LifeLink Devotions for Monday, November 25, 2024

As Moses addresses the nation of Israel prior to his death, he instructs all the tribes to be united in their possession of the Promised Land. But two tribes resist going in and want to have land provided for them on the east side of the Jordan River.  Moses agrees but challenges them to join in helping the other tribes conquer their land. Here’s how Moses explains it in Numbers 32:20-24.

Then Moses said to them, “If you will do this – if you will arm yourselves before the LORD for battle, and if all of you will go armed over the Jordan before the LORD until he has driven his enemies out before him – then when the land is subdued before the LORD, you may return and be free from your obligation to the LORD and to Israel. And this land will be your possession before the LORD. But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out. Build cities for your women and children, and pens for your flocks, but do what you have promised.”

There are two primary lessons I want to share today and tomorrow from this story.   

First, as the Israelites drew closer to the place and time of their entrance into the Promised Land, several of the tribes decided together that they liked the land of the Midianites that they had just conquered. Based on the size of the flocks and herds that they captured in the conquest, this was obviously a productive land for raising sheep and cattle. These two-and-a-half tribes looked at their present situation and decided that what they had right now was the best they could ever hope for, and asked for permission to make this territory their land.

When they were confronted with the possibility that fear had overtaken them and that they were about to refuse God’s promise as their fathers had 40 years earlier, they proved their commitment to the nation and to God by volunteering to send their fighting men with the rest of the nation’s army to go and conquer Canaan. Not only that, they volunteered to be the front lines of the army in all of the conquest. Even though they were choosing to come back and live in the present reality no matter what the new land showed them, they wholeheartedly committed themselves to accomplishing God’s purpose for the sake of the whole nation.

That is the challenge for all of us in our church ministry.  Maybe you have trouble seeing the benefit to moving ahead by faith with a new ministry or a new building. You would prefer to stay right where you are until we have more sure evidence of God’s provision and plan. Maybe God is using you to help the rest of the people reevaluate their direction and decisions. But maybe you need a greater measure of faith to step out of your comfort zones and expand the spiritual sphere of influence of your church. Are you holding back others from conquering territory in your church, or are you joining them to expand the Kingdom of God. Are you prepared to come to the front of the line in support of where God may be taking you.

These are critical times for the church, and Jesus Christ our King does not call us to strengthen our comfort zones but rather to expand our influence. Are you holding back your church from new ministry because of your lack of faith in God’s promises, or are you volunteering to be on the front line of conquering new territory for the King?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, November 22, 2024

Moses had one more thing to do before he died and turned over the leadership of Israel to Joshua. In direct obedience to the command of God in Numbers chapter thirty-one, Moses was to send an army to destroy the Midianite people who had attempted to subvert the nation through sexual immorality and idol worship. Under the guidance of Balaam, the Midianites sent their women to seduce the men of Israel and lead them to their places of worship of Baal. God punished the men of Israel, some 24,000 of them, with death, and the nation was purified. But God’s judgment of sin was not done.

Moses chose an army of twelve thousand men, one thousand from each tribe, and under God’s authority they wiped out the Midianite army. When the war was over, they had destroyed every Midianite male and every female old enough to engage in sexual activity. Only the young girls were saved and made slaves of the Israelites. The plunder they took amounted to 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and 32,000 female slaves. These figures give an indication of the size of the Midianite nation, and yet 12,000 Israelite soldiers defeated them easily without losing one soldier’s life. Not one! God was their Commander-in-Chief and their Protector.

There is an eternal principle of God’s justice that is learned from this story. We saw the disciplinary hand of God’s justice against His children for their sin. 24,000 men of Israel died. God’s justice begins in the lives of the people who have been called to be holy and have been given an inheritance with the saints in glory. You and I have experienced the discipline of God for sins we have committed. Hebrews 12:5-7 reminds us that a loving Father will always correct His children – “And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?”

But God’s justice will also punish the source of the sin and destroy it. His justice against sin will be complete and it will be utterly destroyed. Just as He destroyed the Midianites for being the source of seduction into sin for the Israelites, so He will also one day destroy the source of seduction into sin for all of us who are now His chosen people, which is the world. Even thought for now it appears that evil is flourishing, there is a day coming when the price for sin will be paid to a holy God, and that price is death.  

Yet in Jesus Christ we are delivered from the power of that seduction today. We do not have to wait until the Day of Judgment to be free from the seduction of sin. The indwelling Presence of Jesus Christ in our lives has already accomplished that victory for us. The influence of the world is still powerful, but “greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) “We have been set free from the power of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2) Through the love of Jesus Christ we have “been made more than conquerors.” (Romans 8:37)

In preparation for their entrance into the Promised Land, the Israelites were told to destroy all sin and sinful people so that the land of promise would be a holy place to dwell. You and I are living today in the Promised Land of God’s presence through Jesus Christ, and all the power of sin has been destroyed by His death on the cross. Let’s live in that victory every moment of every day.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, November 21, 2024

I was taught a lesson in humility by my dad when I was 15 years old. By humility I am referring specifically to the kind of humility it takes to turn over the responsibility for an important task to someone less experienced. I was 15 years old, and we were on our way to Colorado for a family vacation in conjunction with a national church conference. We were going to be camping, so there was a big travel trailer hooked up behind the car. We had made good progress from St. Paul into Nebraska when dad looked in the rear view mirror and said, “John, do you want to drive?” 

I only had my learner’s permit at the time, but I was ready, except for that big camper behind us. I had driven the car plenty of times, but now there was an added difficulty with which I had no experience. But dad stopped the car, got out, and gave me the keys. WOW! He trusted me with the car and the camper and the lives of the family. He knew that the only way to become qualified for a task was to be allowed to do the task and gain experience. He was still a qualified driver. He was not unable to perform the task of driving, yet he humbly surrendered his rights for the sake of training the next generation of drivers knowing that they would need those skills when they were out on their own in the future. Thanks, Dad!

Moses has reached a point in his life where his leadership is coming to an end. God has sent him up to the top of a mountain to get a view of the Promised Land, a land that he would never be allowed to enter because of his sin. But before he goes, Moses asks God to reveal to him who the next leader of the Israelites would be. I think if I were in that situation, the first thought I my mind would have been to ask God to forgive me and remove the consequence of my sin so that I could go into the land. Maybe I would make excuses for why the sin wasn’t really all that bad and the consequence was unfair. It would certainly be a priority to try to maintain some control and to “stay in the driver’s seat.”

But not Moses. He was a humble man. His immediate attitude was one of humble submission to the plan of God and of concern for the ongoing leadership of the people. That speaks volumes about the attitude of his heart, but then God takes it one step further. We read in Numbers  chapter twenty-seven verse twenty that God tells Moses, “Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him.”  It’s one thing to be willing to step aside for someone else, but it is something much more humbling to be asked to take part in the training of that new person and turn over some or all of your authority.

Think of the applications of this lesson to our lives today. If you are a parent this defines your role in raising your children. We watch as they drop dishes on the floor trying to carry them; leave the blankets crooked on a bed they were trying to make; leave tools laying around the garage after using them; miss whole sections of lawn as they use the mower for the first time; and on and on goes the list. We seem to be able to humbly accept our responsibility to develop leaders in our families, so what has happened in our jobs and in our churches? Why do we have so many people greedily hanging on to positions of leadership when there is a whole generation of new leaders just waiting to use their skills and dreams to take us to new places of promise?

In your job, or in your church, are you a humble and willing participant in developing the next wave of leaders, even if that means not accomplishing a personal goal? Is our purpose self-fulfilling or Kingdom fulfilling? Let’s be the facilitators of growth by letting someone else drive for a while.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, November 19, 2024

The news is rarely encouraging. We let politics, inflation, gas prices, and injustice bum us out. It can ruin our day.  

Then suddenly, like a light bulb going on in our head, we realize how quickly the things of the world can captivate our thinking and turn our eyes from their intended focus on the wonderful hope we have in Jesus Christ for eternal life. We make plans for personal provisions and security, when Jesus has already provided for all that and more. We have far too many momentary lapses into looking at the world instead of looking above for the Lord.

In Numbers chapter twenty-one the Israelites continue their seemingly endless pattern of complaining, consequences, and correction. They need another trust lesson from the Father. This time God uses poisonous snakes as the teaching tool. To rescue them from this infestation, God had Moses make a bronze snake and place it on a pole, so that anyone who looked at it would live. Notice that God’s solution was not to take away the snakes or to stop the venom from being imbedded in the flesh of the people, but rather it was to stop the effects of the venom in their lives by looking to Him. 

What an incredible picture of our lives today in Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself uses this story to depict His own crucifixion in John 3:14-15. He said’ “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus tells us that if we look to Him as the people looked to the snake on the pole, we too will live, even though the Serpent still attacks and attempts to sink His fangs into our lives, poisoning us with the venom of the world. Satan has not been removed from the world, but the sting of his venom – death – has been removed.

We are tempted to look around us at all of the serpents that are coiled to strike us with their poison. They have disguised themselves to appear beneficial to us, yet their venom is deadly. However, when we are looking at our Savior Jesus, their venom is powerless. The snake of inflation cannot interrupt the flow of God’s provision. The snake of dependence upon oil cannot overpower our dependence upon the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit. The snake of war and injustice cannot take away our peace and justification in Christ. The snake of broken relationships cannot destroy the permanence of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Take your eyes off of whatever snake is coiled to strike you right now, and look at Jesus. “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5) He is our Hope and our Salvation. In Him we have life, and it is eternal and abundant. The snakes cannot invalidate your inheritance, so don’t let them infect your inclinations. Instead, “Incline your heart unto the Lord” (Joshua 24:23). He is faithful and will not fail.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, November 18, 2024

When I travel I enjoy taking the scenic route. If I’m going someplace I’ve been before I will usually take the direct route, but if it’s a new destination I often take the scenic route, which may not be the fastest route. In fact, when the kids were younger and we went on a family trip or vacation, they used to harass me about going on another one of dad’s “adventures.” We did wind up in some pretty remote places sometimes – just ask them about the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

As the final leg of the 40-year journey to the Promised Land begins, the Israelites are faced with a trip-planning decision: do we take the freeway or the scenic route. The freeway led them through the territory of the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. The scenic route led them a long way around to the east of Edom and Moab. Moses thought it would be nice to go the direct route and save time, but God wanted them to take the scenic route for safety. You can read about it in Numbers chapter twenty.

Moses sent out a message to the Edomites and asked permission to go through their land on the king’s highway, and made certain guarantees about the trip. He promised that the people would not use any of the rest areas, and would not stop at any of the McDonald’s for food, and would not stop at any of the convenience stores for water. Most of all, the people would not stop at any of the scenic overlooks or take time to visit any of the points of interest along the way, thus avoiding all contact with the people of the land.

Why would Moses make such promises? If you read the instructions of the Lord given to Moses in Deuteronomy 2:4-6 you will find the answer.

Then the LORD said to me, “You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. Give the people these orders: ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’”

God told Moses to avoid the people that were contradictory to God’s purpose. God knew that any point of contact would give the enemy a foothold from which to thwart God’s divine plan. There is a deep spiritual lesson in this for us today. God has called us in our salvation to come out and be separate from all that is evil in the eyes of the Lord (see 2 Cor. 6:17). We have been commanded to be pure, even as He is pure because of the higher hope of heaven that we have ( see 1 John 3:2-3). We are urged to not even let our emotions, like anger, give Satan a foothold in our lives (see Eph. 4:27). There is a consistent theme in Scripture that the people of God are not to turn to the right or the left in their temporary journey through this evil land on their way to the permanent residence of God’s presence.

We must take the time to evaluate our life’s trip planning. Are we taking the scenic route, turning off the main road at any location that looks appealing to our flesh so we can indulge our appetites? Or are we staying on the Interstate taking the most direct route to God’s presence? I am not talking about avoiding all contact with unsaved people along the way. That would be disobedience to God’s purpose for us until we reach glory. I am referring to the sinful attractions of the world’s activities that distract and sometimes disqualify us from accomplishing God’s purpose. We must not take these side roads. We must not turn to the left or to the right. We must stay on the King’s highway and keep our eyes fixed on the Promised Land of God’s Presence. Be strong and be pure, for the Lord your God is with you.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, November 15, 2024

As we mentioned yesterday, the Israelites are near the end of their 40 years of wandering the desert. Most of those responsible for the choice to not enter the Promised Land when God directed them the first time have now died. The next generation of people is ready to begin their advance towards God’s promise. But for the first time recorded this new generation also complains about things not going their way. 

When Moses and Aaron approach God with the complaints of the people there is something different about His response from previous instances of grumbling. God gives Moses a solution to the problem without any consequences to the people. That’s God’s grace in action.

Numbers 20:6-8 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. The LORD said to Moses, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” 

God graciously provided for the people. Moses did not. Moses allowed the hurts of the past to be resurrected and his pride to become the motivator of his actions. Look at what Moses did:

1.      He directly disobeyed God by speaking to the people and not to the rock. He had been given no permission or authority to use this opportunity as a time to correct the people. He was simply told to speak to the rock and let them observe the power of God. How many times do we overstep our boundaries with people by attempting to correct them from the outside rather than letting the Holy Spirit correct them from the inside. They need to see God’s grace in us.

2.      He also directly disobeyed God by striking the rock rather than speaking to it. Moses seemed to think the people needed to see the justice of God rather than the grace of God, and that is not what God wanted them to see at this time. There is a place for that, as the last generation had experienced, but not with this new group of people. God knew that they needed to see His mercy and grace, not judgment. In his arrogance, Moses thought he knew better than God. He reacted emotionally rather than with sensitivity to the people and to God’s plan. I know that we do the same in our relationships with people. We judge and condemn quickly, when God would have us show the world His grace and love.

3.      His pride was the cause of his choices. God tells Moses what he did wrong:

a.      Your faith in Me is still too small in that you did not trust My way as being the best way to bring these people along in their faith.

b.      You did not honor Me in the sight of the people by claiming power for yourself that is rightfully Mine. It was God who would bring the water out of the rock, not Moses.

c.      You did not give the people a proper perspective of My holiness because you skipped the grace and mercy and went right to the judgment.

As a result of this, after over 40 years of faithful leadership of the people, Moses was told that he and his brother Aaron would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land. Moses was judged by God by the same standard he had used to judge the people. God had not called the people “rebels”, Moses had, when in fact Moses was the rebel. Those guilty of rebellion were not allowed to experience the Promised Land. Let’s be careful that before we look at the speck in someone else’s eye we make sure we don’t have a log in our own. Let’s be people of obedience, honoring the holiness of God before people, and understand that it is grace and love that win the hearts of man.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, November 14, 2024

When I read the history of the Israelites, I am amazed at how visible God was and how rebellious the people were. In my pride I think, “If I could have seen the mighty works of God the way those people did I would never have doubted or grumbled.” Just look at their past experiences. They refused to enter the promised land because of the faithless testimony of ten spies, and they watched as God wiped them from the earth with a plague. Then, in Numbers 16, several key leaders began a mutiny of sorts against Moses, and 250 people formed a committee with the sole purpose of overthrowing Moses’ leadership. In response, God judged them severely and they were killed with the fire of the Lord. The very next day the Israelites grumbled against Moses and blamed him for the deaths of the leaders, and God again demonstrated His power by bringing a plague that killed 14,700 people.  Then, to affirm His call on Aaron’s life as the spiritual leader of the priesthood, God had each tribe’s leader place a staff in the tabernacle and declared that the chosen one would bud. In the morning, not only had Aaron’s staff budded, blossomed, and produced a harvest of almonds.

At this point I would have been on my face before God with thanksgiving for His love and repented of any doubts I had that He could provide for my every need.  Or would I have? The Israelites didn’t.

Numbers 20:2-5 “Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! Why did you bring the LORD’S community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”

What makes me think I would be any better than they were? The first time something went wrong again, they grumbled. They didn’t have any water, and they blamed God. It’s been over forty years at this point since they left Egypt, and most of the people who had refused to enter the Promised Land were dead by now. Those alive were the ones who were not held responsible for the rejection of God’s plan, but they looked back at their youthful days in Egypt and wanted to go back. All they could think about were the luxuries of life – figs, pomegranates, and grapes – rather than the way God had sustained them and provided for them for the past 40 years. I would like to think I would never do that, and I bet you do too.

But let’s look honestly at our own history. Take some time to do this exercise. Reflect on your past 40 years if you are that old and make a list of all the wonderful and powerful ways that God has worked on your behalf: physical protection, physical and emotional healing, financial provision, answered prayers of numerous varieties, loved ones saved, needs met, and so on. Your list will be a long one. Now look at the latest entry on the list – maybe it was yesterday or the day before. Have you complained since that event? Have you doubted since that direct experience with God? Has some circumstance of life caused you to turn inward instead of upward? I have. I’m ashamed. We are no different than the Israelites except we’re worse.

Why are we worse? Because the Israelites only saw the effects of God on their circumstances. We have the abiding presence of God living within us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Every moment of every day is a direct experience with God, and we still doubt and grumble. Something needs to change, and it is our faith. We must finally admit that our faith is not weak it is just misplaced. Our faith quickly turns from the invisible God to the visible self. Knowing the limitations of self, we soon turn from faith to doubt. We must return to faith in God. We must not look at the seemingly endless hardships of our life but rather we must look at the enduring love of the Father. He will not fail! He cannot fail!  Let’s fall on our faces today in repentance, confessing our doubts and grumblings and our need for faith in His everlasting love and care. He has done it in the past. He is still doing it!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, November 13, 2024

In our study of the life of Moses, we have reached the fifteenth chapter of Numbers, which is an interlude from the action in which God gives some more specific instructions about the sacrifices that were to be made when the people entered the Promised Land. I want to just take one thing from this, and then give you a short list of things God will never ask.

God has made it clear throughout Scripture that all things are His, and everything we have is to be at His disposal. As a fundamental of our faith, we are with gratitude to sacrifice the first and best of everything we have for the Lord’s work. This may mean that we live at a lower financial standard than our neighbors, but the value of our lives is not determined by our financial wealth but rather by our spiritual wealth. God made it clear to the Israelites, and to all of us, that our hearts condition is directly connected to what we consider the treasures of our lives. May our treasure never be earthly, but may our treasure always be heavenly.

Test your attitude about this with the following list of things God will not ask you on the Day you see Him in glory.

1… God won’t ask what kind of car you drove. 
He’ll ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation. 

 2… God won’t ask the square footage of your house, 
He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your home. 

 3… God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your closet,  
He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe. 

4… God won’t ask what your highest salary was.  
He’ll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it. 

 5… God won’t ask what your job title was. 
He’ll ask if you performed your job to the best of our ability. 

 6… God won’t ask how many friends you had.  
He’ll ask how many people to whom you were a friend. 

 7… God won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived, 
He’ll ask how you treated your neighbors. 

8 … God won’t ask about the color of your skin, 
He’ll ask about the content of your character.

Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Make sure your treasures are eternal so your heart is following Jesus.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Missed opportunities. It’s the story line of our lives. The story is much larger than we know. We remember with regret the times we should have gone right instead of left or the times we should have stopped instead of proceeding.  But there are so many other missed opportunities of which we are not aware. We know that we have spent many days listening only to self and have missed untold numbers of opportunities to listen to God’s direction. We are by nature sheep that have gone astray, and to compensate we have become fixers. We attempt to go back to where we went wrong and create another opportunity for correctness, hoping that this will soften or eliminate the consequences.

As we can see from today’s story, this doesn’t work when it is our own attempt to make up for sin. Our attempts to correct the consequences of sin are futile.

Numbers 14:39-43  When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly. Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. “We have sinned,” they said. “We will go up to the place the LORD promised.” Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the LORD’S command? This will not succeed! Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.” 

There are stories in the Bible where God directed the people to try again under His direction and they were successful, but this is not one of those times. It is our responsibility to always listen to God’s direction, even if that means suffering the consequences of a previous disobedience. Two wrongs never make a right.

This is why daily fellowship with God is so important. Several things are accomplished when we daily spend time with God:

1.      We train our heart and mind and spirit to listen to God and not the world, thereby becoming servants rather than self-serving.

2.      We come to a deeper understanding of God’s involvement in every detail of our lives.

3.      We move to a deeper level of love and trust as we see God’s heart of good in all that is done.

4.      We experience the thrill of being a partner with God in accomplishing His purpose, which motivates more listening and fewer missed opportunities.

If you are going through a time of hardship and suffering right now because of a missed opportunity or a disobeyed direction, only go back and try to do it over if you’re convinced that God has asked you to. And you will only know that if you are spending quality time with Him. There may not be any going back, but there is definitely a future based on the forgiveness of God. The strength of the Lord is His patience, love, and forgiveness. Fall on your knees before Him right now and ask to be restored. He will do it, and He will show you the direction to take today to get you back on His path. There may be consequences to endure, but there is fellowship to enjoy, and His Presence gives peace and strength. 

Pastor John