LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Psalms 57:7  My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.

In October of 2007, a huge storm called a nor’easter hit the east coast of America. Heavy rains, high tides, and strong winds destroyed homes along the coast and flooded coastal towns. From Florida to Maine people living near the Atlantic Ocean were affected. Even professional sports took a hit. The final round of the PGA golf tournament in Hilton Head South Carolina had to be cancelled because the winds made it impossible for the golf balls to stay in place on the greens. Several golfers were blown off their strides as they walked, and crashing tree limbs injured the tournament Marshall and put spectators and players at risk. Everyone had to come in from the storm.

Living part of my life in the Dakotas, I know what strong winds are. I’ve been on the golf course while the winds blew at 35-40 miles per hour. I’ve actually had to adjust the line of putts at the hole just to play the wind. I’ve had to lean heavily to one side or the other as I walked just to stay standing. But while all external forces from above and around me were attempting to knock me off of my feet, I knew that the ground under me wasn’t going to fail me and that I had a solid foundation upon which to stand.

That may have been true of the part of South Dakota where I lived, but it isn’t true everywhere. Imagine what it must be like to live in an area prone to earthquakes. When the ground itself begins to shake, where can we stand? At such times, how can we consider ourselves to be steadfast?

Soon-to-be King David must have felt that way when he was pursued by King Saul in an attempt to eliminate the apparent successor to his throne. God had promised David that he would be King, but here he was, hiding out in a cave in the rocks seeking to avoid detection. While deep in the cave, struggling to find meaning and purpose for this latest attack on his life, David wrote the fifty-seventh Psalm – a Psalm filled with confidence in the steadfast love of God. David was so convinced of God’s faithfulness that he said, “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.

I dare not pretend to have reached that point in my life yet, where I can sing and make music when under attack. Yet when the storms of life begin to influence us and shake us to our foundation, we can say with King David that we are steadfast.

The Hebrew word that God chose for David to use here to describe his spiritual condition is the word kun, which means to stand erect. I know there are many times in my life when I am not feeling very steadfast and I am certainly not standing very straight. But one thing remains constant – the foundation upon which I stand cannot be shaken or moved.

No matter who is pursuing me or persecuting me, God’s love is greater and reaches to the heavens.

No matter what falls apart or fails in my life, God’s faithfulness reaches to the skies.

No matter how shaken my emotions and how uncertain I am of my ability to stand against the forces that oppose me and hurt me, my heart can remain steadfast because it trusts in God who is exalted above all else.

When storms hit, we seek refuge. Wise people seek refuge in storm-tested places of security. When the waters rise, only fools go into the valleys. When tornadoes strike, only fools go to the top floor. Only a fool builds a tree house and calls it a hurricane shelter. Wise people know where to go for the greatest security.

The same is true spiritually. When the storms of life hit and a crisis occurs, only fools climb into the tree house of their own knowledge for solutions. No matter how well-equipped the tree house is with all the latest innovations of man to solve man’s problems, it is still only as strong as the tree to which it is nailed. Someday a storm is coming that will destroy your tree.

Maybe your tree is being shaken pretty hard right now. Be wise. Climb down from your precarious perch of pride and run to the Rock that cannot be moved. God is the refuge that cannot be penetrated. His love and faithfulness are unending and unfailing. While the winds howl and the trees are broken apart, our hearts can be steadfast – we can stand upright when all else around us is being blown away.

Our ability to stand depends in part on what we decide to exalt in our lives. If we exalt self and our solutions, then we will be shaken and stunned to silence. But if we exalt God in our lives just as He is exalted above all the heavens, and if we live for His glory on the earth, then we will sing and make music because we are steadfast.

The choice is ours. Let’s cancel our plans, and come in from the storm.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Psalm 56:9  “…This I know, that God is for me.”

My thoughts this morning are captivated by a profound truth – God is for me!

I don’t have a story to tell to stimulate your interest. I just want to dive in and declare to you a marvelous truth – God is for you!

We would be demonstrating serious spiritual lifelessness if we did not come to that conclusion after reading the fifty-sixth Psalm. Not because it is stated bluntly in verse 9, but because of the compassionate and caring tone of the whole Psalm.

Before I share with you what struck me powerfully this morning, take a moment to meditate on these marvelous words:

• When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. (verse 3)
• In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. (verse 4, and similarly in verses 10-11)
• For you have delivered my soul from death, yes my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. (verse 13)

Now, let me share with you the powerful point that the Holy Spirit made to me this morning.

It is not hard for us to remember the people and things that have hurt us so deeply that they caused us to cry. Nighttime reveals the intensity of our stress over the hardships of life as we sleeplessly toss and turn. Our emotions are raw, and every salty tear we shed drips into the open wound and increases the sting. Is there no solution? Does God not care?

The answer is found in verse 8:

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle.

I must confess that I am having a very difficult time figuring out how to express to you the personal impact this verse is having on me right now. The Eternal God, Creator of all things and Sovereign Ruler of all events and circumstances, is personally and intimately invested in my life.

He is so invested that He is keeping a detailed record of everything that causes me stress and pain. He records every one of my tossings. He knows every fearful thought that results from the hardships of life. He is there when I can’t sleep. He is there when I can’t shut off my mind as I try to solve the issues of life. He is intimately collecting every tear I shed and keeping them in a personalized bottle on His lap. Not one single tear has ever been wasted. God knows the reason for every tear. He knows the emotional and physical result in my heart of every tear. He has in His mind the perfect timing for the removal of that which has caused them to fall from my eyes. He has kept a record of every detail of every event, and has not missed even the smallest one.

God is for me!

Therefore, I can put my trust in God and not be afraid. I can walk before the Lord every moment of every day in the light of life, knowing that He is faithful to work out all things for good because I love Him. (Romans 8:28)

God is for me!

God is for YOU!

Trust Him, and be not afraid.

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Psalm 55:22  Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Last night, during the annual pastoral review conducted by the Elders, I was asked a question: “What discourages you?

I only had to think about two seconds to have an answer: I get discouraged by the complaints and criticisms of ministry that come from brothers and sisters in Christ. I am not speaking of valid, grace-filled suggestions that come from a person who loves Christ and His church, but rather those complaints that are motivated in large part by a person’s desire to have their personal preferences satisfied. I find it frustrating that people can so easily take their eyes off of Jesus and speak so harshly about what others who love Jesus are doing to serve Him.

The reason I share that publicly with you today is because that is exactly how King David felt when he wrote the fifty-fifth Psalm. Take a moment and read it. (Psalm 55)

David admits that he is restless because of the attacks of the enemy. He confesses that he is in anguish, and is afraid, even horrified, with what the enemies of God are doing to him. He wishes he could fly away and get lost in the wilderness, away from all the attacks.

I’m sure we can all relate to that. It doesn’t feel good to be attacked by enemies. It wrecks our day, and can carry over into weeks.

But David admits to something even more painful than the attacks of enemies: the attacks of a friend. Read again his words in verses 12-14:

For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him.   But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.  We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.

It is indeed a sad and painful thing when individual members of the Body of Christ, who are called out for all eternity to come together in unity to worship and serve the risen Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit, decide to attack other members of the Body because of a prideful desire to have their personal preferences gratified.

King David discovered that the very worst kind of attack is not the face-to-face confrontation of a friend: that can actually turn out well. It is rather the hypocritical, hidden agenda type that pretends to be friendly while being motivated by hate not love. Look at what he says in verses 20-21:

My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant.  His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.

As I read through this Psalm, I was drawn into it. I could relate to at times being the companion who broke the covenant of Christian love, and it brought me to my knees in confession and repentance. I could also relate to being the victim of such friends, and I relived the pain of those experiences.

But then I read verse 22, and my heart was calmed. My spirit was refreshed. My hope was restored. My discouragement dissipated.

Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you;

He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

God sustains me! When I remain in His righteousness, God will never move me from His personal care. I do not need the wings of a dove to fly away, for I am safely hidden underneath the wings of His love.

I am reminded of the verses from the prophet Isaiah that my Grandfather gave me as a college student – “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off;  fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:9-10)

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, October 12, 2015

Psalm 54:4  Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.

Yesterday as I was preaching, something absolutely amazing happened. It can only be accounted for by declaring that God did it. I was bringing out the truth of First Thessalonians 5:4, which states, “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” As I explained that people who are looking to the world for their identity and their security are actually living in darkness, I made a statement similar to this – “Any attempt to find value, worth, identity, or security from the things of this world is darkness.” At the very instant that I said the word darkness, all of the lights in the building went out. The light technician immediately raised her arms to say, “I didn’t do it!” At that very moment the lighting control panel decided to reboot and reset. The dramatic effect was absolutely perfect. God spoke!

I thought of that this morning when God spoke in another way. I was sitting at my desk with my head in my hands, meditating on Psalm 54:4 – Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life. I was considering how I was going to express to you the deep significance of this verse to my personal life. As I struggled to come up with a way to start the devotional, I heard a thump on my office window. I recognized the thump as that of a bird hitting the glass. I looked over, and there, sitting on the window ledge was a sparrow. He sat there for about ten seconds, and then flew off. It was just long enough for me to hear the Holy Spirit speak to my heart and say, “It needs no more explanation, just application.”

I immediately remembered saying that same line several times in my sermon yesterday. You see, we do not lack for knowledge of what God has said: what we lack is the application of what God has said. God used a sparrow to remind me of that. As I sat and looked at that bird outside my window, the words of Jesus scrolled across the marquis of my mind.

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:26

Jesus tells us about God’s love for birds. God is their helper. He feeds them. He protects them. He watches over them. According to Psalm 84:3,  Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

Then Jesus says this – Are you not of more value than they? That little bird sitting on my ledge is NOT created in the image of God – but I am! So if God cares so much for birds, why do I live with such anxiety? Yet I do not need more explanation of what God meant; I just need more application of what I have already heard God say.

BEHOLD!

GOD IS MY HELPER!

THE LORD IS THE UPHOLDER OF MY LIFE!

I will not soon forget the bird on my window. May I also not soon forget how God sent that bird to me at the exact time I needed a reminder that no matter what life brings my way, He is my helper. He is the upholder of my life.

“It needs no more explanation, just application.”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, October 5, 2015

Psalms 53:5  There they are, in great terror, where there is no terror!

The fifty-third Psalm begins with a familiar verse – The fool says in his heart “There is no God.”

Man’s heart does not have the natural capacity to believe in God – it has been corrupted by sin and separated eternally from relationship with God. In his natural state, man can know that God exists, and can see the majesty of His being in the splendor of His creation, but he has no ability to restore the broken relationship with God that sin caused.

Yet this reality does not make a person a fool. He is a fool when the grace of God enlightens the darkness of his heart and reveals to him the love of God and he rejects it. The fool refuses faith. The fool chooses the flesh and its gratification while rejecting faith and its glorification.

The fool goes so far as to deny the very existence of God in an attempt to justify his choices. Man believes that the exclusion of God from all aspects of human existence validates all human endeavor. The fool believes this is progress and the natural evolution of mankind. The fool believes this eliminates fear. The reality is that fear increases without God.

King David says that the fool begins to fear even when there is nothing to fear, because without God there is no security or hope. (Psalm 53:5) Man’s wisdom is soon proved foolish. Man’s plans soon fail. Hope is overwhelmed by worry.

Oswald Chambers said it this way – The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.

Many of our fears are the product of ignorance, and the choice to be ignorant of God is the worst ignorance of all. Jesus said it this way, This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

Choosing darkness over light results in fear. Jesus also said, If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

It’s one thing to be in the dark and not know that there is light available. What is worse is to be in the dark, know where the light is, but refuse to turn it on. But what is absurdly foolish and unforgivable is to stay in the dark when light is available and then call the darkness light.

Faith turns on the light and eliminates fear. We master fear through faith—faith in the trustworthiness of God and the worthwhileness of life; faith in the meaning of our pain and our striving, and confidence that God will not cast us aside but will use each one of us as a piece of priceless mosaic in the design of his universe. Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable—and, most of all, fear puts hopelessness at the heart of life, while faith rejoices in its God. (Harry Emerson Fosdick)

If you are suffering from fear where others are saying there is nothing to fear, then look to your faith as the answer. Salvation is coming! God will restore the fortunes of His people. He is faithful and good. He cannot and will not fail.

You have nothing to fear if your life is in His hands. Have faith. Turn on the light.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Psalms 52:7 – 8  “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others! But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.”

There’s quite a contrast between the lives of the two men described in today’s Psalm. David was a shepherd boy whom God chose to be the King of Israel. By the power and authority of God he slew Goliath, yet demanded no recognition or reward. His humble spirit was the soil in which the fruit of greatness grew. He flourished because his hope and trust were in the unfailing love of God.

Doeg was also a shepherd, a servant of King Saul. He trusted in his own ability to rise to a position of importance and power. He lied to the King about David in order to improve his own position with the King. As a result Saul ordered Doeg to kill 85 innocent priests he thought were conspiring with David to overthrow his kingdom. Doeg, motivated by pride and a desire to better himself, obeyed. When David got the news of what had happened, he wrote this Psalm. (You can read the whole story in 1 Samuel 21-22).

David uses some pretty harsh words to describe Doeg in this Psalm. David questions Doeg’s wisdom of boasting about evil, and says that he is a disgrace in the eyes of God. He calls him a liar and a man who would rather do evil than good. Then David tells Doeg what the consequences will be of his pride and deceit – God will bring him to everlasting ruin. Everything that he had worked so hard to gain for himself will be taken from him, including the prestige he wanted when the righteous end up laughing at him. The end result of man’s pursuits of wealth, power, and prestige at the expense of others is the destruction of all that was gained and life itself. This lowly shepherd who pursued greatness ended up with nothing because he was a man motivated by a sinful heart.

But the other shepherd, David, a man after God’s heart, was granted a throne, a kingdom, and a heritage because he trusted in God alone. He flourished like an olive tree growing in the house of God. All his hope was in God because he knew that God was good. He was not perfect – far from it – yet God honored his humble heart that submitted to God’s purpose in all things. He knew that the only things worth living for in life were the things that God granted.

If God granted power, David would praise him.

If God granted prosperity, then David would praise him.

If God granted prestige, then David would praise Him.

If God had not granted any of those things David would still have praised Him, because David was surrendered to whatever God wanted to do with his life.

That’s why David was called a man after God’s own heart. He was not pursuing man’s desires, but God’s.

Doeg sought to praise himself and have others praise him as well.

David sought to praise God and have his life be used to motivate others to praise God.

Doeg sought personal gratification in everything he did.

David sought God’s honor in everything he did.

Doeg was not content with his position and sought to change it at the expense of others.

David was content with whatever God chose for him and when God appointed David to replace Saul as King he sought to avoid doing anything that would dishonor Saul and his family.

Two men, from identical backgrounds, experiencing totally opposite results. The reason is obvious – one willingly surrendered to God and one pridefully pursued the flesh. The one who surrendered to God flourished and his fame is remembered forever. The one who pursued the flesh failed and is forgotten.

Which one are you?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Psalm 51:6a  Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being…

In Act III of The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare writes,

The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

An evil soul, producing holy witness,

Is like a villain with a smiling cheek;

A goodly apple rotten at the heart.

Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath.

Let me repeat that last line. Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath.

We have become professionals at putting on a goodly outside while the intent and integrity of our heart is suspect. Some of our religious upbringing taught us how to behave as Christians but did little to address the true condition of our heart. Some of us are still living according to the standards we have been taught rather than as an expression of the heart we have caught. We know that we are hypocrites. We know that the goodly outside is a lie.

Long before Shakespeare, in 550 B.C., Aesop wrote something that is not a fable – Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth. Lies originate in the heart of a person who is unsure of their value. Lies are designed by such a person to protect what little value they believe they have. Yet the outcome of the outside show is to further enslave the person because it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the necessary external image to protect from an accidental revealing if the inner truth.

There is only one answer to this serious condition – Inner worth is only possible through the surrender of self to the Savior. This takes true humility and transparency, and many of us are not willing to open our lives up to that extent to anyone, including God. Instead, we choose to live dualistic lives.

According to author Melvin F. Wheatley, “We are split spiritual personalities. We swear allegiance to one set of principles and live by another. We extol self-control and practice self-indulgence. We proclaim brotherhood and harbor prejudice. We laud character but strive to climb to the top at any cost. We erect houses of worship, but our shrines are our places of business and recreation. We are suffering from a distressing cleavage between the truths we affirm and the values we live by. Our souls are the battlegrounds for civil wars, but we are trying to live serene lives in houses divided against themselves.”

We are deceivers, not of others but of ourselves, believing that the outward appearance will somehow overcome the inner sin. But in Psalm 51, David came to know, as must we, that God desires truth in the inner parts. Augustine said it this way – Before God can deliver us from ourselves we must undeceive ourselves.

In 1495 King Charles VIII of France conquered Naples and imported from Italy a new fruit. It was a very large pear that was crisp, sweet, juicy and aromatic. But of all the qualities of this delicious pear, there was one that stood out above all the rest and from which the King gave it its name. The pear is called le bon Chretien, which translated means the good Christian. The reason it was given this name is because they say the pear is never rotten at the core.

How is your core? What is the spiritual condition of the inner parts of your life? Is the outside of your life a show or is it the life of Christ showing?

We do not need to fear becoming honest before God about who we really are. What we need to fear is the consequence of not being honest. If our heart has not been invaded by the truth of who we are and been transformed by the truth of who God is, then eternal death is the consequence.

But humbling oneself before God in absolute honesty brings the mercy and grace of God that forgives completely.

Sacrificing self brings the sacrifice of Jesus and His salvation.

What joy there is in knowing that every outward activity is an expression of who we really are.

We are free from the guilt and shame that was produced by the deceptions we were maintaining.

The civil war in our souls has been settled once and for all by the appearance of the King, and we are no longer divided against ourselves.

We are true to the core.

We have been taught wisdom in our inmost places.

Now we can live proudly as the expression of who we are because we are one with Christ.

Free at last from the bondage of maintaining a goodly outside.

Everything is an expression of the Godly inside.

Joy has returned to life!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Psalm 50:23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to the one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God.

I must admit something up front. The very foundation of my devotional today is contradictory. I have thought long and hard as to how to make it not so, but I cannot figure it out. The premise of my argument is sound, but the application refutes the premise. Oh what a quandary I am in.

The 50^th Psalm, written by Asaph, is built on this premise – God accepts only one form of sacrifice from people who seek Him – the sacrifice of thanksgiving. But how do I address the lack of thanksgiving I see in my own life and in the life of the average Christian without it coming across as thankless? How do I promote thanksgiving while being unthankful for the current status of our thankfulness? Do you understand the dilemma?

But then the Holy Spirit breaks through the cloud, and reminds me that we are never to be thankful for sin, especially the sin of ingratitude. So here is my challenge to us today.

Look at the breakdown of Psalm 50:23

• We cannot claim to be living a life that is pleasing to God unless we are doing what glorifies Him.
• We only glorify Him when we bring to Him thanksgiving as a sacrifice.
• Being unthankful offends God and falls short of His glory.
• Thankfulness is the proof of a life that is ordered rightly and has seen the salvation of God.

Asaph lays out quite a contrast between unthankful people and those who are focused on praise. Here’s what an unthankful person looks like according to verses 17-21:

• They hate discipline. In fact, some may be ready to stop reading this right now.
• They throw away the words of God as insignificant and irrelevant.
• They keep company with other sinners, not to influence them, but for the perceived benefit they may receive from them.
• They speak about sin as if it is normal and acceptable, and they will lie to accomplish their own agenda.
• They speak evil about those they should be loving the most.
• The have reduced God down to the level of man, thinking that because He has not corrected or punished them for what they are doing, He must be okay with it.

These are serious things. If we care enough to be honest with ourselves before God, we can all relate to one or more of these sins in our own lives. But then Asaph says this: The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to the one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God.

The thing that stands out the most to me is the word sacrifice. Thanksgiving is a sacrifice because it makes a statement that I am letting go of all the trouble about which I consistently complain, and prefer instead to trust God to handle it all. Thanksgiving is an act of letting go of my control and my desire for human solutions, and turning it all over to God with verbal statements of trust in His faithfulness, His love, His grace, His mercy, His compassion, and more.

Thankfulness is the expression of faith and trust in the nature and character of God, which frees us from the chains of complaining and criticism. This glorifies God. To not be thankful glorifies self. Thankfulness is the visible sign of a rightly ordered life. Not being thankful is the visible mark of a self-centered life.

Let us become thankful people. Believe me, if we would start to focus on the greatness of God rather than the seeming greatness of our problems, we would naturally express our gratitude for God and His salvation.

Pastor John

P.S.  Psalm 50:23 might be a good verse to commit to memory as you pursue the challenge of one of last week’s devotionals to hide God’s Word in our hearts.

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, September 28, 2015

Psalm 49:12  Man in his pomp will not remain.

In the midst of trouble, we tend to fall on man’s ways to solve it. We seek to understand it according to expertise. We search for human resources to apply to its resolution. We are very self-sufficient people, and unless we are intentional about our faith, trials tend to drive us deeper into it.

The 49^th Psalm is the diary of a man – one of the Sons of Korah – who was intentional about resisting the urge to look inward for the resolution of problems. Here is a summary of the teaching I received from the Lord as I studied this Psalm today:

• When we are oppressed by people who don’t believe as we do, and they cause us trouble, we can respond without fear or frustration. (vs. 5)
• Instead of depending on human resources to solve the problem, which would make us just like them (vs. 6 and 13), we have the privilege of meditating on understanding, listening to and speaking wisdom, and soothing our emotions with praise. (Read verses 3-4)
  • Side note – the very first proverb I thought of when I read verse 4 was Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Then as I studied the rest of the Psalm, I discovered how appropriate it was that the Holy Spirit put those verses on my mind because they are the perfect application of what the Psalmist is teaching.
• Then I came to the fundamental truth of the Gospel in verses 7-9. Here they are: Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.
• No human resource can save anyone. Verse 12 says, Man in his pomp will not remain: he is like the beasts that perish. There is NO PRICE that we can pay for ourselves or for anyone else that will save them or us from the trouble we are in. (see again vs. 7-9)
• But when we recognize the reality of our condition, and the incompetence of human resources to fix our problems, then and only then will we turn to God, who will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me.” God’s salvation is our only hope.

As you go along life’s path today, reflect on these truths:

• You will have trouble.
• People may be the cause of your trouble.
• No human resource can fix the trouble.
• Your attempts to fix the other person are nothing more than an incompetent human resource being applied to a problem that can’t be solved with such methods.
• God alone has the resources available to solve any and all problems.
• Turn it all over to Him, and trust in Him. Do not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge God in everything, and submit to His ways. Then and only then will your paths be made straight.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, September 24, 2015

 Psalm 48:12-14  Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers,  consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation  that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.

I have a terrible tendency to forget, and it’s getting g worse. If not for the brain that I carry in my pocket I would be lost. This little black device with a glass screen is amazing. It allows me to talk to people all over the world by voice, by text, by messaging, and even by video. It keeps a record of everyone with whom I have communicated. It tracks my steps throughout the day. It can provide me with detailed instructions on how to get somewhere. If I need to know something – anything – I can just ask the device to look it up for me. It keeps track of all my appointments, so long as I remember to enter them into my calendar. And this is just the beginning of what it will do. Who would have ever imagined that 5000 Commodore 64 computers would fit in my pocket?

But I still forget stuff. Some stuff. The inconsistency of my forgetfulness frustrates me. You see, I remember some stuff very well. Now before I get off on another long tangent, let me get right to the point. The reality of my (our) forgetfulness is this – we tend to forget the good stuff and remember the bad. Right? At the forefront of our thinking most of the time are memories of hurts and tragedies, and the memories of joys and victories have been shoved into a deep hard to reach corner of our filing system.

This ought not to be. I am learning one very important lesson in this study through the book of Psalms – Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised!

My problem is that I tend to remember the times when in my opinion the LORD wasn’t so great, and I forget that fact that He is always great and always good.

The Sons of Korah knew the tendency to forget as well. So they wrote the 48^th Psalm as a reminder of the consistent greatness of God. At the end of the Psalm they challenged us to consider all the symbols of His greatness and keep a record of them and pass along that record to every generation.

In the Old Testament, the city of Jerusalem was spectacular, and represented the dwelling place of God. Now, in the New Testament era, we as individual believers, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, are the dwelling place of God. So, in the language of the Sons of Korah, here’s my prayer for all of us:

Lord, I will consider my life, walking around all of the events of the past that I am able to remember. I will record the number and details of all the towers of defense you built to protect me. According to your promise you were present at each and every trial and tragedy. Forgive me for not remembering that you saw it and oversaw it from the strong tower you were in. As I look back on those events, may I see you in your tower.

And Lord Jesus, may I recognize the mighty ramparts you have constructed around me. These great walls of protection that surround the city of my life are impenetrable by the Enemy unless I choose to open a gate. May I surrender gate-keeping duties to you completely, and reside in peace and surety behind your defenses.

And as I walk through the streets of my life, I will continually enter into the citadels you have built for me. These palaces are my place of residence, filled with all of the provisions I need to live.

From your towers you have seen everything that has happened in my life. You have placed me behind the ramparts of your protection. And inside those walls, you have given me a lavish place to live in the abundance of your love. May I constantly remember your greatness and goodness in all of those times, for in them I have learned that you are God. May I pass on the stories of your greatness to the next generation so that you may be their guide as you have been mine. AMEN.

Pastor John