. We are healed from the blame game, because the blame has already been paid for.
So take responsibility for your actions; they do not determine your worth. Your worth and value were bought and paid for on the cross when Jesus died for your sins. Accept His forgiveness and be healed.
I want you to read a testimony that was shared by a young woman in church several years ago. This is why Jesus died!
“In my past, I viewed God’s salvation much differently than I do now. Before, I saw this salvation as simply a nice thing to have. It was like a person who owned a car, the car being their “salvation”. A car makes a person’s life easier and more comfortable; people are capable of finding a taxi or walking or riding their bike to work/school, etc. A car only makes all of that easier. It’s not vital to the person’s existence, but it makes their life much easier. This is the way that I viewed salvation. Growing up, my parents did their best to make sure I went to church and that I had Christian friends so that I would be able to experience God’s love the way that they had. I lived a nice life growing up under these standards, but I did not think that having Jesus in my life was vital. This is when I discovered that the world is a fun place to explore, and I indulged myself in fun things of the world. I saw no harm in any of it, as I was still exceling at school and work.
“Exactly when I thought I had my whole future under control is when everything seemed to fall apart. I did not understand at the time that this was because I am not in control of my life; God has a very specific plan for me. Part of his plan is that I surrender my whole self to Him. This last year I tried to make Jesus an addition to what I could already do for myself. I was partaking in worldly pleasures to make myself “happy” and then I would occasionally go to church to “make God happy” as well.
“It wasn’t until that day in March that I realized Jesus was knocking on the door of my heart asking me “do you want to get well?” I realized it on this day because this is when I found out that I was pregnant. When I found out, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I had not factored this into my future that I had such control over before, and certainly this was not a situation I had ever pictured myself in before. Not only was I shocked, but being that I am single I hadn’t felt more alone in my whole life. And so Jesus knocked on the door of my heart again and asked me “do you want to get well? If so, I have a gift for you!”
“For the first time in my life, Jesus revealed himself to me in a way he never had before. He was reaching out to me, a meek sinner who had never given him the time of day before. He showed me that even though I had sinned against him, He could turn it into something beautiful. All I had to do was take one step towards him and he came running the rest of the way to me. Jesus took my sins that I was holding onto and showed me grace. I realized that having the salvation of Jesus Christ is not a good addition to your life – it is vital to your existence. My life means nothing without Jesus as the center.
“Ever since I surrendered my future and my whole being to Jesus, my relationship with Him has grown so much. Every day I marvel at His grace that he has given to me. He has never been so evident in my life before and I’m amazed at the blessings he has given to me. I thank Him every day for this church and the meaningful relationships I am building. And now, I’m carrying a lifetime reminder of His grace that made me well when everything was falling apart.”
Isaiah 53:4 “Surely He took our infirmities and carried our sorrows…”
LifeLink 