LifeLink Devotions for Friday, February 23, 2024

I remember a big news story from several years back about a missing teen who had been found after four years. He had been abducted from his community by a man who lived within an hour of the boy’s home. This man lived without suspicion with this boy as his own for the entire time. What a reunion it must have been when the boy and his parents were reunited. Of course, the United States judicial system will determine the guilt and punishment of the man who did this, but the real issue that must be addressed by the parents and the boy is this – how do we forgive this man so we can move on with our lives?

It is important for us to forgive people who have wronged us. But how do we forgive when the crime against us has been so brutal?  We must not be deceived into thinking that somehow we will feel better if we stay angry. No matter how severe the sin that was committed, the long term effects of unforgiveness are worse. Bitterness and resentment are the thorns that will grow in the soil of an unforgiving heart, and when they do they quickly choke out any harvest of the fruit of the Spirit that you could experience.

One of my favorite Bible characters, Joseph, had to make such a choice. You can read his story of forgiveness in Genesis 50, verses 15-21. I will wait while you do that.

Put yourself in Joseph’s place for a moment. Imagine that years ago several family members had conspired to kill you because of jealousy. Instead, they decided to ship you off to a foreign land as a slave. They then informed your parents that you were dead. Time for your first choice: rebel against your new master and attempt to rectify the situation or surrender to your plight and do your best to succeed for your master because you trust God with the outcome of your life. Joseph chose the latter. And he kept choosing to trust God with the outcome of his life through continuing difficulties. He was thrown in prison after being falsely accused of adultery. He was lied to by two prison friends who were to help him get released and they did not. Then, when he was finally in a position of leadership and had the power and authority to bring justice to those who had hurt him, he forgave them and gave them the best that he had. He could have had them all killed, or made slaves as he had been, but instead he chose to trust God. In one of the greatest statements of faith in the entire Bible Joseph says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done.” 

What would your choice have been? I suspect that for many of us we would have docked the ship of resentment in the harbor of our heart waiting for the day we could sail it on the sea of revenge. Maybe you have one or more ships like that already tied up. I heard an interesting statement the other day on a radio program that involved finances. It was this – “Don’t sit and wait for your ship to come in if you haven’t sent any out.” That principle applies here. Don’t wait for the ship of God’s blessing to come into your heart until you have sent out the ships of bitterness and resentment. God’s blessings cannot sail on the waters of unforgiveness. Where there is resentment there can be no hope. Where there is bitterness there can be no joy.  Where there is unforgiveness there can be no peace.

Think carefully and prayerfully – who do you need to forgive? Who do you need to call today and reassure them and speak kindly to them as Joseph did to his brothers? No matter what they did to you, the pain you are enduring because you have not forgiven them is greater than the pain of the sin that was committed. Untie those ships and send them out to the sea of forgiveness where they will be sunk in the grace of God and buried forever. Then open up the port of your heart because God is going to pour out a blessing on you – the blessing of restored relationships, just like the one you now have with Him.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, February 22, 2024

Our study of forgiveness brings us to a powerful story in the first book of the Bible. It would be good for you to read Genesis chapter 22, verses one through 14 right now.

Thanks for taking the time to read the entire story of Abraham and Isaac again. It is a beautiful picture of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for our sins so that we could be forgiven. The story is filled with many truths and we could spend days on their applications, but for today let me show you just one.

Twice in this story our key word nasa (the Hebrew word for forgiveness) is used, and both times it is translated as lifted. If Abraham had lived his life according to the flesh and the rules of society, he would never have agreed to take his son, his one and only son with his wife Sarah, and make a trip to a mountain to kill him as a sacrifice to God. Isaac was the son God had promised him, and now that he had him, and had an inheritance to pass on to him, he would never in his human reason consider such a thing. But Abraham’s eyes were not on the world and what he had, but they were on God and what God would do.

When I go on a trip, I can’t wait to see the finish line. The closer I get to the destination the more excited I become. I can recall two specific times that was not true. Each time it was because the final destination was the home of a parent who had just died or was about to die. I did not look forward to that destination. In fact, the closer I got the more I wanted to hang my head and cry. But look at Abraham. Three days into the journey he looks up and sees the destination. He knew where the place was. He didn’t have to look up to know where he was. He could have hung his head the closer he got, but he didn’t. He lifted up his eyes and saw the place where the sacrifice would take place, and he hurried on.

I think it’s significant that he lifted up his eyes on the third day. Why? Because I believe Abraham had a clear vision of faith that saw the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sin that would take place on a hill called Calvary. He lifted up his eyes and saw what God was going to do for all of us. By faith he told Isaac that God himself would provide a lamb. Some translators even state that the verse should read God would provide himself as a lamb. Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw Jesus as the Lamb of God. Then, at the moment he was prepared to sacrifice his son as a statement of absolute faith and trust in God to carry out His purpose even when it made no human sense, God intervened and told him to stop. Without any other words, Abraham again lifted up his eyes and saw the ram that the Lord had provided for the sacrifice. Then Abraham gave the mountain a new name – Jehovah-Jireh, meaning the Lord sees and will provide.

Listen, my friend, the Lord sees your need. The Lord has lifted up his eyes towards you. Psalms 11:4 says, “The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them.” The Lord sees that your greatest need is the forgiveness of your sin. The Lord sees that you are not able to forgive yourself. The Lord sees that you need a Savior who can rescue you from your sin and its consequences. And when the Lord sees, the Lord acts. He has provided a Lamb as a sacrifice for your sin. All that is necessary is for you to lift up your eyes towards the place of sacrifice and see the Lamb God has provided for your sin. Stop hanging your head in shame. Don’t be afraid of the final destination. On the mountain of the Lord there is forgiveness. Take all that is precious to you in this life and put it on the altar of sacrifice. Be willing to give up everything of earthly significance, and God will rescue you from your sin.

For those of you who have already done that, consider this: What have you taken back off the altar? In what areas of your life are you not lifting up your eyes to the Lord and trusting Him to be your provider? If our eyes are fixed on the world and the provision of the world, we will get only what the world can provide. When our eyes are lifted up and fixed on the mountain of sacrifice – the cross of Calvary – we will experience the provisions of heaven, the riches of glory available through Jesus Christ. The greatest of those riches is the knowledge of complete and unconditional acceptance by God, and that is only possible through the forgiveness of our sin. And such forgiveness is only possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.  

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, February 21, 2024

To fully grasp the wonder of forgiveness we must fully comprehend the wonder of the One who forgives. When God decided it was time to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin, He came to visit Abraham. Abraham’s nephew Lot was living in Sodom. Lot had become a somewhat worldly follower of God, but was still viewed by God as a man who was sensitive to righteousness. That’s why the angels of the Lord rescued him from the destruction. Lot had been taught about obedience to God. Lot had lived with Abraham and been mentored by him. But Lot loved the world and what it had to offer. He made his decisions based on the attractiveness of what the world offered rather than on faith in God’s provision. Lot’s life had little or no spiritual impact upon the people with whom he lived. Most of us today would consider him to be a lost cause. We would probably not spend much time trying to rescue him from the grips of sin, assuming that since he made his own bed, he has the right to lie in it. We might even go so far as to think that he deserves whatever punishment is coming his way.

Not Abraham. He pleads with God to allow not only Lot but also the whole city to survive for the sake of Lot.

Genesis 18:22-25 “The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.  Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?  Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Abraham asks God to spare them all. The word spare is our key word nasa, the Hebrew word for forgive. And what is the rationale for Abraham’s argument? The nature and character of God. Abraham appeals to what he knows to be true about God – that God forgives the righteous and does not punish them for their sin. He does not treat the righteous and the wicked alike. Even when the righteous are acting like the wicked, God, by His very nature, will do right.

Forgiveness is not dependent upon the perfection of the violator, but rather on the character of the one who was violated. Forgiveness is not earned but rather it is granted by a Righteous Judge who honors the humble confession of a repentant heart. He can do nothing less because His nature demands it. Forgiveness cannot be rescinded because efforts of behavior modification have failed, but it is granted once and for all for all eternity. At the moment of salvation, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is applied to the life of a sinner. They are declared justified by a righteous God, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The old nature of sin will never again be considered by God in determining our eternal destiny. Only the righteousness of Christ can be seen by God, and that will be honored for all eternity. We who are in Christ will be spared from the entire wrath of God against sin.

Jesus taught us to forgive others the same way. We are to model the nature and character of God when we forgive, and not make forgiveness contingent upon the offender’s perfection. The response of Jesus to Peter’s question in Matthew 18:21-22 take on a whole new significance in light of this truth. “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.” When a fellow Christian – a brother as Peter defines him – sins against us, we are to forgive as Christ forgave and continues to forgive us. You know how many sins there are in your life that you hate and wish you would never do again. But you still do them. So do I. But each time we repent with a humble heart before God, he forgives us. We must do the same for each other. If our forgiveness from God depended upon our character rather than His, none of us would yet be forgiven.

We have been forgiven and will be spared from all punishment for sin. With that glorious truth resounding in our lives, forgive others the same way.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Genesis 7:16-17  “Then the LORD shut him in. ¹⁷For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.” 

I don’t remember ever being afraid of water. I love to swim. I met my wife while we were both working as lifeguards at a city pool. If there’s water around, I want to be in it or on it. When I was a boy, I was the first one out in the spring getting in trouble with my mom for playing in the water. I love water. I’ve swum in both oceans and 4 of the 5 Great Lakes, including Lake Superior in early June while wearing a sweatshirt to try and stay warm. Only once have I come close to drowning, and although it really scared me, it did not stop me from getting right back into the water. The water was not to blame for what happened – I was. The water was only doing what water does. I was doing what I shouldn’t have been doing. I trust water. I don’t always trust me.

Like water, God can be trusted also, so long as we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. In the days of Noah, mankind was not doing what they were supposed to be doing. All but eight of the people on the earth at the time were living in total rejection of God. They are described this way in Genesis 6 – “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” They had become so self-centered and self-sufficient that they had no thoughts of God and only thoughts of evil all the time. They would not and could not hear the voice of God any longer and refused to believe that God would do anything about it. Their hearts were so hard against God and so focused on sin that God himself came to the conclusion that they were beyond hope. How horribly sad that is!

So God decided to destroy them all – except for Noah and his family. God chose water as the means of destruction. But that same water that would bury all of the sinners in eternal judgment would also lift Noah and his family to safety from the judgment. The word lift in today’s Scripture is the Hebrew word for forgiveness as we learned in yesterday’s devotional. The very process God chose to bring judgment upon the people who were living proudly in their sin is the same process by which God saved those who were living in obedience to Him. While millions were drowning, eight were being lifted high above the destruction. Noah and his family heard the call of God to “come into the ark.” (Gen. 7:1) They made the choice to accept that invitation, and “entered the ark.” (Gen. 7:13)  When they did, the power of God took over and “shut them in,” securing their safety from the storm. (Gen. 7:16)

God has always judged sin with death. But God has also provided a way for that judgment to become our salvation. God came to the earth in person when Jesus Christ His Son came to live among us. Then, after living a perfect life, God judged the sin of the world in the death of Jesus. Jesus became the water of judgment that will destroy all who do not believe in Him. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” But the same standard by which the sinner will be condemned has become the standard by which we escape condemnation. Once again Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” 

You see, when Jesus rose  from the dead He also became the water of salvation for those who trust Him. Here’s how the Apostle Peter describes it – “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Please note carefully that the water of baptism does not save you, but your trust and faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ saves you. The water of baptism is a symbol of what has happened in your heart when you chose to repent of your sin and be forgiven. You heard the call of Jesus to “Come unto me.”  You accepted His invitation by rejecting your sin and accepting Him as your Savior. Then God’s power took over and shut you in permanently, making you His child forever and guaranteeing you eternal life. Hallelujah!

The choice is yours. Water will do what water does. God will do what His Nature requires Him to do. He is pure and holy and just, and He will punish sin with death. The good news is that He has already punished it in Christ, and if we are in Christ then we are free from death and sin forever. Where do you stand? Are you in Christ seeking to serve Christ, or are you still in the world, seeking to serve self? If you are in Christ, your sins are forgiven, and you are free from judgment. If you are still in the world and have not trusted Christ, your judgment is still coming. What will you do? Jesus invites you into the ark to be saved.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, February 19, 2024

I have a weight problem. I’m carrying around far too much of it. Much more than I am supposed to be carrying. You’ve probably not noticed it, but it is a big problem for me. I’m not talking about my large belly. You’ve seen that, and it is a problem I am addressing. I’m talking about another weight problem – a much more serious one. God is making me more aware of it now than ever before in my life. I’m talking about the weight of sin.

God has placed a word on my heart and I am convinced that I am supposed to spend some time investigating it. Every day this word runs across the flashing billboard of my brain. Songs that have the word in them come to my mind and I find myself singing them. It is obviously the place that God wants me to be for right now. For some reason known only to Him and to be revealed to me as I follow His leading, God wants me to spend some time digging for nuggets of gold in the mine of forgiveness. I invite you to come along on this daily expedition as we seek to discover the wealth of this truth – we are forgiven!

We begin where the Bible begins – in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word translated forgive is used some 650 times in its root form in the Old Testament. The word is nasa, and means “to lift, to carry, and to take away.”  The first time the word is used in the Bible is in Genesis 4:13, where following the murder of his brother Abel, Cain is punished by God and responds to Him by saying, “My punishment is more than I can bear.” 

The weight of sin on any of our lives is more than we can lift or carry. Our attempts to be free from the burden are varied. We may deny that the sin really exists, as Cain did when God rejected his offering, and he became angry at God. God gave Cain a chance to do the right thing, but Cain rejected God’s offer of acceptance. We sometimes do the same. We choose to believe that our way is right even when God calls it wrong. We try to convince ourselves and others that what we are doing is not sin. We try to earn our acceptance by making ourselves right, even if it means eliminating from our lives those that make us feel guilty for what we are doing.

Sometimes we lie in an attempt to cover our guilt and personal responsibility for our choices. When God asked Cain where his brother was, Cain responded, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”  He lied about what he had done. Denial is of the Devil. Satan is the father of lies. Lying begins in the heart of a self-centered person who requires approval and acceptance from people. Lying is the product of pride. Lies are designed by a deceived person trying to avoid rejection and protect image. We fail to understand that lies are yet another sin which add to the weight of the burden we cannot lift. We quickly fall into the humanly inescapable quicksand of sin. The more we try to struggle against it, the deeper we sink.

Sometimes we seek the comfort of the world to relieve the pain of our sin. When Cain was expelled from the presence of the Lord because of his choice to protect his position rather than repent, he began to build a city. He put all his energy into finding satisfaction from what the world had to offer. He even named the city after his son. He did not include God in any of his plans. The world became his opiate. The world offers many empty promises of relief from sin: promises we quickly and easily accept as truth. Financial success, social status, sex, alcohol, drugs, and on goes the list. Each promise proves itself addictive to the process of pursuing more promises. The temporary relief we may experience ultimately compounds the burden of our sin because we have failed to realize that each promise is itself another sin.

But in the middle of all of this was a promise from God to Cain that is made to all of us as well – “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” There is a solution to our weight problem. God will carry the total weight of our sin if we release it to Him and do what is right. It is in that moment of repentance that we find forgiveness.

In the days ahead we will dig out many nuggets of treasured truth about forgiveness, but the first lesson is this – the weight of our sin is more than we can carry. We cannot take it away by ourselves. We must give it to the One who can carry it, and once we do, we NEVER have to carry it again. That means surrendering our rights, telling the truth, and living according to God’s purpose and not the world’s pursuits. Isn’t it time to have the weight of sin lifted off of your life? God wants to do it, and He can. Turn to Him today!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, September 16, 2024

For the third time in his second letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul addresses the subject of hardships. In his first reference to trials and trouble (2 Cor. 1:8-9) we learned that hardship is designed by God to teach us to trust Him. In his second reference to hardships, we learned that they are the measuring stick of our true Christ-like character. Now in this passage, Paul teaches us that hardships are how God controls our pride and keeps us humble.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 “To keep me from getting puffed up, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from getting proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

In a moment of great transparency Paul reveals to us that he struggled with pride. Some may argue that telling the truth is not always prideful, but for Paul it would have been. The truth was that Paul had been granted a privilege that no other person has experienced since the ascension of Jesus into glory. He saw the risen Lord in person. Then he was taken up into glory to see things so astounding he was commanded by Jesus to not speak of them. Paul had every reason to boast about his spiritual experiences and to use them as a validation of his authority over the people of the local churches. But Paul also knew that his pride would soon cause him to displace God as the focus of His ministry and draw all of the attention to Himself. So he adds a qualifier at the end of his statement – “but I am not going to do it. I am going to boast only about my weaknesses.”

God also knew that Paul would struggle with pride, as we all do, so He gave Satan permission to torment Paul with a thorn in the flesh. We are not told what it was, and that’s a good thing. If we knew what the specific thorn was, then we might be tempted to believe that because we don’t have it we are not proud and don’t need to be humbled – which in itself is an indication of pride. The Holy Spirit does not tell us what the thorn is because He wants to teach us a principle – hardships are designed by God to keep us from becoming proud. Hardships reveal our weaknesses. Hardships reveal our inability to control life and its circumstances. Hardships reveal our need for companionship and comfort. Hardships humble us so that we see ourselves in relationship to the reality of God. Hardships allow the power of God to be fully expressed in us, because we finally admit that our power is useless to handle the hardship.

According to Paul, there are two ways live our lives each day: first, we can live them according to our own strengths and experiences, using our knowledge to determine the context and outcome of each event. In this choice, hardships are the opportunities provided to us to prove ourselves and to gain confidence in who we are. Or, second, we can live our lives humbly before God, recognizing that every hardship is an opportunity for God to prove Himself to us and for our faith in Him to grow.

Consider the two alternatives carefully. Paul says that the second option makes him the strongest. The rules of logic say this – if we are strongest when we admit we are weak, then we must be weakest when we think we are strong. If you are trying to accentuate your strengths and handle your hardships in your own abilities, you will be proven weak. You really don’t want to go there. But if you admit your weaknesses then the power of God is able to work through you and you will experience His strength. It all boils down to what our motives are – do we want recognition or do we want what Paul wanted – for the focus to be on God and not self. Remember what he said – “I don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than what they can actually see in my life and my message.” How you let God handle your hardships becomes the evidence ofyour faith.

Your present hardships, whether a temporary or a permanent thorn, are a gift from God to keep His power fully working in your life by reminding you of how weak you really are. Stop fighting it. Stop trying to fix it. God is using your weakness to reveal His power to you. Let your faith and trust in Him grow by letting go. His outcomes are perfect for His glory and your good. Trust His grace to be sufficient for you today and every day.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, February 15, 2024

There’s an old saying that suddenly means something new to me in the light of today’s Scripture passage. The question was asked, “If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Here’s how the Apostle Paul describes his evidence:

2 Corinthians 6:3-4 “We try to live in such a way that no one will be hindered from finding the Lord by the way we act, and so no one can find fault with our ministry.  In everything we do we try to show that we are true ministers of God.” 

When the world looked at the way Paul lived, how could they tell he was a follower of Jesus? Without any detailed explanations, here is the list Paul gives us in verses  four through ten that can be the measuring stick of our own spiritual integrity as we live for Jesus in a lost world. Let each point convict you where it must and encourage you where it can.

1. Patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind, including beatings, jail, angry mobs, being over worked to exhaustion, enduring sleepless nights, and going without food. 
2. Prove yourselves by your purity, your understanding, your patience, your kindness, your sincere love, and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Go back and slowly read each of those again and let each one sink in and have an impact on your spirit and mind.
3. Faithfully preach the truth. Be a consistent witness for Jesus Christ.
4. God’s power has been working in us. Can the people of the world see the power of God in how we live or do they just see a powerful person?
5. We have righteousness as our weapon. Knowing what is right and then doing what is right no matter what the outside influence is on our lives gives us the strength to both defend ourselves and to mount an attack against the evil of our day.
6. We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are not people pleasers but instead we honor God by serving Him and serving people no matter what they think or say about us.
7. We are honest, but they call us impostors. We are well known, but we are treated as unknown. We do not compromise for the sake of recognition.
8. We live close to death, but here we are, still alive. We have been beaten within an inch of our lives.The body may be bruised, but our spirit cannot be broken. We are alive from the inside out.
9. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy.We may be emotionally drained, but the joy of the Lord is our strength.
10. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything. The treasures of heaven outweigh the treasures of earth, and we are content.

Simply stated, the hardships of life are to become the evidence of our faith and trust in God. Take time to consider your evidence.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, February 14, 2023

Philippians 1:9 “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more…”

2 John 1:6 “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”

There are a lot of joybells ringing today. Cards, gifts and flowers are being delivered to people all over the world as an expression of deep and sincere love. Everyone wants to have a valentine and to be a valentine to someone else. But the holiday for expressing love may be tainted by the motivation of the gift-giver. In the best-case scenario, the gifts are well thought out and have been planned for days or even weeks in advance. These gifts are the expression of true love that considers the other person first with no thought for the return benefit. The giver of the gift is stating clearly, “No matter what happens in life or regardless of your response, I will love you and give myself for you because you have captured my heart. Nothing in life can separate me from you.”

But other gifts are designed to elicit a certain response from the recipient, and in varying degrees are manipulative and self-serving. The giver has planned a gift that they know will be meaningful to the recipient, but the purpose of the gift is to have a reciprocation that makes them feel loved. In their mind they are saying, “I know this will make you express your love to me so that I can feel like a valentine to someone.”

And still others are scrambling to find that last minute card or gift in an attempt to avoid the appearance of not caring, when in fact the lack of planning to express love may reflect the self-centered nature of the gift. This person is saying to himself, “Oh no! I had better find something good to cover up for the reality that I didn’t care enough to plan this out. If I can find just the right thing, they will never have to know that other events in my life were more important than they were.”

Selfishness affects us all. But it has never affected God. His gift of love to us in the person of Jesus Christ was planned before the foundations of the world. Read with joy the following passage from the heart of God:

Ephesians 1:3-8 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love hepredestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

God gave His gift with no strings attached and no need for reciprocation. John 3:16 quotes Jesus when He says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  His gift was an expression of His heart and His unconditional love. Paul says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  God gave the perfect Valentine – His Son – to die for our sins so that we might know what real love is. And now that we know, we are privileged to live in that love in relationship to others.

 So today when you give your cards, flowers, and gifts to the one you love, let it be an expression of God’s love – unselfish, undemanding, and with no need for reciprocity. Let your gift be an expression of your love and commitment to another person regardless of their response, and then let your love be lavished on that person in such a way that it honors God and demonstrates the reality of His love in your heart.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 

Years ago a very good friend of mine went through a terrible hardship in his family. His daughter was diagnosed with cancer at age 18. It was a roller coaster ride of emotions that lasted for several years with ongoing issues even today. Numerous surgeries were performed, each one giving them hope that it would be the last, and then their hopes would be dashed by more complications. They literally felt the sentence of death in their hearts. They knew what it was to be at the end of their rope. They translated Paul’s phrase in our Scripture passage today “we despaired even of life” into a two-word statement – “this sucks.”  Please forgive the crudeness of how that sounds, but it’s true. Sometimes life hurts so bad that we can only look at it in despair. We are under such pressure that it is beyond our ability to endure, and certainly beyond our capacity to resolve.

But this family did not stay in that condition. They relied on the grace and comfort of God. They learned that in the experience of death, even if only in their hearts, there is the experience of the resurrection power of God who raises the dead. The same God who raised Jesus from a death caused by the compounded effect of all mankind’s sin can raise us from the individual sentence of death we are experiencing. Human logic dictates this truth. If it has been proven that a man can lift 250 pounds over his head, then it is entirely logical to assume that he can lift one pound over his head. Since God was able to raise Jesus from the dead, and the death of Jesus was caused by the total weight of all mankind’s sin, then it is logical to believe that God can easily raise one sinner from the dead.

That’s exactly what my friend’s family believed. Against all human logic and hopelessness, they trusted God to be their strength and courage to endure the hardship. Today they are the living examples of hardship-constructed character. The daughter is now married to a wonderful man of God who stood by her during all the years of her battle with cancer. My friend and his wife have learned what it means to trust God every day, and to use every hardship as an opportunity to rely on the God who raises the dead. They illustrate today’s truth that hardship produces trust in God. Smooth sailing results in self-trust. Rough waters cause us to turn to the Master and let Him handle the storm.

So whatever you are going through right now, stop trying to control it. Stop trying to fix it. Stop trying to change it. Just look at it and in whatever words are appropriate for you tell God that you “feel the sentence of death.”  Then trust Him completely to handle the situation and bring about an outcome that honors His name. Then you will be able to say with Paul, “He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.” (2 Cor. 1:10) 

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Monday, February 12, 2024

 Introductory note: Last Friday we completed a study of encouragement. The last passage of Scripture I wanted to use on that subject is also the first passage I want to use to introduce our next study. You can see how they are connected when you read today’s verses.

Hebrews 12:4-7 “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  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.” 

If the average person who calls himself a Christian was asked how he knows he is a son of God, he would probably not come up with the answer described in today’s Bible verses. Granted, it is not the only answer, but it is a significant one. In addition to the more common responses like “I obey God’s commands” (1 John 5:2), “I love the brothers and sisters in Christ” (1 John 3:10), and “I hate sin” (1 John 5:18), we should also be able to say that we know we are a child of God because He disciplines us. It may not be the first response we think of, but it is the only response that I can find that has encouragement connected with it.

Hardship is a universal fact of life. Everyone suffers in one way or another – sometimes in more than one way at the same time. But if we are going to be encouraged by the words of God that describe suffering as discipline, then we must consider the nature of our suffering. Not all suffering is discipline, because not all suffering is a struggle against sin. Some suffering is the result of sin. I see very clearly here that there are two types of Christians. First, there are those who continually struggle with sin and suffer the consequences of their sin while seeking the forgiveness of their Father. They understand grace, but they don’t experience victory. The second type of Christian is the one who continually struggles against sin. He also suffers consequences, but they are not as a result of his sin but rather his stand against sin. His hardships are caused by a sinful society that persecutes him for his faith.

The author of Hebrews tells us that both types of Christians are experiencing the discipline of God. The Christian who sins is rebuked by God because God loves him as a son and wants his behavior to change. This is corrective discipline. The Christian who struggles against sin and then suffers for it is also being disciplined. It is not corrective discipline but rather constructive discipline. His character is being constructed to be the character of Christ. Both types of discipline are for our good, and we must submit to them. Later on in this passage in Hebrews we read “God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Consider the maturing process that should occur in all Christian’s lives. As a father and a grandfather, I would not be satisfied if my children and their children stayed at the level of needing corrective discipline. As they grow and mature, there should be less correction and more construction of character. A much higher level of intimacy is achieved between parent and child when construction of character is being accomplished.

That is to be the model for our Christian walk as well. As we grow in our faith, there should be less sin to struggle with and more strength to struggle against sin. Then we will experience the depth of intimacy with Christ that He said is possible. Then we will understand the fullness and abundance of life that He promised. Do not be satisfied with sin. Do not consider it a necessary reality of human existence. You do not have to live with the consequences of sinful choices. You can grow up into a Christian who struggles against sin rather than with sin. You will still have to endure hardships, but they will not be ridden with guilt and shame. Sinful choices bring sinful consequences and shameful experiences. Sacred choices may result in painful consequences which the world intends to shame us, but we have One who has given us a model to follow. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (emphasis mine).

Be encouraged. If you are sinning and suffering for it, God is disciplining you because you are His child so that you can grow up. If you are struggling against sin and suffering for it, God is disciplining you as His son to make you just like His Son. Do not grow weary of the discipline. Do not lose heart. You are being trained to share in the holiness of God. That’s good!

Pastor John