LifeLink Devotional

Friday, December 6, 2019

According to a story in the publication Christian Reader, a little church in the country had a problem with the reading of the liturgy one Sunday. The person who put together the church bulletin every week frequently used technology to make the work easier. She would take computer shortcuts when possible using the “global search” feature. One week, technology backfired when she commanded the computer to change the name of the Scripture reader from “Will” to “Murray.” The reader’s name came out fine, but the “global search” did its job a little too thoroughly: in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done in earth” became “Thy Murray be done in earth”!

There is a lesson in that mistake that is deeper than the obvious ones about proofreading and not taking shortcuts.  Can my name be associated with the will of God? When people say my name, do they think of Jesus Christ? When people observe my behavior, do they see the grace and holiness of God? Does my name really mean anything?

Isaiah 9:6 …and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

So far, in just three short prophecies in the book of Isaiah, the coming Messiah has been given five specific names and one intimated name. He will be called Immanuel, or God with us. He will be the great light that shines in the darkness. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The names of the Messiah mean something.

• Immanuel – God Himself, with no degree of diminished Deity, becomes completely human to relate to us and redeem us.
• The Light of the World – showing people the way out of the darkness of sin and into the eternal glory of the Father
• Wonderful Counselor – Jesus is an extraordinary consultant. That’s what it literally means. No matter what is going on in our lives, Jesus not only knows it, but He understands it because He pre-approved it for our good and for His glory. He will help us to understand and accept it as a gift of His love if we will seek His wisdom and not live according to our own understanding. (See Proverbs 3:5-6).
• Mighty God – He is able to manage and/or conquer anything in our lives. Years ago a dear older woman in our church who is now with the Lord gave me a little sign to put on my desk. It said, There is no problem so great that God cannot handle it. Jesus personally brings the eternal power of God to us.
• Everlasting Father – With no beginning and no end, Jesus comes to us as the complete and personal revelation of Jehovah. He is the great I Am. And as Father, he created us, then re-created us in His own image when we were saved, and now provides us with protection and provision. He alone is worthy of our love and respect as Abba, Father, our spiritual Daddy!
• Prince of Peace – He is Lord! He is the supreme ruler of all eternity, and the product of His reign is peace. Even though for a time now the world does not accept Him as Sovereign, and we must live in the realm of the enemy, in our hearts we have set Christ apart as Lord and know the indescribable and unfathomable peace of God. We have been placed into an eternal relationship of peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that we now know the peace of God in our hearts.

May God use this very brief outline of these names of our Blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ to challenge you to think deeper about His Names and what they represent to us. May it also stimulate us to think deeply about what our name means to others, and whether or not we are trying to make a name for ourselves or representing the new name we have been given in Christ Jesus.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, December 5, 2019

“The lure of power can separate the most resolute of Christians from the true nature of Christian leadership, which is service to others. It’s difficult to stand on a pedestal and wash the feet of those below.”

Those are the words of a man who once had power, and it cost him dearly. He was in the inner circle of a United States presidency. But the “lure of power” sent him to prison. The desire to be in control cost him his freedom. He later learned that true power is found in serving others. His name was Charles Colson.

Isaiah 9:6 …and the government will be on His shoulders.

There is no greater example of leadership in all of human history than the story of Jesus Christ. In three short years He transformed the world. He didn’t recruit a huge army to conquer lands and people. He didn’t start a political movement to overthrow the current administration. He wasn’t sophisticated. He wasn’t culturally charismatic. He simply started a grassroots organization called the church and became its eternal leader by serving the members and ultimately sacrificing Himself for the cause.

It is in serving others that the strength of a leader is best observed. In describing Himself, Jesus said,

“The Son of Man has come not to be served, but to serve.”

We are most like Jesus when we serve others. We are the purest reflections of His heart when we sacrifice ourselves for the sake of those we lead. Whether it be in the home or in the workplace, serving others makes us the greatest leaders. In fact, a leader does not begin to serve as a leader until he puts serving into his leadership.

That’s who Jesus was – a servant leader. It is because we know Him as such that we can be excited about the proclamation that the government will be on His shoulders. We can trust His leadership because we know He is serving us. Jesus never set Himself up above those He led. In fact, He was born in a lowly manger in strange town to an unmarried woman and His first visitors were shepherds. He came to serve the least recognized and those with repulsive reputations.

Great leaders never set themselves above their followers—except in carrying out responsibilities.

I saw that happen during a snowstorm several years ago. I saw young men and women from our church piling into a pickup and heading out onto the unplowed streets to voluntarily shovel out buried cars and plugged driveways. They did it only for the thrill of serving others with no expectations of monetary reward.

These are the future leaders of our churches, and they are already qualified. They do not serve to get ahead. They do not serve to accomplish their own agenda. They do not pre-qualify those whom they will serve. They do not stop serving because they might feel unappreciated or unrewarded. They do not quit because the job is too hard. They make whatever sacrifice is necessary to meet the needs of others, because their heart is the heart of Jesus who was focused on others and not on self.

I want to lead like Jesus. I want to always be ready to serve others, no matter who they are. I want to be ready to sacrifice anything I have, including my time, to meet the needs of others for the Glory of the One who gave His life for me. I want to become the least of the least so I am the most like the Greatest!

Pastor John

EXTRA CREDIT! Here’s a comparison between leaders and bosses. I think it will help us to lead our families, our churches, our ministries, and our businesses with the heart of Jesus.

Bosses                                                                        

• A boss creates fear
• Bossism creates resentment
• A boss says, “I”
• A boss fixes blame
• A boss knows how
• Bossism makes work drudgery
• A boss relies on authority
• A boss drives

Leaders

• Leadership breeds enthusiasm.
• A leader creates confidence
• A leader says, “We.”
• A leader fixes mistakes.
• A leader shows how
• Leadership makes work interesting
• A leader relies on cooperation
• A leader leads

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,

To us.

To us.

Twice in this Messianic prophecy the words “to us” are stated as the direct object of the verbs. To us a child is born. To us a son is given. To us!

“Us”. What a significant word. I am not sure I can adequately express the thrill I feel when I use the word to describe my relationship with God. Maybe this story will help. I found it in a magazine years ago and it spoke profoundly to me. It is from the memoirs of Margery Tallcott.

When our son Pete was six, it was a Depression year and the bare essentials were all we could afford. We felt we were richer than most people, though, in things of the mind and imagination and spirit. That was a comfort of sorts to us, but nothing a six-year-old could understand.

With Christmas a week off, we told Pete that there could not be any store-bought presents this year—for any of us. “But I’ll tell you what we can do,” said his father with an inspiration born of heartbreak. “We can make pictures of the presents we’d like to give each other.”

For the next few days each of us worked secretly, with smirks and giggles. Somehow, we did scrape together enough to buy a small tree. But we had pitifully few decorations to trim it with. Yet, on Christmas morning, never was a tree heaped with such riches! The gifts were only pictures of gifts, to be sure, cut out or drawn and colored and painted, nailed and hammered and pasted and sewed. But they were presents, luxurious beyond our dreams: A slinky black limousine and a red motor boat for Daddy. A diamond bracelet and a fur coat for me. Pete’s presents were the most expensive toys cut from advertisements. Our best present to him was a picture of a fabulous camping tent, complete with Indian designs, painted, of course, by Daddy, and magnificent pictures of a swimming pool, with funny remarks by me. Daddy’s best present to me was a watercolor he had painted of our dream house, white with green shutters and forsythia bushes on the lawn.

Naturally we didn’t expect any “best present” from Pete. But with squeals of delight, he gave us a crayon drawing of flashy colors and the most modernistic technique. But it was unmistakably the picture of three people laughing—a man, a woman, and a little boy. They had their arms around one another and were, in a sense, one person. Under the picture he had printed just one word: US. For many years we have looked back at that day as the richest, most satisfying Christmas we have ever had.

US! God sent Jesus to make “US” possible. How hopeless we were when the “us” only included you and me and a few friends. But God sent Jesus to “us” so we could join His “US”. We have received the greatest gift we could ever get when we accept God’s gift of Jesus who personally places us into the eternal “US”.

To us a child is born. To us a son is given. We needed it. We admitted we needed it. We repented of our sin. We were forgiven for our sin. We received God’s Gift, and now – just think of the wonder of this – now we are included in God’s glorious “US”. He accepts us. He honors us. He changes us. He lives in us. We are God’s “US”!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Ted Koppel, in a speech to the International Radio and Television Society, said this:

What is largely missing in American life today is a sense of context, of saying or doing anything that is intended or even expected to live beyond the moment. There is no culture in the world that is so obsessed as ours with immediacy. In our journalism, the trivial displaces the momentous because we tend to measure the importance of events by how recently they happened. We have become so obsessed with facts that we have lost all touch with truth.

Guilty.

In varying degrees we all are. We have succumbed to the Satanic deception that there is no bigger picture. We cannot see that we are playing bit parts in an eternal plan of an Almighty God. Instead, we see only the drama of our current situation. We would be greatly blessed to resolve that.

Isaiah 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

The prophecies concerning Jesus in the Bible proclaim the bigger picture. Today’s prophecy of the coming Messiah is best understood in the context of the cultural era in which it was given by God. Let’s carefully read the context. It starts in the previous chapter where Isaiah is declaring his trust in the God of the bigger picture.

I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.  I will put my trust in him. Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion. When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

This passage paints a picture of the consequences waiting for people that live only for the immediate. Distress. Anger. Despair. Hopelessness. The pursuit of the immediate with no faith in the truth of a bigger picture leaves us wondering and wandering.

But read on as chapter nine begins.

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—The people walking in darkness  have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

I love that word nevertheless. It proclaims hope. True hope. What do I mean by that? True hope does not depend upon my activity. Real hope does not consider the failure of my past but the grace of my God. In this passage there are no requirements placed upon people for the earning of their freedom. The burden of self-fulfillment and self-accomplishment is removed by God’s free gift. The darkness of despair in the shadow of death is dispelled by the Light of the Lord’s love in Jesus.

When mankind was incapable of change, at just the right time in history (Galatians 4:4), God sent to us a gift we did not deserve and could never afford. God’s love for us conquered our rebellion against Him when Jesus came to save us from the sin that had overwhelmed us.

That’s incredible! I have found the Light! Now I can see the bigger picture, and it has brought me peace.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, December 2, 2019

The Book of Isaiah in the Bible is filled with prophecies about the coming of Jesus the Messiah. As I study them it helps me prepare my heart for Christmas. I hope the next few weeks of devotionals will do the same for you.

The first prophecy given to the people by the prophet Isaiah is this:

Isaiah 7:14  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Many of the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament are in the context of the current circumstances of that day’s culture. If the people had spiritual perception, they could understand the prophecy in the context of God’s eternal purpose. But if they were spiritually dull, living according to the mind of the flesh, they would see only the immediate application. In this way, God protected the integrity of the prophet, for his words were always able to be proven true, either short-term, or, as we now see from the other side, long-term.

The immediate context of today’s prophecy about Jesus is this: the Lord God is trying to convince Ahaz, the king of Judah, to trust Him with the outcome of a war. God offers Ahaz the chance to ask for a sign that proves how God is in control. Ahaz refuses, so the Lord, through Isaiah, says that He will give Ahaz a sign anyway.  In that current cultural context, the prophecy would be fulfilled through the prophet Isaiah, who would marry a young woman (see Isaiah chapter 8) and they would have a son. But according to Matthew 1:23, the angel that appeared to Joseph to announce that Mary would have a baby states that this would be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

There are several points of application to our lives.

• When we read Scripture, we will benefit from always looking for references to Jesus. The Bible is the inerrant written revelation of God to us, but it always points to the living revelation of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1 states, In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The written Word always leads us to the Living Word.
• Isaiah married a young woman and they had a child according to natural procreation. Joseph was engaged to be married to a virgin who was found to be with Child by the Holy Spirit of God. The virgin birth of Jesus is absolutely essential to the Gospel because it eliminates the nature of sin from the humanity of Jesus, therefore making Him the sinless sacrifice for our sin.
• His name will be Immanuel, which means, God with us. While being born into human existence, Jesus maintained His eternal deity. I cannot comprehend this mystery, but I praise God for the faith to believe what Jesus said – I and the Father are one. I praise God for the testimony of the Apostle John who wrote under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit of God and said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

For me, this is the perfect way to start this Christmas season. The truth that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, came to earth to be one of us so He could save me, is overwhelming. I am grieved in my heart by the words of the atheist’s billboard I saw in the paper which says, “You know it’s a myth. This is the season for reason.” How sad. How pathetic. To deny the historical record is one thing, but to deny the spiritual truth is devastating. It has eternal consequences.

Jesus is the Reason for the season. True reason can come to no other conclusion. God came down from glory and dwelt with us to redeem us from our sin. I praise God He has redeemed me!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Friday, November 29, 2019

Eight years ago, near the end of the winter, we had warm weather that was melting some of our snow. The end of my driveway was filled with slush.  I took the shovel and went out to remove it. After four or five exertions of my muscles to lift that heavy wet mess and toss it aside I felt a little twinge in my chest. I took a break, and it seemed to be okay, so I finished the job.

When I got into the house, I called the doctor and made an appointment. The next day I had an EKG at his office, and when that turned out normal, he scheduled a stress test. A week later I was on a treadmill having my heart function analyzed, and I praise the Lord that everything is fine. But that first twinge of pain, which was probably just muscles screaming from inactivity, was a real wakeup call.

Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had invaded Judah. King Hezekiah had tried to be a faithful king. He had destroyed all the places of worship in the land that were primarily used by the people to worship idols. He had asked people to focus their worship on the one true God by coming to Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. But the people were rebellious and wanted what they wanted when they wanted it. Doesn’t that sound familiar?

When Sennacherib sent his envoys to Hezekiah with another letter defaming the name of God, it was a wake-up call for the King of Judah. This time he did not seek after the prophet Isaiah to try to re-connect with God. This time he went directly to God. He had been encouraged by Isaiah’s words that the Lord was going to deal with this attack. That encouragement motivated him to begin anew his own relationship with the Lord.

Isaiah 37:15-16  And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: “O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.”

Hezekiah humbly approaches God. He went to the temple and spread his problems out before the LORD. How often do we go to the Lord in a time of distress and ask for help but we never really release the control of the problem to Him? Hezekiah laid everything on the altar and gave it all to Him. He showed great faith and trust in the Lord’s outcome.

Read Hezekiah’s prayer, and notice the honor and awe he expresses towards God.

“O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.”

Our prayers to God for every problem, every issue, and every need should be encapsulated in this kind of praise and worship to Almighty God.

Not only should our prayers be bathed in praise and worship, but the ultimate request we make, no matter what the issue, should be for the glory of God to be revealed on the earth. Hezekiah acknowledges his fear over the facts of his circumstances. Sennacherib has already been successful over every other nation that worshiped other false gods. But Hezekiah knows that the will of God is for all men to know Him and connect to Him, so that is the basis of His request.

Friends, we get pretty selfish in our prayers don’t we? We want God to bring us glory. We ask Him to meet our needs or solve our problems according to our projected outcomes that we believe will benefit us the most. But when we pray according to the will of God – that the people who see what God does in our lives will have to acknowledge that He alone is God – then we will be praying correctly.

So what wake-up calls has God sent into your life recently? Are you responding according to His will and glory or your own?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, November 28, 2019

As a youngster, and still today, I think I enjoy Thanksgiving more than any other holiday. I know, that sounds so secular and unspiritual, when Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Savior and Easter is the celebration of His resurrection. But the memories of Thanksgiving still stir my heart. Maybe it’s because of my love affair with food. I think it’s mostly because of my love affair with family. (Just ask my kids what dad says at every family gathering.)

We have had a family tradition since I was young.  While we sat around the table, but before we could eat the turkey and all of the other great side food, we each had to express a thought of thanksgiving. One thing I have noticed over the years is that this has become an uncomfortable experience for most. The true sentiment of thanks is just not there much of the time. We say thanks for shallow stuff, and anything deeper and “mushier” draws snickers (giggles, not candy) and moans. Why has it become so hard for us to express heartfelt thanks?

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He taught them much more than just words to say: He taught them about the condition of the heart. One of the attributes of a person who prays is to be humbly dependent upon God for all things.

Luke 11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.

When Jesus told the disciples to ask for their daily bread in their prayers, he was emphasizing an attitude of the heart that honors God as the provider of all things.

In the book of Proverbs there is a warning given to all who would be ungrateful and self-dependent: you may end up disowning God or dishonoring His name.

Proverbs 30:7 – 9  “Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

Look at this carefully:

1. If we ask God for more than just our needs and demand that we become rich, we will be tempted to trust in our riches and not in the Lord who gave them to us. Riches are not wrong, but the wise writer of this passage recognized the danger of self-dependence that could result from having too much. He specifically asked God to not let that happen to him. His faithfulness to God was more important than the pleasures of riches.
2. If we don’t ask God to provide for our daily needs, then we will eventually choose illegal means to maintain our lifestyle rather than providing for ourselves. We will dishonor the name of God by our behavior. The author knew that if he was dependent upon God, God would be glorified by his choices, and honoring God was of far more importance to him than his financial security or status.

So on this Thanksgiving, no matter what you are able to eat, be thankful that God is your Provider. He knows your every need, and will never fail to provide for those who trust Him. Listen to these words of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 33:14–16.

The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?” He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil—this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Silence is scary – especially for someone so impulsively vocal as I am. But according to an old saying Silence is Golden. The whole saying goes like this – Speech is silvern, but silence is golden. In the Bible, the wisdom of King Solomon said that there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. I have the speaking part down real well. It doesn’t turn out well many times, but I certainly speak a lot. It’s the silence part that needs a lot of work.

King Hezekiah’s representatives were being verbally bashed by the commander of the Assyrian army. They were being told that they had no hope of surviving unless they surrendered. But after the audible assault was over, they remained silent.

Isaiah 36:21   But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

They were under orders to be silent. They obeyed. Hezekiah wanted information. He didn’t want debate. This was a battle that would be won by the Lord’s power not by man’s reason. That’s the lesson I need to learn and apply more frequently in my own life.

There are numerous passages about silence in the Bible. I have narrowed them down to the three areas that I believe, at least for me, are the ones that need the most work.

• When verbally attacked, follow the example of Jesus
  • Matthew 26:59-63 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.   But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward   and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”   Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?”   But Jesus remained silent.
  • Isaiah 53:7  He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.   In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
• When angry at someone, think a long time before you speak
  • Psalm 4:4  In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.
  • Proverbs 17:28  Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.
• When questioning authority, remember who is really in control and trust Him
  • 1 Peter 3:13-15  Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority,   or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.   For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 

I also need to work on speaking when I prefer to be silent. Sometimes it’s more convenient to not witness about Jesus in a public place for fear of being embarrassed or misunderstood. At times it’s easier not to “Speak the truth in love” because we avoid conflict. But the biggest place of silence in our lives is when we have sinned. We like to cover our sin. We don’t want to open up and be honest about what we have done. We may speak when we have sinned, but it is usually to defend ourselves or to pass the blame onto someone else. Whether we know it or not, this is what is causing the bitterness that permeates every area of our lives. It makes us unpleasant to be around. Look at what the Bible says about this important speech impediment from which most of us suffer.

• Psalm 51:1-5  Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.   Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.   When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.   For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah    Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
• Psalm 30:10-12  Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help.    You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,   that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

The church of Jesus Christ would be a whole lot better place if we would learn to speak when we should and be silent at other times. I know I’m going to work on that, and by God’s grace, the Holy Spirit will teach me to control my tongue.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

I remember the first time I received a wedding invitation that wasn’t the traditional formal two-envelop with RSVP card and return envelope folded inside. It was more like a postcard, and it was covered with pictures of the couple in various life experiences, including one of them kissing. On it was all the necessary information about the wedding. It was a new method of inviting people to a wedding, and I liked it.

Invitations come in all shapes and sizes for all kinds of events, and they are designed by the sender to do three things: first, to appeal to your emotions with the design; second, to give you the information of the event; and third, to reveal the personality of the sender.

In the same way, our enemy, who is called Satan, or the Devil, or the Roaring Lion, also sends invitations to us. They come in all shapes and sizes, and like junk emails they clog the inbox of our mind all day long. They are very attractive. They are designed to appeal to us and give us exactly the information we need to make a spontaneous and emotional decision. But what is different about his invitations when compared to the ones we receive for a wedding is this – Satan’s do not reveal his personality or his character.

Satan is a deceiver, and will use any lie he can to convince you to come to his party. What will appear on the outside to be an opportunity to find pleasure and fulfillment is really an invitation to death and destruction. Ultimately, Satan cannot offer anything else.

One of his most devious invitations is the one that leads us to doubt the character and promises of God. Satan knows that he cannot appeal to Christians with a display of his own character, so his only hope is to diminish our view of the nature and character of God so he can make himself look better. It’s the same tactic we use when we belittle others to make ourselves look better.

This is demonstrated in today’s portion of the story found in Isaiah 36.

Isaiah 36:13-15   Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

The commander of the Assyrian army is sending an invitation to the nation of Israel to make peace with them and join their powerful and prosperous kingdom. He does three things: he paints a word picture of the blessing they would receive by joining – “Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.”  (verses 16-17)

He also warns them what will happen if they don’t attend – “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?” (verse 12)

But then came the main emphasis of his invitation – he destroys the people’s hope in the Lord. He starts by saying that he is actually doing this by the command of the Lord – “Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.” (verse 11). He proceeds to tell them that they can no longer trust the Lord – “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?” (verse 18)

That’s the same invitation Satan sends us every day when he invites us to be married to the world. He appeals to the pleasures of the world. He convinces us that anything less than that is ugly and will hurt us. He disguises himself as the Lord so we think we are really obeying, then he plants seeds of distrust in us so that we begin to think that God isn’t really meeting all our needs and isn’t even capable of doing so.

Be careful in everything. We are receiving numerous invitations to be married to the world every day. They are lies. Let’s not be people who just say that we love and trust God. Let’s live like we do and really trust Him.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, November 25, 2019

Isaiah 36:7   And if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?

When Isaiah wrote the thirty-sixth chapter of his book, King Hezekiah was reigning in Judah. The king of Assyria, Sennacherib, had invaded the land and was attacking all the fortified cities. Sennacherib sent his commander with a large army over to Jerusalem. Hezekiah sent a delegation to meet them. The Assyrian commander made these statements:

• Why are you so confident?
• You claim to have strength but we see no evidence of it.
• You say you have allies but they are weak and powerless against us.
• You claim to trust in your God, but you have stopped worshiping Him and have adopted other gods.

It’s this last statement that hit me hard. The enemy of God, with no faith in the One True God, was attacking God’s chosen people. This ungodly king recognized that God’s covenant people have rejected their faith in God alone. He saw that God’s people were more concerned with pleasing people than they were with loving Jehovah. They saw worship of God as an obstacle to survival in the world. They believed fitting into their culture would be better served by not serving God.

I received a Facebook post from a young man who has been called into ministry. He asked me to watch a video that challenged him. It was from the later years of David Wilkerson’s life as he preached on the subject of anguish. Not a popular word, is it? The video touched my heart, especially at one point when this statement was made – What anguish it must bring to the heart of God when He sees that the Bride He was preparing for marriage to His Son has instead been married to the world.

My friends, as followers of Christ, why are we so easily persuaded to make friends with the world and adopt its standards? Why do we continue to see our faith in Jesus Christ as an obstacle to acceptance with the world rather than a means of bringing true life to the world? Why have we chosen to become adulterous in our spiritual lives and have a fling with the world? It is time for us to be recognized by our faith. It is time for us to find pleasure in doing the Lord’s work rather than finding more ways to find pleasure from the world.

Pastor John

P.S.  Happy Birthday to my brother Steve.