LifeLink Devotions

Monday, November 13, 2023

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 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 let’s read Isaiah 58 verses 6,7, and 9, and then make our tongue-in-cheek list.

“…the kind of [worship] I want calls you to free those who are wrongly imprisoned and to stop oppressing those who work for you. Treat them fairly and give them what they earn. I want you to share your food with the hungry and to welcome poor wanderers into your homes. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. Stop oppressing the helpless and stop making false accusations and spreading vicious rumors!”

• “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.” I’m not an employer. 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 one 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 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 have even sent clothes internationally for 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

Friday, November 10, 2023

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.

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?”

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 said it was going to be awesome. They used words like “epic” and “unbridled” – buzz words to create emotional responses. Now I know the hearts of both worship leaders, and I know how their lives are lived as consistent worship offerings to the Lord. 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.

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 entertaining sin in our lives. It is exceptionally offensive 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?

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.  Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.  Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?”

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, and review Isaiah 58 again.  Let us reflect on what God desires from a life that worships Him.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, November 09, 2023

“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, those responses  reflect 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 sin regardless of the consequences. Repentance demands humility which brings us God’s justification, rather than pride which seeks self-justification.

Yet God has promised to forgive, even after He has seen what we have done.

Isaiah 57:18-19    “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.”

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. There are four ways to know if we are truly repentant:

• 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.

We tend to defend our actions, justify our choices, and lie to protect ourselves from the pain of the consequences. Have we ever been truly repentant? Are we more concerned about how we feel than about what we have done in rebellion against the grace of God?

The Holy Spirit is ready to come and restore comfort to us. He will assure us of the Lord’s forgiveness and healing. He will bring peace, when we no longer defend ourselves and are genuinely broken before Him.

Open your heart and your life to Him. Expose all 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

LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Have you ever read something from God’s Sacred Word and have it so overwhelm you that you struggle to find words to express what is happening in your heart? That’s me right now. So, all I can do is tell you about it and let the Holy Spirit do the same for you as He needs to.

I sat down at my desk and opened my Bible to Isaiah 57 to continue my study of this prophetic book. I got into my devotional vehicle (ask me about this if you don’t know what I mean) and I started my morning journey at verse 14 where I had parked yesterday.

“And it will be said: “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”  For this is what the high and lofty One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:14-15

I slammed on the brakes. I put the car into reverse. I backed all the way up to verse seven.

“You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill; there you went up to offer your sacrifices.”

There it was. I thought I had seen it when I had traveled that way before. My pride is an obstacle to the work of the Lord in my life. I have been pursuing a high and lofty hill in opposition to the One who is High and Lofty.

I spent a few moments considering the ways I continue to offer sacrifices to the god of self-fulfillment.

I put the car back in drive and moved forward again to verse fifteen. I slammed on the brakes again.

“I live in a high and holy place…”

God lives in a high and holy place, not on a hill. Holy means set apart. I can’t reach Him. No matter how hard I try or how high I climb, I can’t get to His place.

Carefully I took my foot off the brake and proceeded.

“…but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.”

From His high and lofty place, the High and Holy One has come down to me! I could not get to Him by going up to a high and lofty place, but He would come to me if I went down to a place of humility. The lower into the dust of contriteness I go the more accessible I become to the High and Holy One.

I think I will park here for a while and enjoy His presence.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

As I read through Isaiah 57:3-13, I was personally convicted by verse 12.

Isaiah 57:12  “I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not benefit you.”

As a result, I was inspired to put down my thoughts in the form of poetry. I know I am not nearly the poet that some of you are, especially my friend Linn, but I trust what I wrote will touch your heart and move you towards a deeper understanding of trusting God.

I sit and ponder, at the break of day,

            How much of life is lived my way.

Choices are made that bring me rewards;

            People are hurt by my sneers and my words.

The lust of the flesh and a life of pride,

            Are waging a war with the Spirit inside.

It’s easy to worship the world and its things,

            Seeking contentment in sin’s offerings.

Hiding in secret the things that bring shame,

            Rejecting the honor that’s due to Your Name.

My sin saps my strength and makes me so weary,

            But still I am not repentantly teary.

I find worldly ways to get my strength back,

            Without bended knee I’m back on my track.

In fear of rejection I’ve chosen this course,

            Seeking man’s approval to cover my remorse.

It doesn’t make sense, but it seems to be true,

             That I fear man’s responses more than You.

Expose all the ways that I seek good to do,

            While knowing full well it’s for me and not You. 

Teach me that my ways will bring no return,

            See that for You does my heart truly yearn.

After all has been said, I choose this today,

            To make You my refuge, to live in Your way.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Monday, November 6, 2023

There’s something about a full moon.  The last one we just had was magnificent, probably because I saw it from my tree stand. It was literally possible to drive the car without headlights on. I was amazed again at how God created a lifeless orb of rock that could reflect light so brilliantly. It has no light within itself. It only reflects the light it receives from the sun. God placed it in the perfect position to reflect just the right amount of light. 

Night has fallen upon our world. It is morally dark. Isaiah describes the condition in verses ten through twelve of chapter fifty-six.

• Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge;
• they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark;
• they lie around and dream, they love to sleep.
• They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough.
• They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain.
• “Come,” each one cries, “let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.”

Maybe before we go on we should take a moment and review that list, and prayerfully consider under the influence of the Holy Spirit which of those things might be true of our own hearts. Please do that. You see, we are God’s watchmen of our day. We do not want the darkness to invade us. Don’t read on until you have sought the Lord on each of these items…………………………………………………..

Now, having dealt with the darkness in our own hearts, we are prepared to penetrate the darkness around us. I’m sure the Holy Spirit has already shown you the application. God created us in Christ Jesus to be the reflection of His Light to the world around us. We have been placed in the perfect position in relationship to the world so that we bring the light of the Son to those in darkness.

But unlike the moon, we are not mere reflectors of the Light – we are the Light. We have the Son that the world needs to see. Jesus, the Light of the world, lives in us. The issue we must deal with is why the Light doesn’t shine better. We seem to be stuck in the new moon phase of life when the world needs us to be in full moon phase. We are participating in the darkness rather than illuminating it.

The solution is simple – “Lord Jesus, illuminate me!  I turn my face towards you so that I am no longer in the shadow of the world. Then will you be able to use me to illuminate the darkness around me.”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Friday, November 3, 2023

Prior to any of my international mission trips, I meet with the travel nurse at my medical clinic. It is necessary to review my inoculation records so that I will be sufficiently protected from any potential tropical disease to which I might be exposed. We look at maps that display the regional diseases and discussed the exact itinerary of my trip. After careful consideration of the risks, vaccines are chosen and I get inoculated. Some of them require a second dose, and one requires a third dose. The third dose makes it permanent soi I never have to be inoculated for that disease again.

There is much debate in our day about the value of vaccines. I can see where that same debate takes place in our spiritual lives. One such debate is addressed in Isaiah 56:6-7.

Isaiah 56:6-7 “And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

In this encouraging chapter of hope, God is informing those who are on the outside that they will be fully accepted into the Kingdom of the Messiah with full benefits. Those who had been excluded will now be included. In the past they had felt like sub-standard people who weren’t good enough to be invited to an exclusive club. They saw the power and provision of the One True God but had no access to Him. They had been left without hope and without joy.

Suddenly word comes down from the CEO that the membership policy has been revised so that now anyone was welcome. I imagine that when God invited all the excluded to be included in His Kingdom with full benefits that there was some enthusiasm. The house of God was being opened to everyone, regardless of race, creed, nationality, political preference, financial status, or physical disability. The weak, the hurting, the guilty, and the untouchable would have equal access to the altar of God. Their hopelessness would be replaced with joy.

JOY! That inner peace and contentment of knowing that regardless of our circumstances or feelings, our Sovereign God is working out His eternal purpose independent of us, yet beneficial to us. JOY! That inexpressible quality that supersedes the feeling of happiness because it is not based on what is happening but rather on what has happened when we were welcomed into the House of God. JOY! It is “peace dancing in our lives.” (F.B. Meyer)

But here’s the hard part – at least it’s hard from the standpoint of maintaining the dedication needed to experiencing joy. God connects joy with prayer. Outsiders will be granted joy not just by having access to the House of God, but to the house of prayer. God declares that His house will be a house of prayer. That’s the vaccine. If we want to be inoculated against hopelessness and despair, we must be determined to pray. If we will avoid the downfalls of discouragement, we must pray. If we are to overcome the deepening feelings of fear based on the political and social condition of the world, we must pray. Prayer is the vaccine against all the diseases of the heart and mind that destroy joy.

But in our minds, we debate the need for prayer. We turn to our own remedies first. We consider the risks of prayer and let them influence us: risks like time commitment that will affect our schedule of events, or the hurtful words of others who will accuse us of being overly spiritual when they see the power of God being lived out in our lives. So powerful are those arguments in the hands of our enemy that we dare to even consider not being inoculated. We even ask why joy is really all that big of a deal. Really?

Today, I cry out to my Lord – “Inoculate Me!” In response, God says “Come into my clinic. You will recognize it by the sign out front. It says, House of Prayer.”     

Pastor John  

LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Who am I?

That question plagues people. We have tried to answer it in a variety of humanistic ways, none of which has succeeded nor satisfies. We may think that educational success will identify us as a genius. We may believe that advancement in the work sector will identify us as professionals. We have been led to believe that financial security identifies us as successful. We try to be humorous, believing that will identify us as popular. We labor intensely to become accepted by others so that we might identify ourselves as worthy. We spend hours developing our skill at a sport so that we might be identified as a hero. We have granted permission to people and to our performance to identify us as valuable.

That, my friend, is why our lives are broken. But God has a wonderful plan for the restoration of broken lives. It is pictured in Isaiah 56 as God proclaims His promises to the broken-down nation of Israel. Go back and review:

In verses 1-2, the first step in the plan is to be changed. Then, in verse 3, we are accepted and included in God’s family. Then finally, in verses 4-5, we are given a permanent identity.

Isaiah 56:4-5 “For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—⁵to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.”

Here’s some background information. God is speaking directly to eunuchs. A eunuch was a slave or captive that had been castrated for two primary reasons. First, it would make them less manly, thereby making them more manageable servants. Second, it would keep them from ever procreating and becoming a threat.

The practice was so detestable to God that there were laws implemented in the Jewish nation concerning it. The law excluded eunuchs from public worship, partly because mutilation was often performed in honor of a heathen god, and partly because a maimed creature of any sort was deemed unfit for the service of YHWH. Yet during the reign of the kings of Israel there were eunuchs in the nation that served in the palace. However, no eunuch was ever able to worship in the temple, nor were they allowed to own land or inherit property. They had no identity with the nation in which they served.

It is to these men of no importance or identity that God comes in Isaiah 56 and says, “I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.” WOW! That overwhelms me. Not only does God give these broken-down men a name, but He elevates them to a position that is better than a son or a daughter. He gives them an eternal identity that will never be cut off (Note the play on words).

Doesn’t that restore your hope? Can you now see what grace does? No matter how broken your life; no matter how mutilated your name is; no matter how cut off you seem to be from the rest of humanity; God will give you an eternal identity.

No longer will you have to depend on people or performance to identify you. No longer will you need to ask the question, “Who am I?” Let God tell you who you are. And if you want to know who God says you are if you are in Christ, check this out:

WHO I AM IN CHRIST

I am accepted…
John 1:12 I am God’s child.
John 15:15 As a disciple, I am a friend of Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1 I have been justified.
1 Corinthians 6:17 I am united with the Lord, and I am one with Him in spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 I have been bought with a price and I belong to God.
1 Corinthians 12:27 I am a member of Christ’s body.
Ephesians 1:3-8 I have been chosen by God and adopted as His child.
Colossians 1:13-14 I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins.
Colossians 2:9-10 I am complete in Christ.
Hebrews 4:14-16 I have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ.

I am secure…
Romans 8:1-2 I am free from condemnation.
Romans 8:28 I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances.
Romans 8:31-39 I am free from any condemnation brought against me and I cannot be separated from the love of God.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 I have been established, anointed and sealed by God.
Colossians 3:1-4 I am hidden with Christ in God.
Philippians 1:6 I am confident that God will complete the good work He started in me.
Philippians 3:20 I am a citizen of heaven.
2 Timothy 1:7 I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind.
1 John 5:18 I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me.

I am significant…
John 15:5 I am a branch of Jesus Christ, the true vine, and a channel of His life.
John 15:16 I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit.
1 Corinthians 3:16 I am God’s temple.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 I am a minister of reconciliation for God.
Ephesians 2:6 I am seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly realm.
Ephesians 2:10 I am God’s workmanship.
Ephesians 3:12 I may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Isaiah 56:3 “Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.” And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”

My story is not unique. It’s painful for me, just as yours is for you, and it is a pain that must be resolved because ultimately, it’s a lie. The pain comes from the belief that we never fit in. That pain is magnified by combining it with circumstances that we choose to validate the feeling. My circumstances easily validated my pain. I never had a town that I called home. I never had a friendship that lasted more than 5 years because we moved often. Every time we moved, I had to try to fit into a new culture and social context. I chose to believe that I was unaccepted and worthy of it. I chose strange behaviors to compensate, which only made it worse. My wife can verify the reality of my self-destructive behavior. I really believed I didn’t fit in.

We long for someone to accept us. We crave being included. We fear being told we are not welcome. It is so powerful in us that we begin to perceive every word and action of others as a statement of their unwillingness to make us their equal. It becomes a destructive thought pattern.

God knows that about us. When He created Adam and Eve, He perfectly accepted them. But then the Enemy of God and His creation entered the scene and convinced those first two humans that God didn’t really accept them because He was holding out on them. There was something He didn’t want them to know, and if that was true then they weren’t fully accepted. They believed the lie, and we do too. We believe it about our friends. We believe it about our family. We believe it about our boss or our co-workers. We even believe it about our church family and our pastor. Pastors even believe it about their congregations. We believe that we don’t fit in and will never really be accepted.

Read these words of the Lord carefully.

Isaiah 56:3 “Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.” And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”

God declared that when His salvation appears and His righteousness is revealed, all the people of the world could find a place of acceptance. It would not matter if someone was a foreigner or a slave, they would be given an equal place in the Kingdom. Acceptance in God’s Kingdom would not be based on one’s nationality, one’s gender, one’s abilities, or one’s heritage, but rather on one’s acceptance of God’s covenant.

If you are feeling like you don’t fit in anywhere, then the truth of Isaiah 56 is for you. It is time to stop living your life as a response to a lie, and time to start living in response to God’s love. If you read the following Scripture carefully and honestly, you just may discover, as I have, the great truth of God’s grace – we are accepted. When we cry out to God and say, “Include me!”, He does. Hallelujah.

Isaiah 56:3-8 (NLT)

“And my blessings are for Gentiles, too, when they commit themselves to the LORD. Do not let them think that I consider them second-class citizens. And my blessings are also for the eunuchs. They are as much mine as anyone else. ⁴For I say this to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath days holy, who choose to do what pleases me and commit their lives to me: ⁵I will give them—in my house, within my walls—a memorial and a name far greater than the honor they would have received by having sons and daughters. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear! ⁶“I will also bless the Gentiles who commit themselves to the LORD and serve him and love his name, who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest, and who have accepted his covenant. ⁷I will bring them also to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations. ⁸For the Sovereign LORD, who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says: I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel.”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Isaiah 56:1 “This is what the LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.”

Vacations are good for a lot of reasons, but for me the greatest benefit to a trip away from normal life is that the Lord gets more of my attention. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. Staying busy with all our stuff and our agendas is one of the symptoms of the disease that has invaded our spiritual lives. We know the symptoms exist, and we can even identify them, but we are in denial about the disease that causes them. The disease is humanism.

That’s right, we Christians, who are to be followers of Christ, are much of the time followers of self. We have chosen a humanistic approach to life, to goals, to success, to decision-making, to everything, and then to attempt to satisfy the longing of our soul we have wrongly added what we call faith in God to it all. We have made a religious choice that we think complements our humanistic choices, when we should be destroying all dependence upon the flesh and living continually in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

What do we think Jesus meant when He said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life  will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”

Deny yourself. Lose your life. Those are the things that mark a follower. But for some reason we have assumed a right of leadership not granted by God. We have arrogantly and probably ignorantly decided to ask God to fulfill our wishes and desires. We have become the leader of God rather than the follower of Christ.

What we don’t understand is that God will not be led. Instead, He lets us go ahead, but all on our own. Oh, He never forsakes us, and never really leaves us, but He stops listening to our demands for what we want. He stops providing fixes for our failures. In His jealous love for us He allows us to fall on our humanistic faces, so we are in the proper position to pick up a cross.

But even when we are on our faces, we tend to justify how we got there, and we develop plans for how we are going to get up. We make resolutions to save more, spend less, eat less, and exercise more. We make commitments to watch television less, study more, pray more, and sin less. But far too often those resolutions are prescriptions we choose to take to relieve the symptoms when we have done nothing to cure the disease.

The only cure for the disease of humanism is death – spiritual death. The right to self-government of our lives must die. The right to fleshly fulfillment must die. The right to social success must die. The right to financial security must die. In other words, the right to our own rights must die.

Only in death can there be life. We have done our best to try to prove that wrong. We have tried to add life to death. We have attempted to bring eternal life into the context of our humanism and call it salvation, which denies the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. How can we know His resurrection power if we do not die? But we try. To admit it doesn’t work is to admit human failure and to de-value our lives, neither of which is acceptable to modern man’s philosophy of self-worth.

It is only at the point of death to self that the life of Jesus can be experienced. Many of you know that and are living that way. But maybe we have lost or minimized our first love for God’s incredible grace. We have, whether in a few or in many areas, replaced it with love for humanistic pursuits.

Today begins a new adventure of denial of self. We need help from God. We need to help each other. When I am guilty of exalting self rather than denying self, tell me. Do it with love and a humble heart that recognizes that you may be doing the same thing in some area of your life. Together we will die to self and be transformed by the renewing of our minds so we can prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

Pastor John