LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, May 22, 2025

With arms flailing in the air and lights flashing brilliantly from his head and chest, he would roll into view from off the screen with his volume at maximum shouting, “Danger! Danger!”  He was capable of shooting lightning bolts from his mechanical hands. He had a huge database of information. He was programmed to protect and serve the Robinson family and had a special connection to one family member named Will.

For those of you over the age of 65, you probably recognize the character simply called “Robot” from the hit television series Lost in Space. From 1965 to 1968 I’m sure I watched every one of the 83 episodes produced. I wanted to see what kind of trouble Dr. Smith would get into when he ignored the warnings of the robot. Sometimes I wish I would have learned more about avoiding danger from the misdirected and devious Dr. Smith.

Yesterday in our study of Isaiah we saw that the Lord planted a vineyard – the nation of Israel – and gave it every opportunity to produce a good harvest for His glory. They failed to do so because they didn’t recognize or heed the warnings of danger ahead. As you read through the fifth chapter of Isaiah today you will notice six warnings of danger ahead that very aptly apply to our modern world. We would be wise to heed them before we too fall into a pit from which there may be no apparent escape.

1.    The Danger of Materialism – verse 8 – “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.” The pursuit of personal prosperity will eventually leave us desolate. Jesus said that money very quickly becomes our master, and when it does we cannot serve Him, for no one can serve two masters at the same time. There is grave danger ahead for those who pursue wealth as their means of personal gratification.

2.    The Danger of Hedonism – verses 11 and 12 – “Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands.” The pursuit of pleasure will result in the loss of freedom, and according to verse 14, the appetite for pleasure is exceeded only by the appetite of the grave.

3.    The Danger of Deceit and Denial – verse 18 – “Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes.” It’s too easy for us to say we have surrendered everything to Jesus and then fill up our backpacks and wagons with the supplies of sin just in case the trip doesn’t go as we expected.

4.    The Danger of Relativity and Rationalization – verse 20 – “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”  It’s also far too easy for us to justify those backpacks and wagons filled with sin.

5.    The Danger of Humanism – verse 21 – “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” Here’s the reason why we have backpacks and wagons filled with sin – because we really trust in ourselves more than we trust in God.

6.    The Danger of Injustice – verse 22 and 23 – “Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.” We have made heroes of the wrong people – people without righteous character. We have neglected to treat the guilty with justice and the innocent with compassion. We care more about acceptance than we do integrity.

As I look around at society I see the arms of the robot flailing in the air. But the real issue is not society – the real issue is me. I have become more like Dr. Smith than I ever believed I would. It’s time to start recognizing the danger – not the danger that’s ahead, but the danger that is already in us.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, May 21, 2025

In an old book of stories I have on my desk I found this strange reference to an apple tree growing in an orchard here in the Midwest. This old apple tree was planted many years ago, with its limbs in the ground and its roots in the air. It occasionally produces an apple as new branches sprout from where roots should be. It is a curiosity to those who see it. The farmer who planted it is said to have read an old German legend in which such an inverted tree played a prominent part in the success of the hero. Although the tree lives, and occasionally bears an apple, it is only a curiosity and bears no fruit of any respectable amount.

That tree is a picture of what happens when Christians live inverted lives with their roots in the world rather than in Christ. It’s the same picture the prophet Isaiah is portraying with his image of the vineyard in chapter five.

“I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.”  (Isaiah 5:1-2)

God planted a vineyard. He cleared the rocks and trees, worked the soil, and planted the vines (the nation of Israel). He built a watchtower for protection, and He built the winepress for the abundant harvest He expected. God did everything to make it possible for the vineyard to bear fruit that would honor Him. But the people spread their roots and their branches into the world, and the fruit was unusable to the Lord Almighty.

We are no different than the people of Israel in Isaiah’s day. We say we are a part of the vine of Christ, yet we try to live Christian lives without being planted in the Christian church. We choose to let our roots run out into the responsibilities of the world rather than into the responsibilities of church life. We are very much like that inverted tree. We bear an occasional apple, but there is nothing of any significant or consistent value to the Lord.

So what happens to trees and vineyards like this? Well, like the inverted apple tree, there is only one way to justify its existence – its curiosity level that entertains people. So many people in the Christian church today are nothing more than entertainment to the people of the world. They make jokes about us, they mock us, and they use us to justify their own sinful lifestyles. Our hypocrisy authorizes such responses.

In the case of the vineyard in Scripture, the vines will be destroyed. God does not waste time on vines and branches that do not produce. This is a hard teaching from Scripture, but it is a trustworthy teaching. Jesus confirms what Isaiah says in chapter 5 when He says these words about the vine in John 15 –

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

My friends, where are your roots? Are you attempting to take nourishment for your life from the world? Are you seeking to grow branches according to the world’s standards so its people will accept you and approve of you? Or are you rooted in Christ alone, and bearing fruit only for His glory?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, May 20, 2025

“Hurry up, please. I want it now. I’m tired of waiting. I’ve had enough. I’m ready to be done with this. Haven’t I struggled long enough? Haven’t I put up with enough junk in my life? Isn’t it time for me to enjoy some down time and relax a little?”

I’m pretty sure we’ve all said those things. Yesterday we read a wonderful promise from God – “Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.” The question is, “When is the enjoyment going to begin?”

As we read on into chapter four of Isaiah, we get the answer. It will happen “In that day.”

“In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.” (Isaiah 4:2)

In what day? In the day that the Branch of the Lord is revealed. There is a day coming when the fruit of our righteousness will be delivered to us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. What a day, glorious day, that will be.

• It will be a day when pride is destroyed (Isaiah 2:12).
• It will be a day when materialism and trust in wealth will be abolished (Isaiah 2:20).
• In that day there will be a recognition of the incompetence of man to govern himself and the ineffectiveness of political power (Isaiah 3:7)
• It will be a day when external beauty and image will become irrelevant, and the truth of one’s spiritual condition will be revealed (Isaiah 3:18-26)

The Day of the Lord is coming. According to Scripture it will be a day when Jesus Christ returns to earth to establish His kingdom on earth. He will come with the armies of heaven to destroy all his earthly and heavenly enemies. He will bring the glory of God back to Jerusalem. He will bring His bride – the born-again members of His church that were previously raptured from the earth – and we will reign with Him on the earth and over its people. In that day, we will enjoy the fruit of our deeds as we reign with Jesus Christ the King.

I know, for some of you that sounds like a long way off and life is too tough right now to think that far ahead. But we must. We must fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. It was the joy of His reign that was set before Him and gave Him the strength to endure all the suffering of the cross.

Others that have gone before us have looked ahead to that Day and have endured to the end. They are now the witnesses whose lives tell us we can also persevere if we will just throw off the weights of this world and the sins of the flesh and run toward that day.

When we consider what Jesus endured to get to the inconceivable joy of the finish line, and what others have endured by faith in the same God who will give us the same glory, we must not lose heart. We must continue to press on towards the prize of the high calling we have in Christ Jesus.

My friends, there is a day coming – maybe very soon the way the world is going today – when we will enjoy the fruit of faithful and righteous labor for the coming King. Be strong. Be courageous. The Lord your God is with you, and the work He has started in you will be carried out to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, May 19, 2025

There it was. It came exactly when I needed it. It’s happened before: many times. But it seems that the emotions of the current day always overshadow the previous experiences of blessing. Why is that? Why are we so quick to move from faith to frustration?

But God knows. God sees. And God says in Isaiah 3:10,  “Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.”

God fulfilled His promise. Smack dab in the middle of a discouraging moment, it arrived. It started with a couple of posts by my wife on Facebook and then came a response from a friend. They were all words of encouragement that healed my heart. They were words that motivated more ministry. God knew I needed them. I praise Him that people listened when He urged them to write.

Isaiah must have felt the same thing I did. Since he started writing what God was saying about the spiritual condition of His people, only 6 out of the previous 63 verses have had any positive flavor to them. That’s less than 10%. Sometimes life feels that way – 90% trouble and a splash of good.

But right here, in the middle of what I think is the most discouraging discourse on the condition of mankind, we have this message of hope from our Lord. “Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.”

As Isaiah describes the natural harvest of a life of rebellion against God, he is reminded of the truth of the law of harvest for the righteous as well. Everything we do, everything we say, and everything we think produces a harvest of something. It will result in disaster or in delight. There will be a harvest of suffering or satisfaction. God is establishing our understanding of one of His irrefutable laws – “Whatever we sow we reap: whatever we plant we harvest.”

There are times in the middle of this mess we call life that it seems all the good we are doing and all the ministry we invest in is only adding to the mess. At the bare minimum it seems like we are just maintaining our current level but making no advances. It seems more and more discouraging every day as we look at the condition of the world and the spiritual darkness that surrounds us. I don’t think I have ever seen a time when the overall attitude of the media and the general public has moved more quickly from the hope of change to hopelessness.

Christians are not immune to such feelings. We quickly lose sight of the promises of God when we focus on the problems of life. We spend more time thinking about the falling economy than we do praying for the rise of the Kingdom of God. We focus more on the ecological disaster of an oil spill than we do on the spiritual anointing oil of the Holy Spirit that brings joy. We worry about food and clothing and shelter when Jesus said to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and He would provide all the other things we need.

But in every one of those moments of misery – those times of trouble – Jesus comes along side of us and says, “If you are living righteously, it will be well with you. You will enjoy the fruit of your deeds.”

If you will just slow down a minute or two today and listen, you will hear Him speaking to you. Keep your focus on Jesus. Keep living for Jesus. Keep serving Jesus. Even if nothing seems to change or no one seems to notice, Jesus does. Your labor is not in vain in the Lord according to1 Corinthians 15:58. You will enjoy the fruit of your righteous deeds.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, May 16, 2025

Over the last two days we discovered the ways that we reject God and turn to people for our support and security. Now God reveals to Isaiah how people who trust in people end up.

Isaiah 3:8  “Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.”

As you read the third chapter there are six things that stand out to me as the social consequences of turning away from faith in God and obedience to His Word:

• Oppression – verse 5a – People will oppress each other—man against man, neighbor against neighbor. 
• Disrespect – verse 5b – The young will rise up against the old, the base against the honorable.
• Unqualified Leadership – verses 6-7 – A man will seize one of his brothers at his father’s home, and say, “You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!” But in that day he will cry out, “I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house; do not make me the leader of the people.”
• Open and Shameless Sin – verse 9 – The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. 
• Ignorance and Apathy – verse 12 – O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path.
• Hedonism  (The belief that the pursuit of pleasure is mankind’s highest goal) – verse 16 – The LORD says, “The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles.

We only need to look outside our own homes to the society that surrounds us to know that we are in the same predicament. HOWEVER, if we are looking outside our own homes for the solutions rather than inside our own hearts, then we are part of the problem.

Oh my dear friends, how grave is our condition if we believe that we are not participants in the problem. We all have varying degrees of these conditions in our own lives, which means that in some way we have rejected the truth of God and have turned to pursuing humanistic objectives. And the fact that we won’t admit it makes the problem more severe.

Go back and review the list again. This time, rather than evaluate it in the context of your society, evaluate it against the reality of your own life and ask yourself these questions.

• Is there any degree of oppression in me that seeks to put others down so that I can feel better about myself?
• Is there any measure of disrespect for the authority God has ordained over me?
• Have I surrendered my civic privilege to vote or even lead to those who are simply willing so I can get on with my own life?
• Am I becoming less and less ashamed of some sin or sins in my life?
• Am I becoming less informed about culture and how God’s Word relates to it, so that those in leadership are given free rein to go unopposed wherever they choose?
• Am I becoming more entrenched in the pursuit of pleasure through the means of materialism, sex, alcohol, drugs, or addictions of any kind?

Piercing questions if asked humbly and answered honestly. I hope you will do both.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, May 15, 2025

In Isaiah chapter three the Lord is teaching us that we allow people and things to compete with Him for the priority position of our life. And He won’t stand for it. He loves us too much to allow us to believe that any person or thing can compete with Him. Yet we continue to trust others to provide for our emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. So God made a list of people and things that we allow to compete with Him and tells us He is going to work in our lives to remove them. Yesterday we saw the first five. Here’s the rest of the list.

• Elder – This is simply a person with wisdom gained from years of experience. Some of us trust in our parents or grandparents way too much. Some have found other older and wiser people to be their “go-to” person. There is Biblical support for such mentoring, but not to the extent that some people do. Don’t let the wisdom of your elders become the source of your wisdom. What they say still has to be in line with what God has already said.
• People of Position and Honor – The Captain of fifty and the man of rank – I used to think it was really cool to talk about important people I had met. I discovered I was simply trying to hitchhike on their reputations to improve my own status. I was guilty of letting other people qualify me. Only Jesus Christ can do that.
• Counselors – Nothing hurtful intended here towards those who are counselors, but people have become far too dependent upon them. Sometimes…not always…but sometimes, I think that the counseling becomes a bondage that perpetuates the problem. In Christ there is deliverance and freedom.
• Skilled Craftsman – Many people depend on the quality and quantity of possessions. They are nice people because they have nice things. But who are they after a fire or an accident? Possessions cannot bring contentment, but Christ can.
• Clever Enchanters – King James Version says “Eloquent Orator”. Actually, according to the Hebrew, the two need to be combined. These are the Eloquent Enchanters of our day. One example is our politicians. Many have put their hope and trust in them because they know how to appeal to our emotions. Don’t let clever communication corrupt you and turn you from Christ.

Again, Christ has no competition. But we have elevated the inferior to a position of equality with Christ and Jesus won’t put up with it. Isaiah has laid it out clearly – “Don’t trust in man or man’s things.” Now it’s up to you to decide what keeps you from trusting Christ completely.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Don’t be fooled by the title of this devotional. Christ has no competition. But we elevate the inferior to equality with Him when we trust others to provide our needs.

Isaiah’s admonition from yesterday at the end of chapter two was to stop trusting people when we should be trusting God alone. As chapter three begins he carries over that thought and describes for us the types of people we tend to trust. God has made us relational people, and we need to be in relationships with them. However, our faith, trust, and hope are not to be placed in people, but in God alone. People may bring us happiness, but God alone is the source of our joy.

Unfortunately, many of us turn to our horizontal relationships with others as our best option when we get in trouble, when we need help, or when we need our ego stroked and our sense of value enhanced. We turn to our friends for comfort and support, rather than trusting Jesus.  Our relationships with people are actually dysfunctional if they are used as a substitute for our relationship with Jesus. It’s sad but true – we tend to depend on people more than our Lord.

According to Isaiah, Jesus Christ will fight to maintain the priority position of our lives. When anyone or anything moves into competition with Him, He will move to eliminate it.

Isaiah 3:1-3  “See now, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water, the hero and warrior, the judge and prophet, the soothsayer and elder, the captain of fifty and man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.”

In this word from the Lord there is a list of ten types of people and things that compete with God for our trust and relationships. Over the next two days we will look at each of them. As we do, open your heart to the work of the Holy Spirit who is eliminating the competition to trusting God alone.

• Provisions and Possessions – The Lord is about to take away all the supply from His people. Remember what Jesus said? Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the things you need will be supplied for you. (Matt. 6:33)
• Military Power – The hero and the warrior – the security we find in our freedoms will be attacked, because we are to find our peace in our relationship with Jesus Christ. He is our one and only Hero.
• Judges – Some of us trust in our justice system. We love going to court to get retribution or restitution. Justice is to be found only in the coming King, and we are to wait patiently for it.
• Prophets – So many people are following feel-good preachers today. They smile and squint and say anything that makes you feel good about who you are, while avoiding the issue of sin and its consequences. They fill you with false hope and temporary emotional comfort, but when the real trials of life come up they choke you. You must depend on the truth of God’s Word alone.
• Soothsayer – These are fortune tellers and psychics. The practice of such things is condemned throughout the Bible. It is our attempt to see more than what God wants to reveal, because we don’t really trust Him. It is not just a harmless pastime – it is an attempt to gratify some self-centered need for knowledge, security, or affirmation. It is contrary to dependence on God.

Isaiah has laid it out clearly – “Don’t trust in man or man’s things.” Now it’s up to you to decide how much of this connects with you and keeps you from connecting completely with Christ.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Just when we get all excited about a new possibility inevitably something happens that has the potential to throw us into a fit of frustration. These are the tests designed by God to answer this question: In whom do you really trust?

I have permission to share this story. One of my former church members and his wife were in the process of adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia. On a certain Friday they had their home visit from the adoption agency, and everything was in perfect order. All they had to do was come up with the next payment of $1200 to keep the process moving. They were so very excited.

The next day as they visited a friend, something went wrong with their handicapped accessible van that they needed for the transportation of their son. After extensive investigation into all the “symptoms” the husband was convinced he had blown a head gasket…on the vehicle. He didn’t blow his. The cost to repair? You guessed it. $1200. He admitted to me on Sunday morning that this was a test. He had already decided to trust God, but it was hard because now he would have to rearrange all his finances to make both the car repair and the adoption happen. But he was resisting taking this into his own hands and moving ahead in his own wisdom. He really wanted to see how God would handle this.

Then one morning I received this email from him. Get the Kleenex ready.

“Well, apparently we must have passed the test! I received a phone call from my mechanic yesterday and he informed me that it seems to be only the water pump and NOT the head gasket. PRAISE THE LORD!!!

“I truly believe, following along with what you taught us recently that we all have to go through tests day to day in order to strengthen our faith. Last Saturday, when I thought the head gasket had blown; all the elements would have indicated this to be true. Coolant on the ground (check), low coolant level (check), too hot of an engine (check) and the oil was even too full (almost three times too full) with an “orange-ish” tint to it, indicating coolant in the oil (CHECK)… I checked and re-checked the oil to make sure I wasn’t missing something. The van had been sitting close to an hour, so there is no way the oil could still be 2-3 times too high on the dipstick, right? Another man there even took a look and confirmed that it seemed like there was coolant in the oil.

“Like I said, I believe this was a test. I don’t think I aced the test, but I do believe I passed it. There are certainly areas of the day that I have been reflecting on that I could have acted out differently. All in all, though, I was surprised at how much peace I had come over me through the whole ordeal. Initially it was going to cost every penny we had in our adoption fund, but God had a plan.

“In the past this would have been devastating news, but God was there with me. Instantly the thought “everything will be fine, God will provide” kept going through my head; and I BELIEVED IT. I knew God had a plan and that all would be just fine. I just didn’t realize His plan would be so great. I should have, but I am only human. It will not be costing us every penny of the adoption fund. In fact, we won’t even have to touch this money!

“SO, I guess I just wanted to pass along this wonderful PRAISE offering to our Lord. The power of faith and prayer is truly amazing. I just want to thank the Lord for providing our every need, even before we know what it is.”

Here’s what Isaiah says. “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?”(Isaiah 2:22)

When trouble happens, don’t trust your own understanding. Trust God. He’s perfecting your faith.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, May 12, 2025

Pride is such a deadly enemy because it makes itself appear in every form as a friend.

Isaiah understands that the corruption of culture is completely the consequence of people’s pride because we have made friends with the world.  We have placed our trust in what we are able to accomplish rather than what God has already done. And then, to bring pride to its ultimate expression, we even take what God has done and give ourselves the credit for it and control over it.

But Isaiah warns us that God will soon destroy the pride of man in Isaiah 2:12 and 17.

“The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted… The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,” (Isaiah 2:12-17)

In between verses twelve and seventeen Isaiah lists five expressions of pride and how God will deal with them:

• Creation – Society has become guilty of worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. (Romans 1:25) The emphasis on elevating animal and plant life to equal status with human life is absurd and denies the Creator’s image in each of us.
• Comforts – People are building treasures for this life, and every lofty tower that provides comfort is a denial of our need to depend on God for every earthly need.
• Construction – Mankind takes great pride in what they are able to build. Every fortified wall we build is a denial of our need to depend on God for our protection.
• Confidence – We have learned to depend on ourselves. Our culture is built around providing for self, defending self, and having confidence in ourselves to improve the quality of life.
• Commerce – We have built an economic system that has become our hope for survival. The trading ships and stately vessels are symbolic of our demand for financial security, and we have put our hope for that security in a system we have built for ourselves.

But notice what God says – “The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.”

My friend, what happens to your heart when something you own is taken from you? Does it end up revealing to you that it actually owned you? God does not share His glory. God does not distribute worship around to the idols of our own making. God is a jealous God and will fight to keep what is rightfully His. He will begin to remove everything that interferes with your relationship with Him. He will bring trouble upon you until you open your eyes and surrender the throne of your life back to Him. This is because He loves you!

Take some time today to evaluate your heart in the five areas above. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any pride that has crept in any area. Then confess that pride, and surrender to the control of Jesus Christ. It is imperative for the days ahead – days of severe testing and tribulation upon the Christ-less cultures of the world – that we stand courageously for Christ at all cost. That is only possible if we are fully committed to him and not to our culture.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, May 9, 2025

The Book of Isaiah is like a mirror. The first five chapters are a reflection of what society looks like when God is removed from culture. As Isaiah looks into the cultural mirror of ancient Israel, he sees what we see in our culture today; spiritual age spots, moles, and signs of cancer that develop when people don’t take care of their souls.

Over the next few days we will take a much needed look at what sin is doing to our society as its people continue to ignore God and place their faith in what the world has to offer.

In his very first look in the mirror, Isaiah sees some things we wouldn’t necessarily think are all that horrible. I mean, we would think that we would read about murders and rapes and corruption. That’s the real news of a decaying and decadent culture, isn’t it? But Isaiah sees this in Isaiah 2:6-9.

“They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans. Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made. So man will be brought low and mankind humbled—do not forgive them.”

• They are full of superstitions from the East – People are being influenced by and living under the philosophies of Eastern Mysticism.
• They practice divination like the Philistines – People are fascinated by and practicing divination…fortune telling, astrology, psychic prophecies, etc.
• They clasp hands with pagans – People are forming partnerships in business, marriage, and casual friendships with pagans…people who live only for the flesh and deny any need for God.
• Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures – People are captivated by wealth and prosperity.
• Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots – People are content and feel secure because of their possessions and the power of their political rulers.
• Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made –  People believe that their value comes from their performance and their status at work.

It’s apparent that the effects on culture of rejecting God are the same today as they were in Isaiah’s day. But the worst part of this picture is that the people of the church have also become like the culture in many ways. God’s people are the one’s turning away from faith in Jesus Christ to adapt to the world around them. The average Christian is in denial about the poverty of their spiritual life because they are so enamored with the seeming wealth they are receiving from the world.

Many Christians today have lost a true spirit of discernment about the influence of sinful practices in their lives. They are in denial about how much their choices to just have fun in the world are sapping their spiritual joy and leaving them fighting inner battles with no real hope of victory. We have lost our first love – the love we once had for Jesus Christ because of His death on Calvary and the grace of God extended to us for the forgiveness of sins. The love that filled our hearts with a passion for obedience and surrender to Jesus. The love that once dominated our decisions. We have chosen to love the world and the things in the world. We have chosen to shake hands with sinners and seek their approval. We have chosen to affirm ourselves, rather than believing in the affirmation of God through Jesus Christ, thus becoming guilty of worshiping self as an idol.

It is time for us to turn from our wicked ways. It is time for us to set ourselves apart from the world and rise above the status quo. It is time for the age spots, moles, and signs of spiritual cancer to be healed by Jesus Christ so that we can shine forth the light of His grace. We must look in the mirror of our culture, and when we do we must recognize our role in making it what it is.

Pastor John