LifeLink Devotions (Click here for Apple podcast)

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Children, and even grandchildren, can be a source of both joy and sorrow. From the moment they are born we invest our time and energy into nurturing them and teaching them the values that will sustain them through this difficult preparation period for eternity. We set up boundaries and provide guidance, knowing from our own experience the consequences of ignoring them. To the children we may seem mean, unfair, and constricting, but our motive is to protect them and show them true freedom. When we finally trust them to make decisions for themselves, and they reject the training we gave them, we are grieved. We experience the pain of knowing the pain they are going to experience. Our love for them magnifies the sorrow. We hurt even more deeply because they have chosen not to trust our guidance. We may even think they have rejected our love. We experience both the grief of watching someone we love being hurt, and the grief of our own rejection.

Now consider the response of the Holy Spirit of God when we reject His teaching and guidance.

Ephesians 4:30  “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Triune God. He is the fullness of God and the spiritual expression of the living Christ who dwells in each and every born-again believer. He has personality, emotions, and feelings, all existing in sinless perfection. He brings to us all the nature and characteristics of God as seen in Jesus Christ. He is God’s gift at the request of Jesus, so that His life might be lived in and through us. He teaches us all the things we need to know about Jesus so our lives will be lived to His glory and honor. He guides us into all truth. He gives wisdom for every decision. His love is God’s love, complete and perfect, and motivates every input into our lives. His influence is constant. His patience is perpetual.

Yet He can be grieved. Every time His influence is ignored, He is grieved. Each time His wisdom is outweighed by our wishes, He is grieved.  Whenever we turn from trusting Him to trust in self, He experiences the pain of rejection. If we, as parents and grandparents who love deeply yet imperfectly, can experience such sorrow over a child’s rebellion, how much more deeply does the One who loves perfectly feel that pain? All rejection of the Holy Spirit’s direction is rebellion. All choices made to please self are rebellion. All distrust of the Holy Spirit’s love and purpose is rebellion. All rebellion grieves Him.

It not only grieves the Holy Spirit when we rebel, but it grieves Him when we redefine rebellion to justify our rebellion. How often are we guilty of justifying sin because it provides us immediate gratification? It is time for revival in the church of Jesus Christ, and it must start with our repentance from sin. That is only going to happen when we truly define sin as God does. The Holy Spirit who lives within us has taught how God defines sin. He reveals every temptation to sin when it shows up in our lives. We are grieving the Holy Spirit when we ignore His input for whatever reason. Imagine the power of God that will be revealed in and through us in our churches if we would all live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and stop grieving Him. Imagine the number of people who would come to Christ if they saw the effects of His transforming power in our lives.

The Holy Spirit knows the will of God for our lives. He is intimately involved in every detail.  He is constantly present providing wisdom. He knows exactly how to nurture us and teach us the values that will sustain us through this life. Do not grieve Him by ignoring Him. Do not grieve Him by distrusting Him. Do not grieve Him by rejecting His influence. Surrender to Him, for in that surrender you will be truly free.

Pastor John

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Monday, March 14, 2022

One day a man was driving down a lonely stretch of country road, when he saw another car approaching. As the car got closer, he observed the driver waving her hand out the window. He was totally focused on her, and as they passed, she was screaming at him. The only word he heard was “Pig!” He was furious, and immediately yelled back, “Idiot!” He was still looking at her in his rearview mirror when he crashed into a huge pig that was standing in the road.

Clear communication is so very important. In just one verse of Scripture today we are given several principles that will help us be better communicators.

Ephesians 4:29  “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.“

First, good communication is motivated by the needs of others and not our own needs. The woman who yelled “pig” was not satisfying some emotional need to belittle another person to elevate her own worth, but she was attempting to help another person. She observed a need, and she tried to meet it. So much of our communication is wrapped up in self and not in others. That’s why we get in trouble with our words. Communication that is intended to draw attention to self will result in hurt and shame, both to the hearer and the speaker. When we learn to seek the benefit of others we will be seen as exceptional communicators.

Second, we are to be in control of our words. Words are a choice. We must learn to make wise choices about words. We are to be in control of our words, so that no unwholesome talk comes out of our mouths. Words are an indicator of what’s in our heart. Jesus said, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Jesus also said, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’”  Hurtful words that come from our mouth originate in a sinful heart.  

Finally, being a good communicator doesn’t require good listeners. What? You heard right. Good communication does not require people to listen. Our Scripture does not say that our words will benefit everyone. It says they are to be spoken so that they will benefit those who choose to listen. Not everyone chooses to listen. Does that mean we are communicating poorly? Not necessarily. If our communication is wholesome and spoken to benefit another person and meet their needs, and if our words will build that person up and help them grow in the spiritual maturity, then our communication is good. It is now their choice to listen or not. We are not responsible for the application of our communication: we are only responsible for the content and motive of our words.

Some people will listen. Others will crash into pigs. We do not take credit for those who listen, and we do not take responsibility for those who don’t. If we have designed our words based on the need of the person to whom we are speaking, then we have fulfilled our responsibility. Don’t get trapped in the bondage of believing that we are responsible for the results. That’s God’s territory, not ours. We are only responsible to communicate the truth out of our love for others. God handles the application. 

Pastor John

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Friday, March 11, 2022

Membership in the body of Christ provides the most complete and fulfilling form of relationship with others. Or at least it’s supposed to. Most of the time we don’t get to experience the joy of intimacy the way God intended because we are overly focused on our personal feelings or the feelings of others. Now don’t misinterpret that. I know we are to be sensitive and concerned about the feelings of others, but I think within the body of Christ we have exaggerated that concern to the point of sin. Let me explain.

Ephesians 4:25-27  “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” 

When Paul wrote these words he did not state two distinct issues separated by a verse marking. I believe the issue of speaking truthfully to one another and the issue of unresolved anger are intricately connected. The devil has a foothold in our lives and in our churches because we don’t see that connection. Let me explain it.

First, silence can be falsehood. Not speaking the truth is lying, whether it is the actual verbal expression of untruth or the withholding of truth by silence. We sin against the other members of the body of Christ when we fail to speak the truth to them. Of course, the presentation of that truth is critical – it must be done in love.

A few years ago, I played my last softball game of my life with our church team. I was so excited to be a part of the team, and to have all the young, athletic, macho guys accept me as one of them, even though the age and physical conditioning differences are obvious. Prior to the game, I spent some time on the grass stretching my leg muscles. Ouch! They were so out of shape. Each time I would stretch they would scream at my brain and tell them they were hurting. My brain told the other parts of my body to slow down a little and be considerate of those muscles until they reached the flexibility level that was desired. My hamstring rejoiced that his voice had been heard, and that the other members of the body had rallied to his assistance. In the end, the whole body was able to function to the best of its current ability.

There would have been a different outcome if my brain had not heard the voice of my hamstring and continued to command running hard. I would have been hurt for a long time and the body would not have been able to function in a competitive manner. But what if my hamstring, not wanting to offend the other muscles that were ready to play, had kept silent about his need or his pain? That lie would have had the same result of disabling my body. The first time I rounded first base and dug for second on a hit I would have probably pulled up as I grabbed the back of my thigh and screamed in pain. Silencing hurts is falsehood. In the body of Christ, all hurts, all pains, all offenses are to be openly communicated and dealt with in love. It’s what makes for true intimacy. It’s what keeps the body of Christ healthy.

The second point is this – when we keep silent about our hurts, it causes anger to develop into bitterness. Anger is the emotional response to hurt and pain. Anger itself is not sin. Most people, when asked to explain how anger becomes sin, respond with something like, “when it leads us to do something sinful.” They usually mean that the anger leads us to acts of vengeance, spite, gossip, or other form of redirected pain toward others. However, in the context of these verses, the sin Paul is referring to is the sin of silence. We sin against each other when we live under the pretense that all is well, while inside we are seething with anger. We sin against our own spirit and its relationship with the Holy Spirit when we bury our true feelings and deny their expression within the context of the loving, caring, and forgiving body of Christ. We give Satan a foothold in our lives and in our church by planting the seed of bitterness when we don’t deal with issues of hurt feelings and anger before the sun goes down on them. We justify that course of action by claiming that we don’t want the rest of the body to be hurt, when in fact we are hurting it more deeply than by speaking the truth.

The Body of Christ is to be the most fulfilling form of relationship with others. Silence does not enhance relationships. Some issues may be insignificant and need to simply be overlooked. That’s what Paul meant when he said we are to “bear with one another in love.” When our silence is bearing with one another in love, then our spirit will not be angry. We can’t have it both ways. If what happened makes us angry, then we must deal with it in a loving way. Every stretch of the muscles brings greater health to the whole body and prepares us all for running the race with greater efficiency.

Pastor John

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Thursday, March 10, 2022

How bad is it? People jump at the chance to answer that question. It seems that everyone has an opinion on how bad things are compared to what they used to be. But a quick look at history reveals that sin has always abounded in humanity and its effects have always ravaged society. Sure, things are bad right now, but are they really any worse than they were in the days of Noah when God destroyed the whole population of the world because of their sin except for eight faithful people? Are things really worse now than they were for Sodom and Gomorrah when homosexuality was so rampant that the men of the city wanted to have sex with God’s angels? Are things really any more corrupt now than they were in the days of the Persian Empire when anyone who defied the King was run through with a pole from their bottom through their head and put on display in the city streets? Are Christians in parts of the world any less safe than they were in the days of the Roman Empire?

The followers of Jesus Christ have succumbed to the false notion that somehow things are so bad that there’s nothing we can do. We are convinced that we are powerless to affect change. We seem to almost gloat in the false reality that we are living in the worst of times. The effect of such thinking is to empower evil and minimize the power of God. Such thinking has become so prevalent that the church of Jesus Christ has allowed the infiltration of evil into its doors, and the followers of Jesus are unconcerned about the presence of sin in their lives. We have convinced ourselves that it’s just the reality of the times in which we live. Sin abounds around us, so it’s not that a big deal if it abounds in us.

But since Adam sin has always abounded, yet that is never a justification for its presence in the life of a Christian. There is a new life born in us that rejects the presence of sin and evil – the life of the sinless Jesus Christ. In Him we are a new creation. All the old has passed away and all things are made new. His life will change our thinking about sin, giving us a totally new attitude. His life will lead us to true righteousness and holiness. His life will not tolerate shared space with sin.

Ephesians 4:22-24  “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.“

Our complacency to sin is a sad commentary on the compromised condition of our conscience. Our compliance with sin is completely contrary to Christ’s life in us. Our lifestyle identification with the world reveals the true love of our hearts. Love for self has overwhelmed love for Christ. Choices are motivated by personal fulfillment. The old self still sits securely on the throne of our lives. But the Bible tells us that it doesn’t have to. It is there by our choice. There is an alternative. We can choose to put it off and put on its place the new life of Christ. In fact, for all those who truly love Jesus, this will be the reality. Maybe you were never taught that. I’m sorry for the misinformation you were given about what salvation is. When Jesus saves you from your sin, He saves you from your sin. It is not salvation if there is not deliverance. You have been delivered from your sin by the power of the resurrected Christ, who conquered all sin and its consequence of death. It is false thinking to believe that we can have the life of Christ and continue to live a life of sin. Those who are in Christ have crucified the old self, and daily put to death all of its desires so that their lives reflect the true love of their hearts, which is their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (Please read Romans chapter 6)

So how bad is it? It’s bad. Always has been. Always will be. But what makes it worse is that those who know Jesus are living as slaves of sin. Instead, we should live as Paul says in Romans 6:17-18. “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” It’s time to start living our faith!

Pastor John

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Wednesday, March 9, 2022

People are lost. They are hopeless. They are crying out for meaning. Here is a story that will stimulate your determination to share the hope of Jesus Christ with others.

During a time of incredible pain and suffering, one dad I know was an incredible example of faith. He modeled a peace that passes all understanding. He and I talked many times about the reason God took him on that journey. We were convinced that God would bring unsaved people to the point of salvation as they saw his faith. God used his struggle to help the hopelessly confused.

One day my friend received this email.

“I have been praying for your family for so long now, following your triumphs, and have been truly touched by your faith and love. I hope this does not strange but for such a long time I have been searching for my place – my connection – my way to find meaning. Through following your story, I am so motivated to develop my relationship with God. What you share makes sense to me – if you do not mind directing to where I can find fellowship like you have described. I feel silly asking and sorry for bothering you. Thank you and bless you all!“

Here’s what my friend wrote back…

“What a joy to receive your email this morning. When I read it, I just smiled and thought to myself…”Lord, this is why we are going through this, to inspire people like this”. I’m so excited to hear that you are wanting to press forward in your relationship with God. Let me ask you something…Have you personally asked Jesus Christ into your life? Have you admitted before Him that you are a sinner and that you need Jesus, and the blood that He shed on Calvary, to cleanse you from your sin? If you have done that, now you just grow in that truth. If you haven’t done that, and you have questions about that, we can work through that too.”

“So, I go to Calvary Baptist Church in Eau Claire and ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! Our pastor preaches from the Bible every week. Everyone is so accepting and loving. We stress prayer and the power that is found in it. We focus on Christ and His redeeming grace. We don’t stray from the word of God, and we don’t compromise it either. If you want to grow in your relationship with Jesus and meet people who will love you for who you are….Calvary Baptist is the spot.“

Of course, as I read this email I started to cry, because the Gospel was being shared with an unbeliever. What a thrill for any of us to have the opportunity to present the simple message of God’s love to someone who is lost in their sin. But the confusion and delusion of sin is not easily overcome.

Ephesians 4:17  “With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused.” 

Here is what the person wrote back to my friend.

“I am so sorry I have not gotten back to you. I just didn’t know what to do next. I did receive your email and was so happy to hear from you then as well.  You and your family were brought into my life for a reason, but I have to be totally honest with you I feel kind of lost in this whole process. I was raised as a holiday Catholic and do not have very much familiarity with the Bible. I consider myself an intellectual person, but  I
wonder at times if I have missed the boat in how to have a solid relationship with God.  I want to have this beautiful love and peace that you have but don’t know how to do that. Don’t get me wrong, I live my life believing in God and doing good and being as good of a person as I know how to be.  But I just feel like I have had this void and I don’t really know how to go about filling it. I mean really do I just start reading the Bible front to back? Do I just pick a section?“

“I have to admit that I am a person that gets nervous in meeting and dealing with new people – in situations that I am not too familiar with.  Worried that I won’t fit a certain mold that people expect.  Please don’t take it as I am some basket case – I am just being completely open with you. You actually met a very good friend of mine with her daughters at the play place at the mall one day – and we both have just been so inspired by you and your family.  We are both seeking to find the right paths in our lives.  I looked your church up on the net and it seems to have some exciting things going on but all I think is where would I fit in? How?….”

“At times I wonder if maybe I am just not one of those people that find that peace, that have that relationship, I am not perfect person but I want to find that faith and joy that you have…I just don’t know how to do it. Where to start…”

“So…now that I have dumped that load on your shoulders. I just want to thank you! You have so much going on in your life and yet you make time to think of and check on me…if I am overwhelming you, I am sorry. But I just feel like I have been lost for awhile now and may need some help in finding my way.”

This person and her friend are a microcosm of our culture and should motivate us to be intentionally sharing the Gospel with as many people as possible. People need Jesus to overcome the deception of living a good life to earn salvation. People need to experience the unconditional love of Jesus that accepts them. You have the opportunity to touch someone else’s life with how you live out your faith in Jesus Christ every day.

Pastor John

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Tuesday, March 8, 2022

I am a Boomer. Some of you are Builders, while others are Busters. Some of you belong to Generation X. Some are called Post-Moderns. We all carry a generational label that attempts to define the characteristics of our era. Each generation is a response and/or reaction to the previous one. Most generations rebel in some way against the standards of the previous one. Every generation appears to be identified by what it is seeking to change.

The characteristics of each generation also get carried over into the context of Christianity. One recent trend was for the post-modern thought of those born since 1980 to seek to transform the church. Those who advocated such change adopted the overall name of “The Emerging Church.” It has now evolved into what is called Progressive Christianity.” While some of the points they make seem valid and the changes they suggest appear valuable, the underlying theology of the movement is troubling. They teach that truth is based on experience not on proposition. Theology is open to debate. The goal of Christians is to live out their faith in such a way that culture is transformed, and we are to bring the kingdom of God to earth. The redemption of society is our highest call rather than redemption from sin. And probably the most disturbing to me of all their beliefs is this – there should be no line of distinction between those who are “in” and those who are “out. In other words, there is no reason to proclaim a “Gospel”, because who are we to judge whether someone else’s beliefs are valid or not. 

Ephesians 4:14  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 

Scot McKnight, author and theologian, wrote an article entitled, Five Streams of the Emerging Church in Christianity Today, He states, “This emerging ambivalence about who is in and who is out creates a serious problem for evangelism. The emerging movement is not known for it, but I wish it were. Unless you proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, there is no good news at all—and if there is no Good News, then there is no Christianity, emerging or evangelical.”

He goes on and states, “So I offer here a warning to the emerging movement: Any movement that is not evangelistic is failing the Lord. We may be humble about what we believe, and we may be careful to make the gospel and its commitments clear, but we must always keep the proper goal in mind: summoning everyone to follow Jesus Christ and to discover the redemptive work of God in Christ through the Spirit of God.”

I can’t and won’t claim to know the motivation for these generational church movements, but I can offer some observations. If the primary purpose for any change in church ministry or philosophy is not to win more people to Jesus, then not only is the change wrong but the heart of the initiator of the change is also wrong. And if the fundamental theological truths of Scripture are not proclaimed as non-negotiable, absolute truth, then the movement is not valid, no matter how much cultural relevance or social impact it has.

It is clear in Ephesians 4 that there is only one body – the body of Christ – made up of those who are born again by one Spirit. There is only one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God, the Father of all. In Christ we are called to grow up in Him until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, becoming mature. We are not called to live as infants, subject to every wind of teaching that comes along and appeals to our itching ears. We are not called to allow for alternative experiences of faith that satisfy the flesh. We are not brought to unity by debate. We are not made one by adopting a purpose to transform society. We do not redefine redemption so that it applies to transforming culture. We are one in Christ, and in Christ alone. We are not mature because we are tolerant and accepting of untruth. We are mature when we stand firmly in the one truth of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross that must be experienced individually before any social transformation can take place.

I’m sure there are well-meaning people in the new generation of churches who have a deep heart-felt desire to know God and serve Him. However, there is a cunning deception going on that undermines the essential of absolute truth. I urge you to be careful. Be cautious. Be spiritually discerning. Any movement that puts the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a secondary role to anything else, no matter how morally right or socially beneficial, is wrong. Let us be infants no longer. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4:15)

Pastor John

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Monday, March 7, 2022

Soon the garden shops will be bursting with plants for the upcoming gardening season. People will be anxious for the last of the snow to melt so they can begin preparing ground for the planting of all their fruits and vegetables. There’s a lot of work to be done to prepare to produce a harvest.

I remember the year we changed a portion of our back yard into a garden. First, we skimmed off the grass and weeds that were growing in the spot where we wanted the garden located. Then, landscape timbers were dug into place and stacked two or three high so the garden would be slightly elevated. Then black dirt was hauled in and spread inside the box. Fence posts were installed so the garden could be enclosed to protect it from all the rabbits we have in our woods. Final soil preparations and fertilization were done, and then we were able to plant. It was great feeling to watch all of the work begin to grow and develop into something that bore fruit. It took great patience and constant nurturing, but the harvest was worth it.

Ephesians 4:11-13  “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.“

Being a gardener and being a pastor are similar. The church is the ground in God’s yard that needs landscaping. Jesus Christ has appointed some master gardeners to oversee the work. Their job is a long and difficult one that requires much patience, but the harvest is worth the effort. One thing that makes the process easier is when the ground cooperates. We are the ground of the Holy Spirit, and He is working to produce fruit in our lives. We need to cooperate with Him and His gardeners.

First, He has to skim off all the grass and weeds that are growing in our lives where the fruit needs to grow. When God speaks to us through our gardeners, and when they bring in the skid steer to slice off all the growth that doesn’t belong there, let them work. Listen to the truth they speak. Follow the advice they give. Submit to their admonitions and the rebuke of sin. Grass and weeds are like sin, and they don’t produce much of a harvest that benefits us. Let them help you take it away.

Let the gardeners help you elevate your life above the rest of the environment. That means they will have to put boundaries in place. Every life needs boundaries. There is the greatest freedom within the framework of God’s will. The gardeners want you to rise above the rest of the world around you.

Be thankful for the rich soil of God’s Word the gardeners bring to your life. Let it become the topsoil of your life. Keep it fertilized with prayer and personal Bible study. Don’t add anything to it that would diminish its richness. Keep it soft through constant cultivation. Weed it often. Water it regularly. Take care of the soil and there will be a bountiful harvest.

Assist the gardeners in putting up fences around your life that will protect your crop of righteousness from the enemies who would destroy it. Let the fence be large enough and strong enough to stop a lion, for there is one who is stalking you and seeking to devour you. Let the fence be tight enough to stop the small pests who don’t take big bites, but who through consistence persistence will ravage your plants and limit your harvest. Guard your garden from any and all enemies that will destroy it.

After all this has been done, and the gardener plants the seeds in your soil, nurture every plant in your garden so that it grows to full maturity and produces a harvest. The gardener will still be working to keep the garden free from weeds, and to provide water and fertilizer, but you are responsible for the growth of the seed and for the harvest it produces. You decide how the soil, water, fertilizer, light, and seed all combine to produce a crop of righteousness. You choose what kind of work your harvest will accomplish. You decide whether or not you will cooperate with the gardener in becoming prepared for works of service. You decide if you will become mature and attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, producing a bumper crop of righteousness and good works.

The gardener can only do so much. He is working hard to prepare you and equip you. What kind of harvest will you produce? 

Pastor John

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Friday, March 4, 2022

I am a fan of team sports. I think they’re a great analogy of the church. I have a favorite baseball and football team, and while I don’t have a specific favorite hockey team, I love watching the Stanley Cup playoffs. I also love basketball, although I am not a fan of how the NBA has ruined the game. But of all the team sports, football is unique, and for me makes for the best comparison to the body of Christ. For example, in baseball, hockey, and basketball, while there are specific positions and skills required, everyone on the team has the chance to touch the ball and score. They all have to share certain skills in common that are required to put points on the board. Not so in football. I have a deep admiration for the members of the offensive line. These five guys – almost 50% of the team – except for the center who has to hike it to the quarterback, are not allowed to touch the ball unless there’s been a fumble. By rule they are not allowed to be the first ones to touch a pass if it is thrown. They have one role – block the players of the defense so someone else can pass, catch, or run with the ball.

Soon the National Football League will hold their annual draft of college players. Some people might think that the guys who pass, catch, or run with the ball would be the first ones chosen. It would seem that their skills would be most important to the team. However, in a recent draft, the very first player taken was an offensive lineman. Of the top 31 players chosen, 23 were NOT quarterbacks, running backs, or receivers. That’s why I love football – everyone’s skills and position on the team is equally valued. The press and the fans may choose to overemphasize one position’s importance over another, but not the owners, scouts, and coaches. They know the importance of the guys in the trenches.

Ephesians 4:7 “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.“

That’s how it is to be in the Body of Christ. We do not all get to score touchdowns or hit home runs or score goals. We do, however, all get to play, and every player’s skills are essential to victory. Our Coach, Jesus Christ, has chosen us for His team because of the specific skills we have. Then, after selecting us, He gave us additional spiritual skills that are not learnable in the flesh. Those gifts complement and enhance our natural abilities, and make us perfectly fit for the position we are to play on the team. We tend to overemphasize the importance of certain positions, like pastors, elders, and teachers.  We believe that unless we have those skills and gifts we are not really needed or important. How wrong that thinking is! That’s exactly how Satan keeps the church from becoming the powerful force of change in our culture. That’s exactly why the church isn’t being recognized as a contender for the championship of life.

The Apostle Paul tells us in today’s Scripture verse that Jesus Christ, the Head Coach of the team, has given each member of the team a specific skill and gift set in the exact proportion He wanted to fit each one for a specific task that is necessary to the complete success of the team. You are one of those team members. You are essential to the team’s success. No one has the privilege of considering themselves more important than anyone else, and no one has the right to consider themselves insignificant and unimportant. It is Jesus Christ who determines our value, and that value has nothing to do with the position you play on the team. It has everything to do with the person you are in Christ. You are chosen. You are gifted. You are exactly what Jesus made you to be, whether that’s a ball carrier or a blocker.

So come on, get in the game. There are places for you to serve. There are games to be won. We need you to play so we can all be champions.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions (Click here for podcast)

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Magnets are cool. They help me see the invisible. They teach practical lessons of eternal value. I remember playing with two little magnetic dogs in church when I was a little boy. They were mom’s way of keeping her three sons quiet while she sang in the choir and while dad led the service. Little did I know the importance of the lessons about unity I would learn from them. You see, the force of a magnet has the ability to attract an object if it is made of a material that responds to magnetic force. That material can also be influenced to become magnetic itself. If the object is another magnet, it will either attract or repel depending on its position. Let’s draw some spiritual applications from these scientific facts. 

Ephesians 4:3  “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.“

I see the power of the Holy Spirit represented by magnetic force. God has created all human life out of eternal material that is able to respond to the Holy Spirit. We can be influenced sufficiently by the power of the Spirit to become like Him. That’s what happens when we let the power of the Spirit flow through us. But just like magnets, we can also be repelled by the Spirit if our position is wrong. When I played with the two magnetic dogs, they would attract each other if they were facing each other. If I tried to come up from behind one of them with the other, it would be pushed away. The Holy Spirit can only attract those who are facing God and seeking Him. All others will be repelled deeper into their own lives of selfish aspirations.

Once a life is attracted by the Holy Spirit, connection happens. This connection is most powerful and influential when there is nothing between the two. However, things do get between us and God. I used to put one dog underneath the cover of the hymnbook, with the other dog on top. Any movement of the bottom dog would influence the position of the top dog. God’s Spirit influences us constantly, and directs our every move, even when things of the world try to interfere. However, the more pages I would put between the two dogs, the less influence there would be, until finally the top dog was not influenced at all. Continual submission to the things of the world will quench the power and we will be unable to sense the movement of the Spirit.

One of the direct results of continuous magnetic force on an object is that the object itself becomes magnetic. I remember this lesson from a time I was fixing a car. I had dropped a small bolt down into a very tiny opening in the frame of the car, and needed to retrieve it. The magnet I had was too large to fit into the opening. I grabbed a nail, and began stroking the nail with the magnet. The nail became magnetized. I attached a wire to it, and dropped the nail down into the slot, which in turn picked up the bolt. What a great lesson for us. We are constantly being stroked by the Holy Spirit so that our lives with be used to attract others to Jesus.

Another direct result of magnetic force is that it will hold objects together so long as the force is permitted to work. Let me tell you about another experiment I did once in school. On an oak table we placed a pile of nails. Underneath the table we had built a small electromagnet. When the electric current was turned on and the poles of the magnet were brought up under the table, immediately there was a field of magnetic force formed around the nails. So long as this field of force was maintained the loose nails could be built up in various forms, such as a cube, a sphere, or an arch. So long as the current was on, the nails would stay in exactly the form placed, as if they had been soldered together. But the second the current was cut off the nails would fall into a shapeless mass.

Unlike the experiment, where the power could be turned off, the power of the Holy Spirit cannot be cut off. The power to create unity is always on. But picture those nails all being held in a large arch by the magnetic force. Now, remove one of the nails and replace it with one made of a non-magnetic material, and try to build the arch again. It won’t work. Every individual nail has to be connected to the power for true unity to exist.

That’s why the verse says that we are responsible to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. His power is always creating unity. Our lives sometimes become an obstacle to unity because we are more attracted to the world than we are to Christ. We have turned away, like the magnetic dog, and are no longer facing Jesus. We repel His power rather than connect to it. What that field of magnetic force was to those nails, the Holy Spirit is to all believers. By His power we are held together in a bond of love, a bond that is broken when we grieve and quench the Holy Spirit by our self-willed actions. Make every effort to let the Holy Spirit’s power continue to influence every part of your life, and your life will be used to bring unity to the Body of Christ.

Pastor John

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Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Let’s be honest – there are people who bug us. Some bug us with their idiosyncrasies, while others bug us just because we think they’re idiots. Sorry for the bluntness, but that’s the truth of how we think, isn’t it? There are people with whom we lose our patience. There are people we’d just like to smack. There are people who need to be told to shut up, and there are people who need to be encouraged to speak up. There are people who make us mad, and there are people who make us laugh. We laugh with some because they are funny. We laugh at others because we think they are dumb.

Like this woman. I don’t know if hair color has anything to do with it, but she was blond. She was crying her eyes out at work when the boss asked her what was wrong. “I just got off the phone with my mom and she told me my grandmother died.” Being a compassionate man, he told her to take the rest of the day off. She refused, stating that it would be best if she could keep her mind off it by staying busy. Several hours later she was found crying hysterically again. The boss asked if something else had happened. She explained, “I just got off the phone with my sister, and she tells me her grandma died too.”

Smack! It’s what we want to do. But what does Christ say?

Ephesians 4:2  “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” 

I don’t think we realize how much arrogance we display in our attitudes towards others. Far too often our lives stand in direct contradiction to Christ’s Spirit within us, leading us to be completely humble and gentle. Where is the patience that is one of the fruit of the Spirit? Where is the Christ-like perseverance to bear with one another in love? I know where it is – it’s locked up in the basement of our life’s house. We may have poured the foundation correctly in Christ, but the house itself has been built with faulty materials. The building permit for the house was issued by God, but we have changed the name on the permit from LORD to SELF. We built everything just the way we wanted it, for our use and for our honor. We’ve locked the Spirit of God in the basement, and then have the audacity to proclaim that we built on the right foundation. We are the ones who need to be smacked.

We are proud people. We seem to constantly pursue our personal agenda. We seek approval. We perform to earn value. We make choices based on one main criteria – self-satisfaction. We look at others as competitors for a limited amount of worth that is available. We have succumbed to the lie of Satan that’s there’s only so much good to go around, so we’d better grab all we can while it’s accessible. Even if we can’t keep others from getting some of it, we can at least criticize them in our own minds so they appear to us to not have any, which in some warped way is supposed to make us feel like we do. We have wandered a long way from living humbly.

Humble living involves two things. I don’t intend for these to seem simple – they are not. But they are required. Not just partially, but completely. First, we must have an honest opinion of ourselves in comparison to Almighty and Holy God, not in comparison to others; and second, we must have complete confidence in God to provide all things and work all things out for His good, rather than having to control it all ourselves. That’s a lot to work on. Imagine how bugged with us God must get. Or does He? He does not! He is gentle with us, bearing us up in His arms and sustaining us with His powerful right hand. He is patient with us, which is an amazing thing because we all know how much patience it has taken to stand by us knowing all we have done in the past. He bears with us in love because He is the One of perfect love. He has modeled for us how we are to live with others. 

May I suggest a starting point. Take a piece of clear plastic, and with a permanent marker write the word SMACK! on it. Now, right up at the top of your car’s windshield, on the inside, next to the reminder for your next oil change, stick that piece of plastic. Then ask God to draw your eyes to that spot every time you get frustrated with another driver. It will remind you that you are the one who needs to be smacked for allowing pride to govern your life. It will be the start of learning humility, gentleness, patience, and love.

Pastor John