LifeLink Devotional

Monday, April 9, 2018

Philippians 2:9 – 11 ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In case you have forgotten, the overall purpose for my writing these devotionals on the book of Philippians is that we might discover the reality of abiding joy, even when the circumstances of life are producing the opposite response. Today I want to be brief, and simply relate to you the words of two songs that God used to bring joy to my heart during a dark time of my life.

During the days leading up to the death of my mother, I spent a lot of time in God’s Word seeking strength and comfort. I found it in the second chapter of Philippians. I prayed to be made nothing, and to have the nature of a servant. I humbled myself to the divine will and purpose of God, sacrificing the temporary on the altar of the permanent. I am at peace that God guides every step, and even when those steps take us through the valley of the shadow of death, we have nothing to fear (Psalm 23). Even when the situations and sufferings of life seem to indicate that God has forsaken us, “Yet He is still enthroned as the Holy One!” (Psalm 22) And one day, maybe today, I will see Jesus face to face and I will behold Him in all of His glory.

I want to give you the words to two songs today and trust that they will touch you as they have touched me. During that dark time in my life, I listened to them over and over again, and they brought great joy to my heart.

Before The Throne OF God Above

Before the throne of God above

I have a strong and perfect plea

A great High Priest whose Name is Love

Who ever lives and pleads for me

My name is graven on His hands

My name is written on His heart

I know that while in heaven He stands

No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within

Upward I look and see Him there

Who made an end to all my sin

Because the sinless Savior died

My sinful soul is counted free

For God the just is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb

My perfect spotless righteousness

The great unchangeable I AM

The king of glory and of grace

One with Himself I cannot die

My soul is purchased by His blood

My life is hid with Christ on high

With Christ my Savior and my God.

We Shall Behold Him

The sky shall unfold preparing His entrance
The stars shall applaud Him
with thunders of praise
The sweet light in His eyes shall,
shall enhance those awaiting
And we shall behold Him, then face to face

The angels will sound the shouts of His coming
The sleeping shall rise
from their slumbering place
And those who remain
shall be changed in a moment
We shall behold Him, our Savior and Lord

We shall behold Him, We shall behold Him
Face to face
in all of His glory
we shall behold Him, we shall behold Him
face to face, our Savior and Lord.

Mom, you showed me the way to find permanent joy. Thank you!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Friday, April 6, 2018

Philippians 2:8 ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

John 10:14, 17 – 18 ¹⁴“I am the good shepherd…and I lay down my life for the sheep.  ¹⁷The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.  ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Hebrews 12:2 ²Let 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.

 In case you’ve gotten into the habit of skipping the Scripture passages and jumping right to the devotional, go back and read the verses above. I’ll wait……………………

I wanted you to be able to see something very significant. Follow along with me.

To accomplish the Divine plan for the restoration of man’s fellowship with the Father, Jesus became nothing. He emptied Himself of the glory of His deity, and took on the nature of a servant. He was made in human form and took on the physical appearance of a man to embody the servant nature. He lived the complete human experience, except He never sinned. He laughed and cried. He was hungry and ate food. He experienced pain and suffering. He felt every emotion we have felt. Yet His responses to those emotions always honored the Father. He was found in appearance to be human in every way.

But one thing was different about Him. It doesn’t have to be different, but it is. Jesus was on a journey to joy (Heb. 12:2) just as you and I are; yet there was one significantly different characteristic of His journey that we seem to have trouble with – He totally obeyed His Father in heaven. Any and every command given to Him by the Father was completely obeyed. Jesus admits in John 10:17-18 that He had the authority to respond to the command any way that He wanted to, but He chose to use His authority to obey. What motivated such obedience that He would choose to suffer and die horrendously for His sheep? What is necessary for us to become that obedient?

The key is in Philippians 2:8, where we see that Jesus “humbled Himself.” He had already chosen to empty Himself of the glory of His deity, and now He chose to empty Himself of the glory of humanity. This is imperative for us to both understand and to do.

Jesus could endure the cross and scorn its shame because He had emptied Himself of any need for human gratification. He was totally fixated on the fulfillment of God’s purpose. He modeled this to us during His temptation in the wilderness when He resisted every attempt by Satan to convince Him to accept worldly fulfillment and satisfaction. He succeeded at resisting because He had already emptied Himself of any desire to let His humanity govern His emotions and decisions. He had instead chosen to be governed by the Divine plan of God and the joy that would be His when it was accomplished. He wanted no glory as a man: He wanted only the glory of His Father.

Obedience results from humility. Disobedience is the pursuit of self. Our disobedience of the Father’s will is the cause for our lack of joy. Just as Jesus had the authority to choose to obey or not to obey, so God has not removed our right to choose. Jesus chose obedience because He had humbled Himself to God’s outcome. We choose disobedience because we want our outcomes. We must go back to the point of becoming nothing and humble ourselves. We must empty ourselves of all need for human glory and become obedient to the Divine will and purpose of God at all cost. Temptation will not deter us. Suffering will only strengthen our resolve. Death will no longer be a sting but will be our victory.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus and the joy that is set before us when we will see Him face to face in all His glory. Let us run the race He has marked out for us with perseverance and power. And when the world shames us for our stand for Jesus, we will scorn it as meaningless compared to the glory we will experience in Christ’s presence someday.

Our battle cry is victory!

Our battle plan is obedience.

Our motivation is humility.

Lay down your life and allow Christ to take it up!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Philippians 2:7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Matthew 20:26 – 28 Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

In 1988 I watched the nature of a man begin to be transformed. He went from being a self-centered alcoholic to a self-sacrificing servant of others. He was deeply impacted by the grace and love of Jesus Christ because he saw another man being a humble servant towards him. He watched as this servant of God shoveled cow manure out of the calf pens in his barn for several hours without complaint. He watched as this man who reflected God’s heart for sinners gave up his time to accomplish any chores he was assigned. Then one day, having earned the right to be heard, the farmer listened as the man answered his questions about faith and salvation. It took several years for the transformation to become truly evident after the moment of salvation, because there was a lot of sinful manure that needed to be shoveled from his life. But today, that man serves the Lord in a local church and has the nature of a servant that was modeled to him.

As you read Philippians 2, verses 6 and 7, you discover the word “nature” used twice – once to describe Christ’s equality with God, and once to describe the transformed character he took on as a human. It is very important for us to understand the extent of this transformation. Jesus did not simply learn the activities of a servant; He became a servant from the inside out. Every miniscule part of His being took on the nature of a servant. Every activity in which he was involved was motivated by the heart and mind of a servant. He did not have to debate with Himself over choices between serving self and serving others: His nature was to serve others. He did not get frustrated with the constant demands of people and the extreme exertion of energy it took to meet their needs. He was fulfilled by serving them because the activity matched His nature. He was not a “fish out of water” forcing Himself to serve people: He was in His natural element as He served because it was His nature to do so.

This both fascinates me and challenges me. I am fascinated by seeking to understand the depth of Christ’s love that He would surrender to such a transformation of His nature. I am also challenged by the significance it has for my life and yours. Jesus said in Matthew 20:26-28 that He is to be our model of serving. We are to be the servant of others “just as” Jesus was the servant of others. That means far more than just learning to do servant acts – it means experiencing the same transformation of our nature that Jesus experienced. We are to accept the very nature of Servant Jesus as our own.

When we come to Christ for salvation we become nothing and we accept from Him everything. We do not ask Him to improve what we already have, but rather we put to death everything that belonged to the old nature and we accept the new nature of Christ. It is a nature of love that manifests itself in serving others.

Do not think that this will be easy. It will be a daily struggle.  Jesus knew this. He had fought off the attacks of Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness, but when He got to the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion He was still fighting the temptation to serve self and not others. He even warned us that this would be a daily discipline when He said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Becoming, by  nature, a servant of others, can and must be done. We must become the visible expressions of the love of God for sinners by serving them, and we do that because it is now our nature to do so. Christ lives in us, not to fill in the holes in our old nature, but to transform our old nature into His. When the world sees true and transparent servanthood in our lives, they will listen to the Good News and accept it for themselves.

It’s time to take on the nature of a servant.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Philippians 2:6-8 ⁶  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 The creative power of God amazes me. He started with nothing and made everything. He didn’t take a little of something and make it better; He started with nothing but His word. The splendor of a starlit night was non-existent in any form, and then at the command of the voice of God it instantaneously appeared in its completed form.

We claim to be creative because we can take raw material and turn it into something beautiful and useful. That may be imaginative, inventive, and resourceful, but it is not creative. We have redefined the term to fit human capabilities. God alone is creative, and what He has formed from nothing fills me with awe. God’s work is most awesome and most appreciated when it begins with nothing.

In the first official act of Jesus coming to earth as the Savior of the world, He emptied Himself and made Himself nothing. For God to completely glorify Christ, Jesus had to be nothing. It is in the total humiliation of the Son that the Father could work to exalt Him.

As the model servant for all of us, we must begin where Jesus began. But that is not a popular place to begin. So much of the teaching we hear from self-help gurus and self-centered preachers focuses on finding the value of self and building on it. We have been trained by a Godless society to reject any self-degradation, because self has become our god.

But Jesus modeled something completely different – He denied self by accepting the nothingness of self, and He asked God to create something of value.

In one of the most incredible prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament, Psalm 22 speaks of the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus quotes this Psalm while on the cross to add validity to its prophetic truth. Jesus calls Himself a worm, and not a man. He makes Himself nothing in comparison to God. He considers anything and everything about His humanity to be worthless, and completely surrenders to the creative power of God to give Him a life of value.

Psalms 22:6-8 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. ⁷All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ⁸“He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”

King David understood the truth of the nothingness of self when he wrote this confession to God after committing adultery with Bathsheba –

Psalms 51:1 – 10 ¹Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. ²Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. ³For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. ⁴Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.  Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. ⁶Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place…¹⁰Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Emphasis mine)

When we come to God for salvation by faith, He does not start with something we have to offer Him; He starts with nothing. We do not come to Jesus for salvation by offering Him our best and asking Him to improve the rest. We become as worms before Him, recognizing that we are only capable of processing dirt.

The hymn writer Isaac Watts understood the theology correctly when in 1707 he wrote the song At The Cross.

Alas! And did my Savior bleed?

And did my Sovereign die?

Would He devote that sacred head

For such a worm as I?

In recent years the words of his song have been changed so that the last line now reads – For sinners such as I. Hopefully the theology won’t change with the words. We cannot define sinners as good people who do bad things. From God’s perspective, sinners are nothing and have nothing that God can use. When we admit that truth to ourselves and to Him, His creative power is released and makes something from nothing, and what He creates is good!

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

Jesus is our model – He became nothing so God could make Him something. We need to do the same.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Philippians 2:5-6  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped…      

When I was young, and to a certain extent it has carried over to the present, I was very discontent. I was always looking for something a little better. If I had a car, I wanted a nicer car, and especially a faster car. My dad saw it in me, and was constantly reprimanding me for it. I can still hear him saying, “Be content.”

I know that material discontent is wrong and does not demonstrate the level of confidence in Christ that should be evident. Discontent also flowed over into a performance discontent in my life. I remember especially being discontent with my golf game, which drove me to learn more, practice more, and score better. Even today, when I do anything of a competitive nature, I want to excel, and I will do just about anything to better myself.

The problem with discontent is that it generally stems from a personal value deficiency. We seek to excel in performance or in possessions because we are trying to prove ourselves to others and earn their approval. Joy will replace discontent when we realize that our value doesn’t come from our performance or our possessions, but from what Jesus Christ performed in us when He saved us and qualified us to be God’s son.

So why am I still driven to improve? Why does it seem to some people that I am discontent? It’s because now I want my life to be one of excellence as an honor to God, not to earn something from God. As a response to His work in my life, I am willing to forget everything that had meaning in the past and press on toward a higher goal – the goal of knowing Jesus Christ fully and expressing the righteousness of God faithfully.

Look at the example of Jesus in today’s Scripture. He is, in very nature, God.  He is equal to Him in every way, yet He did not remain content with His status until He had accomplished God’s purpose.

It is easy for us to believe that we have arrived at a level of spiritual maturity and comfort so that no further advancement is necessary. The older we get the more this becomes a problem. We get comfortable at our current level of understanding and activity. We get conflicted when we think change is coming, wondering if we’ll be able to learn and adjust. We want the security of our memories of how things worked in the past. We want to be content.

Of course, in regard to material possessions we must be content. Look at what Paul says in Philippians 4:11 – 13.

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

But in regards to our spiritual status we must never be content. In Philippians 3:12 – 14 Paul says,

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

So don’t be content with where you are spiritually and with what you are doing in ministry. Don’t look back with pride on your accomplishments and bask in the past successes and recognition. God still has more for you to learn and to do. Press on!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, April 2, 2018

Philippians 2:5  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: (NIV)

I have always been rather opinionated. Many of you are thinking, “That’s an understatement!” You are probably correct. My pride motivates my choice to express opinions frequently and forcefully.

There is an element of pride involved in the expressing of an opinion. Opinions give us a chance to be right about something, and that feeds our need for acceptance and worth. For many people, opinions validate choice. Opinions are used to justify and defend actions. Opinions have become the new value system of human experience.

When Paul says that our attitudes should be the same as those of Christ, he uses a word that literally means “opinion.” He is challenging us to make sure that our opinions are the same as those of Christ.

Opinions are not wrong, except where they contradict truth. This is a HUGE issue in our culture today, and it has infiltrated our churches. Every day we are bombarded with the results of the latest opinion poll. Facts are no longer the basis for decision-making. Opinions based on desired outcomes now dictate our political and moral choices. It is incredibly frustrating to try and hold a spiritual conversation with the average person because opinion has been granted the status of truth.

It doesn’t matter what my opinion is on any subject if that opinion contradicts the reality.  No matter how strongly I express my opinion, it doesn’t make it truth unless it agrees with established truth. No matter how loudly or boldly I talk about it, unless it is the truth, the opinion is nothing more than an attempt to build self-esteem.

For unity to occur in any situation or organization, like the church, opinions must be surrendered to truth and never be allowed to carry equal authority with the truth. Unity is immediately destroyed if the central truth of any issue is minimized for the sake of diverse opinions.

If unity is going to happen in your church, then your personal opinion should be in agreement with the truth of Jesus Christ. To make sure we understand this, Paul uses Jesus as the supreme model of a person with correct attitudes (opinions). Here’s how Paul describes the correct attitudes of Christ for us to adopt as our own. (Phil. 2:6-11)

1. Jesus is eternally God. Phil. 2:6
2. Jesus was willing to sacrifice His status and significance for the sake of those who were beneath Him and unable to reach Him. Phil. 2:7-8
3. When He completed the sacrifice, His status and significance were enhanced with a new Name and new honor. Phil. 2:10-11a
4. He did it all for the glory of the Father. Phil. 2:11b

It is a fact, not an opinion, that my opinions generally serve myself and minimize the sacrifice of any status or significance.  It is also a fact, not an opinion, that my opinions take priority over yours. It is also a fact, not an opinion, that unless that stops, and all of my opinions are surrendered to the truth of Christ, we will never experience the joy of unity.

Will you join me in learning to minimize opinions and elevate Christ, so that our minds and attitudes are the same as His?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Friday, March 30, 2018

Philippians 2:5-8 ⁵  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

After spending the last few days digging into the truth of spiritual unity in the church, the Apostle Paul now shows us the supreme example of these truths applied to a person’s life. He points us directly to Jesus and His SACRIFICE. It is appropriate that we come to this subject today, on this year’s Good Friday.

Please draw your attention to verse 8.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Now focus your eyes on one word – even.

There is no doubt in my mind that I would put my life at risk to save my wife. I would do it for my children. I would do it for my grandchildren. I would like to believe I would do it for you, too.

But our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ went far beyond what I am willing to do. He put His life at risk for His enemies. He voluntarily sacrificed His life for those who hated Him, mocked Him, and abused Him.

Yet even in that, we have not discovered the meaning of the word even. If all we understand is that Jesus obeyed the will of the Father and died for sinners, we have sufficient faith for salvation if we identify as a sinner and receive His forgiveness. But Paul says there is more than just obedience to the point of death, there is obedience even to death of a cross.

It was not sufficient for Jesus to die for sinners: He had to die as a sinner. He not only died for His enemies, He literally became His own enemy and died. He had to, for our sake. Our salvation depends upon the Father declaring Jesus guilty and deserving of death. Read Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:21.

For our sake he[God] made him[Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is the story of Good Friday. This is the meaning of sacrifice. We see Jesus, the perfect Son of God, becoming obedient to the Father to die not just for us, but as one of us. He was, by death on a cross, publicly declared to be merely human. He was judged guilty of sin. He was condemned as nothing more than a mortal deserving of death. Yet His unjustified condemnation was God’s purpose to save those who are justifiably condemned – you and I. His sacrifice as one of us makes possible our exaltation as one of His children.

I believe most of us, if not all of us, would be willing to sacrifice our life for the sake of those who love us. But I am equally convinced that we also put limitations on how much risk we will endure for the sake of those who hate us.

On this day of commemorating the death of Jesus on the cross, remember the word even. Jesus died for even His enemies. He died even as the enemy of God. He died even for me.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, March 29,2018

Philippians 2:3-5  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,  

Several years ago, I coached boys basketball for the local Christian high school. During the first three weeks of practice I was constantly urged by the team members to let them scrimmage. They wanted to play the game all the time, but I knew they had so much to learn. I didn’t give in very often at first, because I knew that what they needed most was instruction. They needed to practice the fundamentals and walk through the offensive and defensive sets to become so familiar with them that when they did get into the game, it would be their nature to perform according to the coach’s design.

So far this week we have been walking through the Coach’s design for unity, and today it’s time to get into the game. We have the head knowledge of what God expects from His church in regards to unity, but now it’s time to make it happen.

In Philippians 2:1-2 Paul described the Coach’s game plan for spiritual unity in the church. Now in verses 3-5, Paul becomes the play-by-play announcer describing the game action. He notices five specific plays that have been designed by the Coach and are being run by the members of the team:

1. They surrender their personal ambitions for the sake of the team. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. Not one of the team members is ever seen begging for the ball and demanding to take the shot. And we certainly never see any team member choosing plays not designed and approved by the Coach.
2. They sacrifice personal recognition for the sake of the team. Do nothing out of…vain conceit. When a play works and a basket is made, there is no special attention drawn to the one who scored. In fact, the one who scored usually gives recognition to the one who made the perfect pass or screen to set them up to score.
3. They stipulate the significance of other team members. In humility count others more significant than yourselves. Every team member, no matter what their skill level, understands that they cannot be a one-person team. Every member of the team is significant and is encouraged to do their best.
4. They support the individual styles of other team members. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Some of them dribble and shoot right-handed, and others use their left hand. Some of them are better built and equipped to play near the basket, and others are more speedy and able to cover more territory away from the basket. Each team member is strategically positioned by the Coach to best utilize his individual skills and talents.
5. They shape their attitudes to honor and reflect their Coach. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. The Coach volunteered all His time and energy to bring out the best in the team, so the members of the team do the same. He gave up everything that He had to make it possible for us to experience what we could never have without Him. Team members do the same as servants of one another.

Practice is over. It’s game time. Put on your uniforms that identify you as a member of Christ’s team, and come together in unity to run the Coach’s plays. When we do, victory is guaranteed.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Philippians 2:2 …complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

The story is told of two men riding a tandem bicycle up a steep hill. After much effort, they finally made it to the top of the hill. The front rider said, “That was a tough ride.” To which the second rider replied, “Sure was, and if I hadn’t kept the brake on we might have slipped backwards.”

There seems to have been a serious problem of disunity on this bicycle team. Their struggle illustrates a problem that also exists with Christ’s church today – they did not agree on the goal. One thought the goal was to reach the top of the hill; one thought the goal was to keep from going backwards.

This section of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi deals with the subject of Christian unity. Yesterday we answered the question, “What motivates unity?”  Today we dive into the second of three questions we posed on Monday, “What does a person look like who is striving for unity in the church?”

There are four spiritual characteristics that must be true of an individual’s life for unity to happen in a larger group of people. Paul lays them out for us in Philippians 2:2.

1. They share genuine like-mindedness with other believers. “…of the same mind…” A word of warning is very necessary at this first point – being like-minded does not mean agreement on theology or lifestyle choices. Do not let legalism be validated by a misunderstanding of what like-minded means. So many churches have disunity because they seek to force compliance with a particular set of beliefs or a code of conduct. That’s not Paul’s intention. What is really meant by like-minded is that we seek a genuine understanding of the nature and character of God and let His Spirit dictate belief and behavior. Like-minded people focus on “things that are above, not on earthly things.” (Col. 3:1-2) When the individual people in a church all focus their minds on knowing God, then the Spirit of God brings unity.
2. They seek to love others equally. “…having the same love…” There is no place for favoritism in the body of Christ. Love is not rationed out based on our perceptions of status or worth. There is no place for racism in the heart and mind of a person motivated to unity by the nature of Jesus Christ. In Romans, Paul says, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.”  And in Galatians he says, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Unity requires equality of love.
3. They submit to others. “…being in full accord…” John MacArthur defines this phrase as: …to live in selfless harmony with fellow believers. By definition, it excludes personal ambition, selfishness, hatred, envy, jealously, and the countless other evils that are the fruit of self-love. Unity requires the sacrifice of self on the altar of serving others. A church that is filled with people who have servant hearts is a unified church.
4. They strive toward a singular purpose. “…of one mind…” This phrase means, “to speak motivationally about the shared understanding of God.” In other words, as a result of knowing God we know God’s purpose, and we encourage one another to focus all of our energy into accomplishing that purpose.

Paul’s description of the spiritual priorities of united people forms a complete circle. In seeking to know God we share a genuine like-mindedness that expresses itself in unconditional love and acts of service to one another as we encourage one another to fulfill the purpose of God that is constantly being revealed through a deeper understanding of God. This is the life cycle of a healthy church.

But as we all know and have experienced, that circle can be broken. Disunity does happen. Are we willing to look at ourselves as the possible cause? We must! What part of the circle of unity needs attention in your life right now so unity in your church can be achieved and maintained?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Philippians 2:1  So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,

 People who have the responsibility to put together a unified team of individuals that can accomplish a common objective have probably the toughest job in the entire world. Whether they are coaches, executives, or office managers, the challenge is the same – to eliminate the focus on differences and create unity so the goal can be achieved. Successful leaders know how to motivate people to be a part of a bigger picture, rather than just the snapshots of their own experience.

The Apostle Paul understood human nature. He knew that every human being has the same four basic needs. If these four longings of every heart could be satisfied, then people would have a common foundation upon which to build a united organization. Paul also understood that these four needs could only be truly met in a relationship with the Creator who designed them. That is why the church of Jesus Christ is to be the living example of unity for the rest of the world.

What are these basic needs we share? Look at Philippians 2:1 and you will see them all:

1. Acceptance
2. Love
3. Intimacy
4. Caring and giving

Unity in the body of Christ is possible because everyone in it has had the same four needs met completely by Jesus Christ. We know what it means to be absolutely accepted for who we are because Christ totally accepted us when we repented of our sin and received His forgiveness. He accepted us to the infinite degree that we are eternally united with Him.

We know the comfort that comes from being unconditionally loved, because even when we do sin, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

We know the joy of intimate fellowship, because our lives have become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God. He searches the deepest and most intimate parts of our hearts, exposing them to the grace of God, and leaving us at peace. That’s true intimacy.

Finally, we know the fullness of life that can only be experienced through giving because we have been transformed by the nature of Jesus Himself. We have been given hearts of tenderness and compassion so that we might give of ourselves in service to others. It is in caring and giving that the fullness of the heart of God is experienced.

Before Paul takes up the subject of what unity looks like in a church, he first makes sure that each individual in the church has had all four of these basic human needs met by Jesus Christ. Church conflict and disunity can be eliminated if each individual in the church becomes the person described in Philippians 2:1. When we grasp that glorious reality, we will then understand that every other person who has been saved is identical to us. We will be motivated to unity because in Christ we have all had the same needs met and we have all been made equal.

Dear God, thank you that in Christ I have been accepted, that I am loved unconditionally, that I can be totally transparent with you and be at peace, and that I have been given a heart of caring so that I might serve others. I also thank you that my brothers and sisters in Christ are experiencing the same joy, and that we can be united because in Jesus Christ we are one. Amen!

Pastor John