LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Philippians 3:12-14 ¹²  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

If the world were controlled by perfectionists, there would be no place for those who can never quite measure up to their standards. On the other hand, if the world were under the domination of people who wake up in a new world every day, we would probably suffocate in the accumulation of our own garbage within a week.

Fortunately, “practically perfect” people like Mary Poppins manage to get mixed up with the Dick Van Dykes of the world. A husband who is so organized that he can predict with a fair degree of accuracy when his next shoestring is going to break, inevitably gets paired with a wife who hasn’t the foggiest notion at 3 o’clock in the afternoon what she’s going to prepare for dinner. A wife, with such an obsession for cleanliness that she jumps out of bed at 1 o’clock in the morning because she suddenly remembers that she forgot to mop up a blob of spilled orange juice from the kitchen floor, marries a clod who comes in from a hunting trip and tracks mud all over the floor she just cleaned. So goes the struggle between perfection and the spirit of tolerance.

There is a certain amount of tension in every serious thinking Christian’s mind concerning the biblical call to perfection. In one compartment of the brain, there’s a tug to live up to all the standards of Christ. On the other hand, our attempts to measure up to those standards are always flawed. We respond to such conflict by choosing one side or the other to win out. We either become self-righteous in the pursuit of perfection or we settle for living beneath our privilege believing that any attempt at maturity will certainly bring disappointment.

Inevitably we end up with two groups of people in the church – the legalists and the lazy. The legalists may not be the largest group, but they are the noisiest, proudly proclaiming their perfection by pointing out the imperfection of others. It is a deadly game of self-vindication that rejects the grace of God. What a tragedy. How lost we are if we refuse to marvel at the grace of our wonderful God which makes it possible for “Jesus Christ to make us His own.”

But the larger group of lazies is also rejecting the grace of God. Far too many Christians live in the flawed attempts of the past. They excuse themselves from attempting to become like Christ, living instead by the philosophy “nobody’s perfect, so why try?” They are bound up by their previous failures and have decided the best way to not fail again is to not try. What a tragedy. How lost we are if we refuse to marvel at the marvelous grace of our wonderful God who gives us the freedom to “forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead.”

I know that I will not achieve perfection in this life. You probably know that about me better than I do. You see the flaws in my life every day, and with a gracious and loving spirit you accept me. How much more does our gracious and loving God accept us in spite of our flaws? Why? Because we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. By His grace He took hold of us.

Therefore, in spite of past failures and the potential for future ones, we will press on to take hold of Him. We will forget what is behind and we will strain toward what is ahead – the prize that awaits us in heaven when we meet Jesus face to face. We will not tell Him that we made ourselves perfect, nor will we tell Him that out of fear of failure we settled for less than perfect. No, we will stand before Him and tell Him we are thankful for His grace that qualified us to run the race, and that we ran it well. We may not have cleanly cleared every hurdle, but we didn’t let any hurdle stop us. We may have stepped into someone else’s lane on occasion, but we didn’t let that disqualify us from the race. We grew weary, but we never lost sight of the finish line. Then Jesus, our King, will present us with the prize – the crown of glory – and will say, “Well done. You are a good and faithful servant.”

Oh, the marvelous grace of our wonderful Lord!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, June 11, 2018

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

On one of our many church mission trips to the Bayou in Louisiana, we were only 6 miles out of town when someone in the back of the bus asked, “Are we there yet?” It was funny because we had 1200 miles to go.

Arrivals at intended destinations are a funny thing. We anticipate them, enjoy them momentarily when they happen, but then quickly set our sights on the next one. For most of us, life is all about the next destination. We hurry to get there so we can see what’s beyond it. But when we arrived on the bayou we were literally at the end of the road. The only way to go any further was by boat, and we didn’t have one. We had reached our destination and it felt wonderful. We were prepared to get to work and accomplish everything we had planned. Our arrival was fulfilling because there was nowhere else we wanted to be. This was the place to which we had been called, and we had prepared ourselves to arrive. We were going to make the most of this trip.

Six days later we were headed for another destination – home. We reflected on the work we had done and the impact it had on the people living there. We had worked hard and accomplished far more than expected, but when we left we saw so much more that still needed to be done. I had several people ask when we could go back. There was a sense of unsettledness in our hearts because we knew there was more to do. We were not able to fully rest knowing that there was still work to be done.

But there was a sense of relief to be home. The danger of mission trips is the return home to normalcy. We tend to not see the mission field in which we live every day and not work as hard to accomplish God’s work. While on the bayou, we knew people depended on us and the work wouldn’t get done unless we did it. Now that we are home, we are tempted to return to our normal lives where someone else will do the work if we don’t. We act as if getting home is our final destination. We can be enthusiastic about working hard out there somewhere, but at home it’s quite different. While on a mission, complacency is not a temptation. The trouble is that we don’t see home as a mission.

As I contemplate arrivals, I struggle to match my enthusiasm for travel destinations with spiritual destinations. Why are we so easily convinced that we have already arrived at our spiritual bayou? Do we really believe that this is the end of the road of our spiritual growth and that we have nothing more to learn or do? Do we really think we have arrived? Paul reminds us that we are not there yet, and we won’t be until we are in the presence of Christ. Heaven is the final destination. Heaven is our home, and our mission is not complete until we arrive there.

When Jesus Christ took hold of us, He called us to a mission. Throughout Scripture we are given the project list. We have been given certain skills and energy by the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s intended tasks. Each day the world offers us things that aren’t on the list, and the temptation is to switch priorities from God’s list to ours. We may get so sidetracked that we lose sight of the real destination. We may even stop asking, “Are we there yet?” What a sad day that is. May we never get to that point. Every day we rise we need to realize that we are on a mission trip for God. We must press on to take hold of God’s project list. It is why Jesus took hold of us. Just as we stayed focus on our purpose for the trip to the bayou, we must, now that we are home, continue to stay focused on God’s purpose for putting us in this place at this time.

“Are we there yet?”

NO! But until we are, we will press on to take hold of everything Jesus Christ wanted to accomplish when He took hold of us. Ask Him for your work assignment for today, and get to work! Someday, maybe today, you will arrive at your final destination. It is the place to which you have been called, and there is nowhere else to go once you are there. You will be completely fulfilled when you arrive because you have prepared yourself to be there. The work you do today for Jesus is your preparation for serving Him in eternity. Make the most of the trip.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Friday, June 8, 2018

Philippians 3:10b – 11  …becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

I have seen the recent movie “I Can Only Imagine” two times now, and I could see it again. I can listen to the song over and over and never grow tired of it. It strikes a chord deep in my soul that expresses the longing of my heart to be with my Savior.

Have you tried to imagine what it will be like to be perfect? You should, because believe it or not, you’re not yet! Neither am I! But what an awesome thought to think that someday – maybe yet today – we will be made perfect in the presence of Jesus Christ for eternity.

The most incredible part of that whole idea is that I am so unworthy of it. I think Paul was feeling the same thing when he wrote that somehow he wanted to attain to the resurrection from the dead. After being overwhelmed with the privilege of knowing Jesus Christ intimately, and experiencing God’s gifts of righteousness, power, and fellowship, Paul is ecstatic that there’s still more. As if having all those benefits in this life were not enough, Jesus offers one more – eternal life beyond this one.

I think that of all the benefits of knowing Jesus, this should be the most exciting. However, for most of us it has taken an undeserved back seat to the others. It’s easy to become focused on the immediate and forget to consider the future. But as we said yesterday, when Jesus was on the earth, He kept his eyes on the future so He could make it through the present. Do you remember what we read in Hebrews 12? Jesus considered the joy that was set before Him so He could endure the suffering of the cross.

Likewise, it is the joy of the hope of glory that has been set before us that gives us the strength to endure what is set upon us. Unfortunately, we tend to get so busy trying to experience the most out of the immediate that we lose heart and grow weary. But just one glimpse of heaven can restore us. Just wondering what’s there and what it will be like stimulates me.

René Champion was a wanderer, looking for this world to satisfy his every need. The impulse that drove him to leave Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1937 at age 16 kept him on the road for the next four years. René was born to an unwed mother in Paris in 1921. When he was eight months old, his mother placed him in a children’s home and emigrated to America. He did not see her again until she sent for him in September 1929.

Arriving in the United States on the eve of the Great Depression, René’s boyhood years were marked by want and poverty. When he left home he became a hobo, hopping boxcars to travel the United States. At the age of 17, he became a farmhand for a widow named Pearl, who took him to some revival meetings under a tent. He went forward and accepted Christ, and started to preach immediately afterward.

René says, I felt at peace with myself, even believing that this was what I was seeking in my life as a vagabond. But it didn’t last, because he didn’t stop seeking. He still thought this life had to have more. He couldn’t rest in the hope of heaven, and he soon returned to hopping boxcars and living the life of a vagabond, searching for what he thought only the world could offer. When asked what kept him going, he replied, I knew all about hunger, cold, and nights in jail. I was lonely all the time, sometimes to the point of being unbearable. What kept me going was the freedom of it — and my curiosity to see what lay on the other side of the mountain or beyond the next horizon.

That should be our attitude about heaven – curiosity to see what’s on the other side of the mountain of problems and beyond the next horizon of hope. Planning for heaven makes us want to live righteously so we look like we belong there. Living like we belong there brings the power of heaven into the present. And living in the power of God despite the current circumstances enhances our fellowship with Jesus, who lived that way for us. We have available to us all the things René Champion was looking for but never really found. We simply need to look beyond the immediate.

The hope of glory is where it all starts, and should be the starting point for every day of our lives. Somehow, someday, by the grace of God, we will see Jesus, and then we will be able to say, “It was worth it all, and it is more than I imagined!”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Philippians 3:10  I want to know Christ…and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

(Personal Note:  Happy Birthday to my daughter Rochelle. Please know that your birth and life have absolutely NOTHING to do with the opening line of this devotional.)

I wonder how much suffering I could endure? I asked myself that question over 10 years ago when I joined 19 other men and women from our church on a mission trip to Bayou DuLarge Baptist Church in Theriot, Louisiana. We were headed there to help them rebuild a couple of houses that were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. We established a wonderful relationship with this church and its pastor at that time. He had an amazing heart for Jesus. But it is not an easy place to minister. The church is located in the last village on the road as you travel south toward the Gulf of Mexico on the Mississippi delta. Now you understand why the church has the word Bayou in its name.

But God has started a revival in this area, and the church is being blessed. I want to share with you a letter I received from Pastor Jerry prior to our mission trip.

Dear friends, members of God’s eternal family, and partners together with us in His work,

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is right.” (Titus 2:11-15)

Indeed, we wait for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ… and as we wait for His return, we work in His field. Cindy and I are grateful to the Lord, for God has allowed us to see some fruit in His harvest of souls here among our bayou people. We are experiencing a season of harvest, souls saved, many turning back to follow the Lord, and a general expectation of God’s working like may never before have been experienced here.

Someone asked me what I attribute this to. I can only say it is God’s doing; He is working out His own will to save people from destruction, giving instead to them a sure and eternal hope. We have worked in this field, mostly just to keep our heads above water. We have not known any new or exciting evangelistic “strategy” or “program” to institute. We have simply tried to stay in place, to do what God leads us to do day by day, and to WAIT on Him to do that which we have been convinced is His will.

Many have labored here before. Many have prayed. Practically all have passed on without seeing the fruit of their labor or the answers to their prayers. Over the past few years sometimes life has been difficult, particularly for Cindy. Often, just living day to day is for her a challenge. In times of physical difficulty for both of us, I have sometimes wondered if we would live long enough to see God move as we have been led to pray for and ask of the Lord.

We feel blessed to see what we are seeing today. Others have worked; others have been faithful; and yet they have not seen… but by God’s grace we are living in the middle of the greatest days so far of God’s work here on Bayou DuLarge.

We need physical, as well as spiritual endurance. Pray for us, good brethren, that we may be alert and disciplined to take every advantage of the many opportunities that are being presented to us to serve people in Christ’s name and bear witness to God’s amazing grace.

May the Lord bless you richly as you serve Him. Thank you for your prayerful support.

Jerry & Cindy Moser (Cindy is now with Jesus in glory.)

That’s what Paul meant when he said, I want to know Christ…and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. God uses suffering in our lives to bring us into a deeper dependency on Jesus, who suffered for us.

I have been deeply impacted by the phrase becoming like him in his death. What was Jesus like during His suffering? The author of Hebrews tells us – 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.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:2 – 3)

That’s what I saw in Pastor Jerry’s life. That’s what I want to be true of my life: to endure suffering because it perfects my faith, letting the hope of being in God’s presence someday be my strength.

Press on, my friends – there’s a blessing coming!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Philippians 3:10  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection…

All this week we are discussing the benefits of knowing Jesus. The third benefit will be the experience of God’s power.

Power means different things to different people. When I think of power I get several different pictures. I think of the 1979 tornado in Algona, Iowa that destroyed half of the town where we lived. I think of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina that I experienced firsthand when we travelled there with 20 people from our church to work with our sister church to rebuild homes. I remember the minor tremors of an earthquake I experienced in Alaska and wondered what a big one would be like.

My pictures of power usually come from nature, where power is mostly uncontrollable. Some of you may define power in terms of people, from powerful weightlifters to powerful politicians. For you, power is control – the control of things, the control of outcomes, and the control of people. Both concepts of power need to be considered and balanced. For power to be true power, it must be uncontrollable. For power to have any benefit to us it must be able to control things, outcomes, and people.

Paul writes that he wants to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. I believe he is asking to experience both the awesomeness of God’s power that cannot be controlled or duplicated by man, and the benefits of that power being at work in his life to control things, outcomes, and people – namely himself.  Consider for a moment all these aspects of God’s power:

1. Resurrection power is beyond our comprehension and control. God’s power raised Jesus from the dead. That alone would be significant enough, had it not been for the fact that by God’s power Jesus also raised other people from the dead. What makes the resurrection of Christ more powerful than the resurrection of Lazarus? Here’s one simple contrast – Lazarus was raised to his previous state. He would sin again and he would die again. But Jesus, after becoming our sin for us, and having been put to death by God as the total expression of God’s wrath against sin, was raised by God from that sin to newness of life, never to experience sin or death again but instead to reign over it. Praise be to God! God’s power is more than restorative power – it is transformational power.
2. God’s power is controlled by His purpose, and that benefits us by controlling things and outcomes. When Jesus came to earth as man He was still fully God, yet the fullness of His power was brought under the control of God’s purpose. Man had no power to crucify Jesus except that it was granted to them by God for the accomplishment of His glory. Jesus defined Himself as meek, and the Greek word He used means “to have power under control.” It is God’s glorious purpose that controls His power, so that all things and all circumstances are being controlled to accomplish His outcomes.
3. God’s power is able to control people. Our initial thoughts may not have been very pure when we first read that statement. We may have been guilty of thinking about other people and how they need to be controlled by God’s power. But we need to say what Paul said – “I want to know the power.” In other words, “How can the power of God control me?” If we fully understand and believe that the power of God is transformational as in #1 above, then we need to let His power transform us. We have not been raised with Christ to sameness of life, but to newness of life. We are not to identify with Lazarus in his resurrection, but with Jesus in His. When we seek to know Christ and His power in that way, then the flesh and all its sin is brought under the control of the power of God, we are empowered to accomplish the purpose of God.

The power of God that controls all things for His purpose also transforms us so that we become a part of His purpose. Every aspect of our flesh – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – can be controlled by the power and purpose of God.

Our transformation is not yet complete, as Paul explains a few verses later in Philippians 3 when he says, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” I’m sure we can all agree with Paul that we have not yet obtained all of God’s power, but can we also say with him that we are pressing on to get more of it every day? I hope so. It’s why Jesus took hold of us – so we could be completely transformed by His power.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Philippians 3:9  ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

Happy Birthday to my brother Paul with GoServ Global. Check out their ministry at www.GoServGlobal.org

Profit is what’s left after all the expenses are paid. Whether it’s in your personal or business finances, the goal is to have as much profit as possible. We can increase profit by increasing income, minimizing expenses, or a combination of the two. But what works in the secular world doesn’t necessarily work in the spiritual world. Let’s look at what Paul says about profit in regard to righteousness.

To be righteous is to be declared right. For a long time in his life, Paul believed that if he worked harder spiritually he could earn the right to declare himself righteous. By obeying more of the law, he could improve his standing in comparison to other people. Even if other people didn’t declare him “right”, he was hoping that by personal effort he could somehow attain a level of self-declared “rightness” that would overcome his knowledge of his guilt and the shame of his failures.

Many people today are stuck in the same bondage. Some try to earn their righteousness by obeying the law, while others are rewriting the law so they are no longer guilty. But at the end of the day, the nagging of their eternal soul is not silenced, and they seek other forms of relief from the pain of guilt and shame. You see, the problem with self-declared righteousness earned by doing right things is that in our hearts we still know two things to be ultimately true: we are guilty of wrong things, and we must answer to a higher authority than ourselves.

Paul was introduced to a whole new concept of righteousness when He met Jesus Christ. Instead of God being a judge holding a balance scale in His hand on which he would weigh all our good against all of our sin and reward us accordingly, Paul discovered that as the eternal Judge, God had already imposed the sentence of guilt and its punishment on someone else on our behalf. Jesus Christ had willingly and lovingly accepted our sin as His own, and suffered the maximum sentence of death to pay for its guilt. The justice of God was completely satisfied by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, so that all who by faith receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord are declared righteous. We know we are guilty, but the Judge declares us completely innocent. There is no more condemnation left for those who are found in Christ Jesus. He suffered and paid it all for us.

I am so overwhelmed right now with the surpassing greatness of the righteousness of God that is mine in Christ Jesus. I know I am still guilty of sin, and everything in my flesh tells me to make up for it. My mind is filled with questions like, “What can I do to make it right?” and “What will be accepted as sufficient restitution?” The laws of our land and the judicial system have influenced me to believe that I must be on probation for a while so I can prove my rehabilitation by obeying the law. I begin to imagine that God is my parole officer and I am accountable to Him for every action and decision, and if I mess up He will throw me back into prison to suffer the consequences of my sin.

But then I see Jesus hanging on the cross, willingly taking all my sin and its punishment into His own body. I realize that God’s incredible love has designed a plan by which His wrath against my sin is completely poured out against an innocent party so that I can be declared innocent. I did nothing nor can I do anything to earn it. I simply ask for it by faith in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, and it is granted to me absolutely free!

Never again will I have to prove myself. Never again will I have to measure up to a standard so I can declare myself right. Never again will I have to work to earn the favor of God or people. Never again will I have to fear that I haven’t done enough to tip the scales in my favor. In fact, instead of God being a judge holding a balance scale of justice in His hand, He is now a Father personally holding me in His hand. I will never have to walk into the courtroom of eternity, stand before the Judge, and await His ruling on my guilt or innocence. That trial has already been held, and my Savior, my Lord, and my King voluntarily became the Defendant. He was declared guilty, sentenced to death, and the sentence was carried out at Calvary. The Judge was so satisfied that absolute justice had been served that He raised the Defendant from the dead and restored Him to His original position. Then the Judge declared that any future defendants who admit their guilt and ask for forgiveness by faith in what the original Defendant did shall be declared innocent of all charges and immune from any future prosecution. Praise be to God!

Whatever I thought was to my gain in the past, I now consider rubbish that I may be found in Christ Jesus, having His righteousness and not my own. That is the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, June 4, 2018

Philippians 3:10  I want to know Christ…

Years ago, when I was working in retail clothing store management, I would get monthly profit and loss statements from the home office. These statements became the basis for many of the decisions I had to make concerning expenses, especially payroll. If I was managing well, and sales were good, then employees could be given additional hours to handle all the responsibilities of the store, and my work load would be eased. My efforts at management not only profited the company, but there were benefits to me personally as well.

But there were other times when the profit wasn’t so good. Producing a profit was all that mattered to my district manager, and there were times when it hurt me to have to cut employees hours to make sure the bottom line was protected. No one was exempt from layoffs or temporary cuts in hours. As the manager, I was expected to pick up all the extra responsibilities of those who had been cut. I was to consider nothing so important that I wouldn’t lose it for the sake of the company’s profit. No matter how many extra hours I had to put in and how many department cash registers I had to operate, I was making sure that next month’s statement stayed in the black.

When Paul compares his efforts to earn the favor of God with the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord, he uses the same kind of accounting terms I just described. Everything Paul had done in the past had earned him some profit (Phil. 3:4-6), and he had enjoyed the social and personal benefits of his activity. But now he realized that the profit he had experienced from everything he had done in his own strength was rubbish compared to the profit he now received from knowing Jesus Christ as his Lord. He now considered all those efforts and benefits as rubbish compared to the new experience of knowing Jesus.

During this week, we will look at the benefits of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord. But before we do, we must make sure that we understand the three aspects of relationship with Jesus as Paul describes it. It is very significant that Paul combines three names for Jesus into one statement of relationship. Paul says that there is nothing that can compare to the surpassing greatness of knowing his Savior as Christ, as Jesus, and as Lord. This is significant because each name represents a different part of our relationship with Him.

I believe that the reason many of us are not more excited about our relationship with Jesus is because we have not appropriated the profit that is ours from having all three of these parts in balance in our lives.

There were three official offices in the Old Testament that functioned to bring profit to the people:

1. Prophet – the spokesperson for God who proclaimed His truth and the profit that would result from obedience.
2. Priest – the intercessor between God and man who brought forgiveness when there had been disobedience.
3. King – the arm of God’s justice to punish the unrepentant and bring peace and security to the people.

When Paul says that nothing can compare to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord, he is combining all three of these offices into one person, and is emphasizing that the real profit of knowing Him will only be experienced if we are surrendered to all three.

1. As Prophet, Jesus is the Truth, and we must be submitted to everything He teaches because He is the exact representation of the Father to us.
2. As Priest, He is the Way to forgiveness and eternal life because He made the perfect once-for-all sacrifice for sin on the cross.
3. As King, He is the Life, and brings peace and security to us as we humbly submit to His Lordship and control of our lives.

Unfortunately, many people only want part of what Jesus offers: they are willing to settle for partial profit. But to experience the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus we must surrender to all three aspects of relationship to Jesus, and when we do we gain all of the benefits. If we want to be able to say that knowing Jesus is greater than anything else in our lives, then we must be able to answer all the following questions with an emphatic “YES!”

1. Have we accepted everything Jesus said as truth? (Or do we toss out things that are socially, politically or personally unacceptable?)
2. Have we repented of every sin in our lives and brought it to the cross for forgiveness? (Or do we hang on to what I call sins of security because they have some personal benefit to us we think we cannot live without?)
3. Have we turned over the control of every aspect of our lives to the King and do we trust Him with the outcome of every situation in our lives?

If you answered any of these questions with a no or a maybe, then you are living beneath your privilege and not experiencing your full profit. It’s no wonder that you can’t say that your relationship is of such great value that you would give up anything else in your life to maintain it. Maybe it’s time to fix that problem. Submit your whole heart, mind, souls, and strength to Christ Jesus your Lord, and start enjoying the profits!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Friday, June 1, 2018

Philippians 3:10  I want to know Christ…

When our Pastor’s and Spouse’s Retreat ended, Denise and I drove to Madison to spend some time with our grandchildren (and their parents of course). Kylie was 4 months old at the time and I didn’t feel like I knew her. When we arrived, we picked her and her brother Caleb up from their other grandma’s house and had the whole afternoon together with them. I took Kylie on my lap and began to whisper into her ear and play with her, because I really wanted her to know me and I wanted to know her. I wanted to bond.

In a short time, she was gazing into my eyes as I played a little baby game with her, and then it happened – she giggled. Then, from a giggle she moved to laughing. I was overjoyed. All the issues of the world, all the issues of life and work, and yes, even all the memories of yesterday’s golf were gone and meant nothing compared to that one moment of intimacy with my granddaughter. I later discovered, while sharing the moment with my daughter, that she had not heard Kylie giggle yet. I felt really special.

That event caused me to consider how much time and energy I put into trying to know people, and what motivates me to either try harder or not invest in others at all. It is sad in our modern culture that we are so busy we invest very little effort in getting to really know people. But an even bigger problem is this – when we do invest in others, we are tempted to do it only for personal gain.

I know the temptation we all feel to meet people for the wrong reasons. I had the opportunity to meet H.B. London, the pastor to pastors for Focus on the Family Ministries. I shook hands with Dennis Swanberg, the Christian comedian. I know the thoughts that ran through my mind. The worst one was, “If I can say that I know him and that he knows me, that pushes the value of my life up a notch.” Fortunately, none of those thoughts were allowed to take root, and I simply thanked them for their ministry. Some people meet famous people so they can brag about it, because they somehow feel it elevates their social status. Their only claim to fame is that they claim to know someone of fame.

However, there is one relationship from which we gain value – the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ. If only we would put as much energy into knowing Jesus as we do into knowing people. If only the thrill of experiencing the giggles of God was as significant as the giggles of grandchildren. I am reminded of one of my favorite Bible verses about God’s response to our intimacy with Him. It is found in Zephaniah 3:17, and it says, The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Imagine that – God takes great delight in our relationship, and he rejoices over us with singing. The word for rejoice that God uses to describe his response to us means to spin around under the influence of any violent emotion, that is, rejoice. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like dancing to me. When we seek to intimately know God, and let Him intimately know us, God dances with joy. He directs the choirs of heaven to sing their most joyous song and the volume crescendos to its loudest level, and God sings and dances with joy. I’ll bet he even giggles and laughs.

I want to know Christ that way. I want to use every minute of every day to get to know Him better. I want Him to have access to every part of my life. I want Him to know every emotion I feel and every thought I think. I want to be the baby on his lap. I want to gaze into His eyes and know that I am completely safe in His arms. I want Him to bounce me on His knee so I can giggle and laugh. I want to experience His laughter as He hears mine. I want to be so overwhelmed with the joy of His presence that I forget all my inhibitions and traditions and I dance with Him.

No matter what happens the rest of today, I’ve seen God dancing with delight because of me, and my heart is filled with joy. I got to know Him a little better today, and He got to know me. Nothing can match that. I’m beginning to understand more deeply the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. All it takes is a decision to spend time with Him. Why not make that decision today?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Philippians 3:8 – 9 …that I may gain Christ  ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

While Denise and I attended the Focus on the Family Pastor’s Retreat at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to which I referred yesterday, I had an opportunity to play golf at an exclusive, professional quality golf course, Thanks to a gift from a dear sister in Christ. We had the afternoon off from the conference, and my incredible wife blessed me with some alone time to go and enjoy the Gary Player Signature Course at Geneva National. I arrived an hour early for my tee time, and went to the driving range to warm up. Next to me was a young man who looked like a very good golfer. He intimidated me a little. I heard him talking to his partner next to him about the courses they have played in the past – big name courses where the pros play their tournaments, like Myrtle Beach. Now I was more intimidated. I began to focus on my own swing, and tried to do everything I could to measure up to his.

I finished warming up and went to the practice green to chip and putt, and was glad to be able to just be me again. I began to enjoy the quality of the course and appreciate the skills I had to put the ball in the hole while putting on the smooth and slick green. When it was time to get to the first tee, I drove my cart over to the starter’s booth and checked in. Pulling up behind me in another cart were the two men I would be partnered with to play that day. Guess what? It was the two guys from the driving range. Now my mind started to work on me. I know I can play golf fairly well, but I don’t play well when I am in competition with another person. I was out there to enjoy a round of golf, and so were they, but in my mind Satan was attempting to ruin the day by causing me to compare myself with other golfers. I had convinced myself that unless I beat them I would not have fun.

When we teed off on the first hole, the self-imposed pressure to perform well overcame me. I focus on my fundamentals, and hit a long and straight drive right off the end of the short fairway into a marsh in front of the green. To make a long story short, I spent the next three holes beating myself up and trying harder, all the while scoring terribly and watching these two business professionals gain a huge advantage on me. After the third hole I stopped and prayed and asked God to forgive me for trying to measure myself by others. I asked Him to calm my heart and just let me play golf according to the skills he gave me. I birdied the next hole, and proceeded to start hitting the ball very well. In the meantime, their games fell apart, hitting balls into the water on several holes, and the weaknesses of their games started to show up. When it was all done, I had shot a three over par 75 and had enjoyed some of the most spectacular golf holes and scenery I had ever played.

How did the two other golfers respond? God used them to teach me a lesson. I never heard a discouraging or frustrated word from them all day. When they hit the ball bad, they still had something good to say. They gave me high fives for my shots and I did the same for them. I don’t know if they were Christians or not, but they sure liked my joke about pastors having a great retirement plan. These were two guys who didn’t play the competitive comparison game in life. They knew who they were and they accepted it. They didn’t try to measure up to someone else’s standards – they just enjoyed life and what they were doing. They didn’t make excuses for poor shots and they didn’t seek recognition for good ones. They just played the game and found pleasure in what they did. I really needed that.

Paul directs our attention to that in today’s Scripture. He was tired of trying to measure up to a standard of righteousness found in the law. He was tired of seeking worth and acceptance he thought would come from playing the competitive comparison game with others. He was thrilled to realize that based on his faith in Jesus Christ and not his works, the Righteous One had declared him righteous. He had learned the freedom of living because he was righteous, rather than living to earn righteousness.

Just as I had to be reminded yesterday that I play golf because I am a golfer not to prove I am a golfer, God wants us to live as Christians because we are righteous, not to prove we are. When we get this settled in our minds and resist the temptation to compare ourselves to others and to prove ourselves worthy, life becomes fun again. We will begin to enjoy whatever comes our way. I would have missed out on a huge blessing yesterday and would have had all the joy sucked from me had I continued to try to prove myself. I would have been so preoccupied with performance that I would have not taken the time to enjoy the beauty of this awesome golf course.

Resting in the declaration of God through Jesus Christ of who we are brings peace, fulfillment, and joy. Isn’t it time you started living that way?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Philippians 3:7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

Several years ago my wife and I attended a Pastor and Spouse retreat sponsored by Focus on the Family. It was held at the Lodge at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. When we arrived my first thought was “WOW!” Denise had to remind me to act like this is normal instead of like a hick, because it was a much different class of living from what I am used to.

Early the next morning, I sat with my laptop in a lounge overlooking the outdoor pool. On the other side of the pool was a spectacular view of an incredibly groomed golf course next to a lake with fountains spraying water up into the air. The lounge is next to one of 10 restaurants in the resort, each one featuring food I cannot pronounce nor pay for. The immaculate building is a Frank Lloyd Wright design. The room we stayed in was impeccably decorated and we were treated like royalty. Again, Denise had to remind me not to embarrass myself or her by acting amazed, and to pretend that we are used to this kind of living.

That morning, in that lounge, I wrote these thoughts:

Last night we listened to H.B. London from Focus on the Family. I confess my mind was elsewhere. I could only focus on one thing – the transformation that this resort has undergone. It was originally built by Hugh Hefner as a playboy resort. Here we are, 77 couples serving Jesus Christ in full-time ministry, sitting in the same room where playboy bunnies once romped in moral decadence. As I look out at the pool I don’t even want to imagine what happened in and around it. But then, in 1981, it was sold, and today its purpose is far different. An indoor water park has been built so families can come and relax and have fun together. Proper attire is required at all events, even around the pool. You can’t even play golf unless you are wearing khakis and a collared shirt – no jeans and t-shirts allowed. Today, in contrast to the past, this facility is highly respected and promotes family values.

To some degree, this is a picture of what God does in the life of a person who decides to sell out to Jesus. Prior to Christ’s saving power transforming their life, the sinner romped in moral decadence, living a life contrary to everything God intended. Everything they did was designed to promote self and discover the pleasures of life. Then, by the grace of God, they gave it all up and turned over the ownership of their life to Jesus. Everything changed. Their purpose was now not self-centered but Christ-centered. They no longer exposed the flesh but instead were clothed with the righteousness of God. They discovered a new purpose and began promoting God’s values with respect for people. What a miracle!

Today, I am asking God to use this retreat to refocus my energy and restore my vitality so that I can continue to serve Him in bringing the good news of that miracle to others. As we were reminded last night by H.B., it’s amazing that out of nearly 6 billion people in the world, God reached down and chose me to be the minister of His grace to the church and the lost. He chose you, too. He went out into the real estate market of human life and bought our sinful resort with the blood of His Son Jesus, and transformed us. He is still in the market for more property. You and I have been appointed as His real estate agents, assigned the task of finding valuable properties that need renovation. There are more miracles to be done, and there are more people who need to say “WOW! I could get used to this kind of living!”

Pastor John