LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Isaiah 60:22  “I am the LORD; in its time I will do this swiftly.”

It appeared to be a dead end. Dead was the operative word in their minds. In front of them was a great body of water that according to their human wisdom was not crossable. Behind them they could see the dust of thousands of chariots as the army of Egypt bore down on them. They cried out to their leader in anger and said, “What have you done to us?”  Standing still meant certain death at the hands of the warriors. Moving meant drowning. It seemed hopeless.

Does this describe your life right now – a dead end? Standing still doesn’t change anything. Moving ahead is way too scary. Maybe if we just close our eyes it will all go away.

Well, I have some interesting news for you – standing still does change things and moving ahead is worth the risk, as long as God has directed you to do either one. No matter how it appears on the surface, God is working on your behalf. If He says stand firm, then do it. In His time He will act. If He says move, don’t look back and don’t fear what’s ahead. He has already been there, done that, and has everything all worked out, so move with Him no matter how swiftly you have to move.

The hardest part is accelerating from a standstill to God-speed in such a short period of time. The only thing that makes it possible is that during the standstill, we are not inactive. All the groundwork for moving can be put in place so that when God’s time to act arrives, we are ready.

Standstills are never meant to be times of complacency. Want proof? What happens at a stoplight when you are driving? You check your phone, right? You quickly throw together a text to someone, or listen to a voicemail, or read an email. Standstills are times of productivity. So instead of complaining about not moving, why not get prepared to move when the light turns green again?

So with all the preparation done, and all of God’s pieces being put into place, we choose to move with Him. Swiftly. Hang on tight. It’s going to be an awesome ride filled with opportunities to see God’s power and provision. It will require us to step out in faith and move into uncharted territory. But God knows we are ready. No looking back. No looking around. With eyes straight ahead fixed firmly on where God is moving, we will follow, and we will follow at His speed.

So what happened to the people at the dead end? Here’s what it says about them in Exodus 14.

“Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

Stand firm on the promises of God. Move when God says move. Then we will see the glory of God.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, January 19, 2026

 To follow up on what we shared on Friday, it’s easy for many of us to just go along with the flow. We follow the crowd. Without any real attempt to be educated with facts, we move in the direction of popular opinion. We may even compromise known truths for the sake of appearances. We do so with the hope that we will arrive safely at the port of acceptance and approval.

This is not a new issue. The nation of Israel suffered from the same malady. They were riding the wave of national identity thinking they slide right into an eternal relationship with God based on their heritage. Many still do that today, placing their faith and hope in their religious, political, or social affiliations. The Israelites of the Old Testament thought that their identity as children of Abraham gave them automatic access to God.

Things were about to change. Ultimately it would be for the best, but the change itself would be difficult. The groundwork for the change had always been in place, but it had been overshadowed by traditions. From the beginning of man’s existence on the earth when He created Adam and Eve on the literal sixth day, God’s eternal plan was to make each individual personally responsible for their relationship with their Creator. There would be no exceptions – no loopholes. Family ties mean nothing. Race, creed, or color offers no benefits. Political views provide no eternal hope. Religion cannot accomplish redemption. No connection of man can earn favor from God.

The fifty-ninth chapter of Isaiah is about change – a change from the traditional way of seeing human connections as sufficient to being personally responsible to God no matter what direction the rest of the world is moving. For most of the chapter Isaiah deplores the condition of culture – a culture that was supposedly based on faith in God. When God saw that there was no one going against the flow, He sent Himself to work salvation on our behalf.

Then, in an amazing moment of change in verses 20 and 21, the Lord declares an eternal truth.  “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD. “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.

The Redeemer will come to a nation; not for national renewal, but for individual salvation! Only those who repent will be saved. A New Covenant will be established that abolishes any and all possibility that a person’s human connections and affiliations will have any value in determining their eternal destiny.

The New Covenant of the Redeemer’s blood poured out on the cross of Calvary removes all national identity. It removes all racial discrimination. It eliminates all religious sacraments. It destroys any and all works of man as an attempt to earn the favor of God. Family background cannot be used as either a pass or an excuse. Each one of us is responsible for our sin before God. The greatest discover any one of us can make is this, that we begin to perceive that there are but two beings in the whole universe—two only supreme and luminously self- evident beings—our own soul, and the God who made it.

The New Covenant offers the same promise of eternal life to every person based on only one truth – the sinful nature of all of us and the payment for that sin that was fully paid on the cross by God Himself. The covenant of cleansing from sin is for those that repent, and once that is stated in verse 21, every pronoun in the rest of the verse is singular, not plural. You as an individual are responsible to repent of your sin so that every benefit of the covenant can be experienced personally.

This is incredible news. It’s hard to change from our traditions, but in this case change has eternal value. Regardless of your past, your sin, your connections, your politics, or your religion, you can repent of your sin and be saved for all eternity. Jesus died and rose again so that you can be forgiven and live. That’s incredible news.

The Redeemer has come for you.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, January 16, 2026

The elevator door began to open, and as it did I took my first step to enter. I stopped before taking the second step when I saw how crowded it was in that little box. Yet the people inside motioned me to come forward as they started to squeeze more tightly than before to make room. As I entered, I realized it would not be easy to turn around, so I stood facing all of them as my back was brushed by the closing door.

Have you ever stood facing the people in an elevator? It’s uncomfortable. There are two reasons for the awkwardness. First, there’s the realization that everyone in there is staring at you. They are evaluating you. They are wondering if you will say something, and if you do, will you have bad breath or will you spit as you speak. Our insecurities explode to the surface in such situations, and we imagine all kinds of things that the other people must be thinking.

Second, there’s the reality that you are facing the wrong direction and blocking their exit. You stand opposed to the majority, and that’s uncomfortable in any situation.

How much power do you have in that box to change people’s minds about where they want to go? Absolutely none if all you consider is the exit door.  But you do have the power to change their mind about when they will use that door. They may have gotten on the elevator to go to a particular floor, but it is possible for you to convince them to change that plan. It may not be probable or practical, but it is possible. You have more power than you think to affect the direction of other people’s lives.

We need to remember that when by our faith in Jesus Christ we stand opposed to the direction the world is taking. The Bible is full of stories about the power of one. I think we as Christians have started to believe the lie of our Enemy that the current of culture is too powerful to resist. Every day we get on the proverbial elevator of life and turn to face the same direction as everyone already there. We avoid contact with others and leave them to their own choices, focusing only on the numbers above the door as they announce the arrival of our destination. We know very little about anyone else around us, and don’t seem to care why they are going where they are going. We miss countless opportunities to invite them to make a different choice.

That is the picture presented to us in Isaiah 59, verses 2-15. It would benefit you to read them and see how appropriately they describe our current culture.

Then in verse 16 we read God’s response to what is happening. “He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;”

It is into this elevator of injustice and sin that God wants us to step and face the other way. He did it. Jesus came and lived His life facing the opposite direction from everyone around Him. And while He went against the flow, He invited others to consider changing their direction.

That’s exactly how we are supposed to live. Go against the flow and influence others to join you.  

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, January 15, 2026

We really didn’t know what to expect. It was our first ever cruise. When we registered for our dining time we had the option of choosing a large table with other people, or a table by ourselves. We decided that since there would be so many other opportunities to meet people, we would choose a table by ourselves and spend that quality time focused on each other.

When we arrived at the dining room the first night we were ushered to our table by the head waiter fully decked out in a tuxedo. As we arrived at our table I quickly discovered what private table means on a cruise ship. Instead of several tables being pushed together to form a large table, the small two-person tables were spaced twenty-two inches apart. The gentleman at the table next to me was less than arm’s length away.

As we sat and reviewed the menu for the evening, it was obvious that our quiet private dinner would soon become a time of fellowship with the people at the neighboring table. I turned and initiated a conversation with a young couple. As we talked, we discovered their living status, state, and their professions. It was obvious that serving Jesus Christ was not on their radar, and that they were adrift in the sea of self-indulgence.

At this point it would have been easy for some who call themselves Christians to end the conversation and seclude themselves at their own table as best they could. But that’s not natural to my heart and certainly not a product of the love of Jesus that captivates us. So the conversation continued with this heavily tattooed bar owner and his live in girlfriend.

Eventually they asked me what I did for a living. Without hesitation I said, “I’m a pastor.” Denise and I both waited for their response. The woman spoke first. She leaned in towards me and with a soft and humble spirit said, “May I ask you a favor?” After I agreed, she told me the story of her best friend back in Texas who had just given birth to premature twins, and one of them had died the day the cruise left port. She was distraught that she couldn’t be there for her friend. She asked me to pray for her. I asked for the mother’s name and it was provided to me. When our food arrived, Denise and I bowed our heads and I prayed for that mother and for our new friends as they went through this time of grief.

On two more occasions during the cruise the Lord directed our steps to connect with this couple. On each occasion I asked how they were doing and asked specifically about the grieving mother and called her by name. Then, when the cruise was over, and we got on the bus to return to the airport, there sitting right in front of us was this couple, and we chatted again and told them we would be remembering them and their friend in prayer.

I don’t know what effect any of that will have on their lives, but I’m not in charge of that – the Holy Spirit is. But God taught me an important lesson through that experience – a lesson that I was not aware I needed but now realize I did. I was forming judgments about people based on their external appearance and their public sin. I was creating small and subtle but unknowingly strong barriers between me and them. I was tending towards seclusion from sinners rather than intentionally engaging them. As the arm of the Lord I was coming up short.

We are the arm of the Lord to bring salvation to those who need it. We are the ear of the Lord to listen for people’s cries for help. We must overcome the fleshly desire to judge others and seclude ourselves from them. We must stretch out the arms of God’s love and embrace people where they are and show them that grace is available. No matter how they appear on the outside and no matter what they have chosen as their lifestyle, they have the same spiritual need that we had before we met Jesus. Let’s introduce them to Him.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, January 14, 2025

Ten years ago my wife and I went on an amazing adventure. For nine years we had been planning this trip, and every year we thought we would do it something came up. Well our kids had had enough and finally said, “Enough! No more excuses!” They put together a little incentive package with contingencies that forced us to make the decision and book the reservations. After all the years of hearing about all of their wonderful experiences on a cruise, Denise and I finally went on one. It was everything we expected and more.

While we were sitting on a beach on a small atoll called Cococay, I watched as a father took his little girl into the ocean for probably the first time ever. Dad and the girl stood hand in hand for a moment in water only six inches deep. Then the eighteen-month old girl let go of daddy’s hand and took a few steps out into a little deeper water. She turned and smiled at her dad, and he smiled back.

Having discovered courage she didn’t know she had, the girl took a few more steps. It was obvious she was not used to the buoyancy of saltwater, and she worked hard to keep her balance. Then she took one more step, and as she turned around to catch her daddy’s eye for approval, she wobbled. She listed heavily to the right. Her left leg came off the white sand on the bottom. She tipped forward, and her face was very near the water. Her short arms could not reach the bottom to stop her descent.

I cringed in my lounge chair. I’m sure I made a visible move to get up. I will never forget the look in the little girl’s eyes. They were as big as they could be and looked right into her daddy’s eyes and spoke louder than any words could have. “Daddy, help me!” By now her mouth and nose were under the water, but her eyes never stopped looking at her father. She needed rescue, and she knew that dad was the rescuer.

Her steps had taken her out of reach of her father. His arm could not grab her and lift her from where he was. She was unable to get to him. But dad saw her, and from her eyes he heard her cry for help. In two swift steps through the water he had her by the arm and lifted her into his. She threw her arms around his neck and hung on. Her eyes were facing me, and without a single tear they clearly said “I’m safe and secure.”

The dad did an amazing thing. It may seem so simple and natural that we lose sight of the amazement of it, but it is no less amazing. As his daughter’s eyes cried out to him, he did not speak to her about the consequences of her actions. He did not tell her to deal with the problem because she had put herself in that position. He did not correct her for wandering away from him. He did what any loving father would do, he rescued her.

 Isaiah 59:1 “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.”

Surely your Heavenly Father will do the same for you. His arm is not too short to save nor His ear too dull to hear. Cry out to Him, and He will make you safe and secure.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Years ago, a reporter was visiting the Oakland Raiders’ football camp. He had just come from the Jack London Historic Monument. He read a sample of London’s prose to quarterback Ken Stabler:

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

After reading this to the quarterback he asked, “What does that mean to you?”

Stabler replied, “Throw deep.”

I am a risk taker in certain areas of my life. Never, and I mean never, does the risk involve tightly closed spaces underground. I have serious issues with claustrophobia. But I do take risks in other areas when there is a perceived or a realistic reward offered. I will invest in the stock market; carry a bow into the woods to hunt deer knowing that there are also bears, cougars, and wolves around; and I will stand and preach in front of a crowd of people that believe they have every right to tear me apart if they reject the truth that is being spoken.

We all take risks every day. Did you get in a car today to travel to work or the gym? You took a huge risk. Did you eat food prepared by someone behind closed doors at a restaurant? Risky. Have you ever taken a 6-iron to try to hit a green 190 yards away over water? Splash!

But each risk had a reward. Retirement income. A big buck. A harvest of souls. Faster time to work than walking. Good food with no prep or clean-up. A chance for an eagle. Risks bring rewards as this poem bears out:

Let come what will I mean to bear it out,

And either live with glorious victory

or die with fame, renowned in chivalry.

He is not worthy of the honeycomb

That shuns the hives because the bees have stings.

“If” is a word of risk. God’s Word is full of ifs. The first time “if” is used is in Genesis is when God speaks to Cain after he murdered his brother. “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Cain was told to risk his own way on the altar of God’s will. He was asked to take a risk.

God challenges us to take risks every day. We are to risk being rejected by the world as we stand for Jesus. He asks us to risk giving up our lives to find eternal life. He says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” That’s risky. He encourages us to surrender our rights for the benefit of others who need to see God’s love and grace. Huge risks that have great rewards. What are you willing to risk to receive God’s reward?

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feelings is to risk exposing our true self.

To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is to risk dying.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try at all is to risk failure.

But risk we must, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The man, the woman, who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, January 12, 2026

I love a buffet line. It shows, doesn’t it? I knew you were thinking that. It is so eye-catching to see a sign on the front of a building that says, “All you can eat.” The trouble is that as my eyes get bigger, my stomach grows. It’s an amazing fact of these wonderfully and fearfully created bodies in which we live. I am learning to control those impulses, but years of serving myself at meals have made me gluttonous.

It’s not like the days of my youth when I was served my food by my mother. My mom was an amazing servant. I honestly don’t remember what age I was when I was first told to help myself, but I do know that I was into elementary school already. Until then, all I remember is mom putting the plate of food down in front of me, or me passing my plate to her so she could serve the food to us. Part of it was practicality and not trusting three little boys to pass the china serving dishes around the table without breaking them. A big part of it was her heart to serve. One reason I’m sure was portion control and teaching little boys how to make good decisions.

Then one day, after giving thanks for the food, mom picked up a dish of food passed it to my brother and said, “Help yourself.” What was this? She was giving us the right to choose how much we wanted to eat. She gave us some rules of course, like “Only take what you can eat,” and “There’s no dessert unless you eat all you take.” Then she gave us the most important rule – “Think about the others around the table that have to eat when you help yourself.”  Then, in a great display of trust in us to truly consider the needs of others, she passed every dish of food around the table before she took any for herself.

Today we live in a world that exalts buffet line lifestyles. The principle of “help yourself” applies to far more than just food. The rule to consider others before helping yourself has been obliterated by the obligation to self. We have very little portion control in most areas of our lives. We take more than we need, and more than we can legitimately use. Years of serving ourselves have made us gluttonous.

That’s why it’s so dark around us. It may even be dark in us. There’s not much light shining in the darkness because the light-bearers have chosen to become like the darkness. The darkness keeps getting darker. So many of those who have been created to worship God are still helping themselves to whatever they want, with little regard for the needs of others. Our buffet line mentality that the food never runs out has deeply influenced our lifestyles. We sit at a huge societal table, and as the materialistic food is passed to us we take huge scoops of it without one thought of the person sitting next to us and what they will be able to eat. How rude! How selfish!

It’s easy to help ourselves like this because it’s so dark. Even if someone does see us do it, they don’t care because it’s exactly what they would do if they were sitting so close to the head of the table. When the food does get to them, they are thrilled with whatever is in the bowl because they can’t see how full the bowl was when it started around the table. If only the first person in line would have turned on a light.

“Please, you go ahead of me.” There’s a flash of light in the room.

“May I share mine with you.” The overhead fluorescents are turned on.

“I think I will take only what I really need and can use right away and leave a bunch for the people behind me.” Individual table lights are switched on.

“I think I will skip eating today so there’s more for others.” Cue the spotlights.

“Maybe I’ll clean out the freezer and give a bunch of food to some homeless people.” Let the light shine the way God intended it to shine.

Isaiah 58:10   “Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as day.”

Buffet-line lifestyles are not what God intended for His people. That promotes darkness. Sacrifice is what God demands. It’s His eternal light switch. It is to define our lifestyle. It is our reasonable act of service and worship in response to His mercy. (Romans 12:1-2)

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Friday, January 9, 2026

I’m still sitting at the roadblock. I’m contemplating the connection between me and the people of Israel who were offending God by offering Him insincere worship. I wonder how I do that? Am I really guilty of wearing a mask of love for God on Sunday and then removing it to expose a face of love for self on Monday?

I need to look at the challenges God gave the people of Israel in Isaiah chapter fifty-eight and create a personal check list. After all, that’s how we do it in this day of self-help – we create check lists to validate our growth and accomplishments so we can proclaim worth upon ourselves and move on.

So here we go.

• “Free those who are wrongly imprisoned.” I’m not a judge or a lawyer, so I can’t do this. CHECK.
• “Stop oppressing those who work for you.” The company pays them, not me. I recommended a bigger raise, but it wasn’t in the budget. Not my fault. CHECK.
• “Share your food with the hungry.” Drove past a guy yesterday who said he was homeless, but I didn’t help him because the police said most of them are scam artists. I actually think I did him a favor by not giving him anything so he is forced to get to work. If it was a real need, I think I would have helped. In fact, I bought breakfast for a stranger at a restaurant this morning. Never mind the fact that he was fully capable of buying his own, it still helped him, right? CHECK.
• “Welcome poor wanderers into your homes.” Wait a minute; I have a wife and family to consider. We have hosted people in the past, but we’ve always known them. We have to be careful these days. We even had missionaries stay with us for three months. CHECK.
• “Give clothes to those who need them.” I’m really good here. I take clothes to Goodwill and Hope Gospel Mission all the time. I even sent clothes overseas for the orphans, and helped pay for their shipping. BIG CHECK.
• “Do not hide from relatives who need your help.” Um, this is tough. They just continue to use me and it seems like I am enabling them. They say they will pay it back but never do. The Bible says in Proverbs to not lend money to relatives. I’m choosing to obey that. CHECK.
• “Stop oppressing the helpless.” I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who is helpless, let alone oppress them. CHECK
• “Stop making false accusations and spreading vicious rumors.” I would never! The things I share are prayer requests or personal hurts I need advice on. CHECK.

“There, the checklist is done, and I passed. Now Lord, take down the barricade and let me proceed…Lord. Lord. It’s not moving. I’m not able to proceed. Lord. LORD! I’ve done what you asked. I am a true worshipper, right? Then why isn’t the barrier moving?”

Looks like I’ll be here a little longer. I wonder what I’m supposed to see?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, January 8, 2026

I’m stuck. The Lord has put up a roadblock and has asked me to stop for a while. My first reaction to a roadblock is always selfish – “How can I get around it to get where I want to go?” But I have learned that never ends well. So here I sit in my devotional car, stopped at a roadblock at the intersection of Heart Highway and Isaiah 58.

Twice in this passage the Holy Spirit emphasizes the condition of our heart as it relates to the worship of God. You see, worship is not external, but rather internal. Outward expressions must originate in a clean and pure heart. Worship is not an event, but a lifestyle.

The other day I saw two worship leaders from different parts of the country promoting their upcoming worship events. Both of them said it was going to be awesome. They used words like “epic” and “unbridled” – buzz words to create emotional responses. But my question is this – “How do we know that worship will be epic if we don’t know the hearts of the people who will be attending the worship service?”  We must not lower worship to the level of musical perfection or emotional enthusiasm. We must always make worship a response to the love of God in our hearts that has transformed our lives.

I desire emotional worship. I want quality sound, good instrumentation, and crisp vocals. I desire excellence in serving the Lord, and that excellence is an act of worship when done unto God and not for self-exaltation. But I also understand that those things do not create a worship atmosphere nor do they capture the attention of God. The condition of our hearts is what gets God’s attention.

Look at what the Lord says in Isaiah 58:6-7.  “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

It is hypocrisy to believe that we can worship God while we are harboring resentment against other people. It is self-deception to believe that God hears our prayers and expressions of praise while we are harboring sin in our lives. It is exceptionally offending to God to enter into His presence under false pretenses, and we do it all the time when we come to worship on Sunday or any other time and put on the mask of love for God when in the rest of our life we wear the true face of love for self.

This is the roadblock. Have we learned methods and traditions of worship that allow us to be fakes? Have we chosen religious rituals that offer us temporary satisfaction of our spiritual desires without the true transformation of the heart? Have we chosen to live as the people of Isaiah’s day?

For many people, worship is the beginning of a new week, when they lay at the altar of the Lord the shortcomings and sins of the past week and look for a fresh start. How different worship would be if we would come together to celebrate the victories over the flesh that we experienced in the previous week by living every day as worship to the Lord. If worship is to be real, it is to be the response to what God is doing in our hearts, not the beginning of what we want God to do.

Think on these things as you review Isaiah 58.  Let us reflect on what God desires from a life that worships Him.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, January 7, 2026

 “I saw what you did!”

When I was a child and heard that statement directed at me – from anyone – my heart cringed in fear. I must admit that I still feel that way at times. The fear I feel is the product of knowing that I have just done something wrong, and I have been caught. What will happen to me? How bad is the punishment going to be? What will other people think of me? What will this do to my reputation and my potential?

Let’s stop a minute and evaluate those responses, for all of them are wrong responses to sin. We have been fed a huge lie if we believe that any of them are correct. You see, every one of them reflects the belief that when we sin we sin mainly against ourselves. Our fear of punishment is self-protection. Our fear of being discredited is pride. Our normal response to the fears of punishment and personal loss is to justify what we did, and, if necessary, lie. Why? Because we are primarily concerned about self.

God doesn’t forgive sin based on how bad it makes us feel, but rather our knowledge of who He is and how our sin stands so opposed to Him. God forgives sin based on repentance. Repentance requires the sacrifice of self. Repentance requires turning away from the sin regardless of the consequences. Repentance demands humility which brings us God’s justification, rather than pride which seeks self-justification.

There’s a wonderful passage in Isaiah fifty-seven about God’s forgiveness. “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the LORD. “And I will heal them.”

God has promised to forgive, even after He has seen what we have done. He promises to heal our lives. He promises to guide us again and restore comfort to us. He promises to create praise on our lips where there had been mourning. Aha! There it is – the mourning over our sin. God cannot bring forgiveness and restoration to a life that is not repentant – a life that is not broken and mourning before Him. Not broken over the pain of the consequences. Not mourning over some form of personal loss. But brokenness and mourning over how we have stood and acted in opposition to God.

In Luke 3:8 Jesus says, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” In Acts 26:20 Paul says that “they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” There must be evidence in our lives of true repentance. Here are four ways to tell if someone is truly repentant of their sin.

• The absence of rationalization – we will cease all defending of our actions
• Genuine sorrow – a broken heart before God, not men
• Open confession of our sin – we will no longer seek to hide what we did from the public.
• Restitution – we willingly seek out those hurt and offended by our sin and make it right.

When we sincerely repent of our sin, the Holy Spirit will come and restore comfort to us. He assures us of the Lord’s forgiveness and healing. He brings peace, because we are no longer defending ourselves.

God will forgive you, even though He has seen what you have done. Open your heart and your life to Him. Expose all of the sin. Throw yourself helplessly at the mercy of the Judge, for He is ready and willing to forgive you, and lift you out of the slime of sin into a joyous relationship with the Father.

Pastor John