LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

It comes with age. It also comes with pride. We would like to blame it all on age, but that would be to deny the simple truth of our choices.

Forgetfulness is a two-sided coin. On the one side is the simple brain freeze type that we easily forgive in one another and excuse in ourselves. On the other side of the coin is the intentional type when we make choices to forget. Our motivation for these choices can be sinful or saintly.

2 Peter 3:5-7 “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

Peter tells us that forgetfulness is intentional when it comes to the sinner’s ignorance of truth. They will deny this. They will claim superior knowledge. The truth is that God has revealed His nature through creation and the people who do not see it or know it have made the choice to ignore the obvious. (Read Romans 1:18-25) These are the prideful choices of sinful man to forget what is not convenient for the pursuit of personal pleasure.

But there is a proper and Godly time to be forgetful. The proper motivations for forgetfulness are given to us in Scripture. One of them stands out to me today:

• We are to forget the past, no matter how painful, and press on towards the high calling we have in Christ Jesus. (see Philippians 3:12-14)

Years ago, there was a master violinist in Europe. He would play concerts, and he had a magnificent Stradivarius violin, extremely expensive. As he would play people in the crowd would whisper, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.” He would play in churches, and people would say, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.” He even played before kings and queens, and they, too, would turn to one another and say, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.” All the glory went to the instrument.

Then one day this master violinist was walking by a pawn shop. He noticed an old, beat-up, worn-out violin. He walked into the pawn shop and asked how much it would cost. The owner of the pawn shop told him the American equivalent of five dollars. He bought the violin, and he took it home. He polished it, and he refined it, and he tuned it, and he re-tuned it, and he built some character into that violin. Then, when he was to play the greatest performance of his life in a concert hall, he took out the little, five-dollar, worn-out, beat-up violin that he had polished and refined. He put it up to his chin, and he began to play, and everybody in the concert hall whispered, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.”

In the hands of the Master, your life has been revived, revitalized, and restored. You are of great worth and value. Do not think about the past. Forget it. Look ahead. As F. B. Meyer wrote,

“It is a mistake to be always turning back to recover the past. The law for Christian living is not backward, but forward; not for experiences that lie behind, but for doing the will of God, which is always ahead and beckoning us to follow. Leave the things that are behind, and reach forward to those that are before, for on each new height to which we attain, there are the appropriate joys that befit the new experience. Don’t fret because life’s joys are fled. There are more in front. Look up, press forward, the best is yet to be!”

Permission granted by God to be forgetful.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Monday, February 20, 2023

2 Peter 3:3-4 “First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 

I cried the first time I heard them. I still cry every time I hear them. Two songs from two different artists in two different times, but they continue to have an impact on me. The scoffers who don’t believe the truths of these songs are blind, and so closed to the experience of real hope and joy. May I never become like them.

There are dozens of songs that depict the arrival of Jesus, and I encourage you to make a playlist of them and listen to it consistently. These are the two on the top of my list. May the words of these songs connect you more deeply to the truth that Jesus is coming, and He’s coming for you if you are His child. Be blessed and encourage as you read these words.

The King is Coming by Bill Gaither

The marketplace is empty, no more traffic in the street
All the builder’s tools are silent, no more time to harvest wheat
Busy housewives cease their labor, in the courtroom no debate
Work on earth has been suspended as the King comes through the gate.

Happy faces line the hallway, those whose lives have been redeemed
Broken homes He has mended, those from prison He has freed
Little children and the aged hand in hand stand all a-glow
Who were crippled, broken, ruined, clad in garments white as snow

I can hear the chariot’s rumble, I can see the marching throng
And the fury of God’s trumpet spells the end of sin and wrong
Regal rolls are now unfolded, heaven’s grandstands all in place
Heaven’s choir is now assembled, start to sing ‘Amazing Grace’

Chorus:
The King is coming, the King is coming
I just heard the trumpet sounding and soon His face I’ll see
The King is coming, the King is coming
Praise God, He’s coming for me

We Shall Behold Him by Sandi Patti

The sky shall unfold
Preparing His entrance
The stars shall applaud Him
With thunders of praise

The sweet light in His eyes, shall enhance those awaiting
And we shall behold Him, then face to face

O we shall behold Him, we shall behold Him
Face to face in all of His glory
O we shall behold Him, yes we shall behold Him
Face to face, our Savior and Lord

The angel will sound, the shout of His coming
And the sleeping shall rise, from there slumbering place
And those remaining, shall be changed in a moment
And we shall behold him, then face to face

We shall behold Him, o yes we shall behold Him
Face to face in all of His glory
We shall behold Him, face to face
Our Savior and Lord
We shall behold Him, our Savior and Lord
Savior and Lord!

Praise God, He’s coming for me, and I shall behold Him face to face in all His glory. How about you!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Friday, February 17, 2023

It’s in a box in the closet in my storage area at home. It’s huge. When unfolded it stretches at least 10 feet across. It’s very old. It’s a banner that my grandfather, Dr. J.A. van Gorkom, had custom made for his evangelistic meetings he conducted in churches all across the United States. He would stretch it across the front of the church above his head for up to two weeks at a time and preach on prophecy. It’s a banner that lays out the prophecies of Scripture in visual form.

In the days ahead we are going to be reading what Peter has to say about the future. We will not go into all the details of all the various views of the rapture and Second Coming of the King, but we will look at the signs Peter gives us that the time is drawing closer.

It’s important to study prophecy. Peter tells us in verse one of chapter three that he wants to stimulate us to wholesome thinking. Then verse two says this:

“I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.”

Here’s your first application point for today – wholesome thinking is ALWAYS based on the Word of God.

Then, as we read further, verse three says:

“First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.” 

Your second application point is this – wholesome thinking prepares us for the future.

I think it is very significant that Peter’s first point of emphasis in stimulating wholesome thinking is to teach us prophecy and what to look for as the Day of the Lord approaches. And the first thing he wants us to recognize about these last days is the level of scoffing at Christianity that will occur. It’s not hard to see how that is aggressively happening in our day.

Our response to scoffing is important. We are going to be abused – verbally and physically. Jesus promised it. “All men will hate you because of me.” (Mark 13:13) So we should expect it. But how we respond can be a powerful witness to others. This story from Charles Spurgeon illustrates the point:

“There was a certain king whose son was sent on an errand to a far country, and when he came into that country, although he was the lawful prince of it, he found that the citizens would not acknowledge him. They mocked at him, jeered at him, and took him and set him in the pillory, and there they scoffed at him and pelted him with filth.

“Now, there was one in that country who knew the prince, and he alone stood up for him when all the mob was in tumult raging against him. And when they set him on high as an object of scorn, this man stood side by side with him to wipe the filth from that dear royal face; and when from cruel hands missiles in scorn were thrown, this man took his full share; and whenever he could he thrust himself before the prince to ward off the blows if possible, and to bear the scorn instead of him.

“Now it came to pass that after a while the prince went on his way, and in due season the man who had been the prince’s friend was called to the king’s palace. And on a day when all the princes of the court were around, and the peers and nobles of the land were sitting in their places, the king came to his throne and he called for that man, and he said, “Make way, princes and nobles! Make way! Here is a man more noble than you all, for he stood boldly forth with my son when he was scorned and scoffed at! Make way, I say, each one of you, for he shall sit at my right hand with my own son. As he took a share of his scorn, he shall now take a share of his honor.”

“And there sat princes and nobles who wished that they had been there—they now envied the man who had been privileged to endure scorn and scoffing for the prince’s sake!”

Hebrews 12:2 says, “…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

For the joy that is set before you in the presence of the King, prepare to respond to scoffers with grace.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Peter makes an honest and revealing statement in the first verse of chapter 3.

2 Peter 3:1 “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.”

He tells his readers that his motivation and purpose for writing two letters to them was to stimulate them to wholesome thinking. That word wholesome is interesting. Used only twice in the entire New Testament, it means “to unfold and expose to the sunlight.”  Our minds are to be unfolded and exposed to the Light of Jesus. Our minds are to be like His.

There are so many ways to evaluate our state of mind, and so many thoughts that need exposing to the Light of God’s truth.  Let’s fix our minds on just one – an area that was revealed to me as I studied the life of Christ in Mark chapter two. It exposes the tendency we have to think about the negative side of people and circumstances.

Here’s the story:

“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”

Here’s the simple yet profound point for today: “Why wasn’t anyone worried about the hole in the roof and who had done it?” It that were my house I know where my thoughts would have been directed: probably more than just thoughts. I would have taken action to go up to the roof and put a stop to what they were doing. Particles of roof were falling on people’s heads inside the house. It was forecast to rain later that day and all my furniture would be ruined. Who’s gonna fix the hole? Will my insurance cover this? My thoughts would have been everywhere except on the need of the person coming through the hole.

My friends, I think quite strongly that the reason we don’t smile more and find joy in life is that our thoughts are focused more on inconvenient things and what’s wrong with people than on their spiritual needs. We need to be stimulated to wholesome thinking. We need to look at life the way Jesus did.

So to help you, here are author Marilyn Meberg’s six suggestions to cheering up:

• Reflect on a funny or pleasant memory and get ready to giggle. Your original cheerful feeling will always remain attached to that memory.
• Don’t “awfulize” life. Make a habit of thinking positive. After all, optimism isn’t born; it’s a state of mind we choose to develop.
• Personalize Scripture by inserting your name in God’s promises.
• Think uplifting thoughts—whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).
• Let God in on everything, including the annoying little cheer-depleters and joy-suckers in your life. He cares!
• Keep in mind that earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy but only to make us hungry for the real thing: heaven.

Then I will add one more: Learn to care more about people than possessions.

Have a cheerful day.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

2 Peter 2:9 “So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials.”

In 1956, during the Mau Mau uprisings in East Africa, God demonstrated His power to rescue His people from their trials. The story is told by veteran missionary Morris Plotts.

“A band of roving Mau Maus came to the village of Lauri, surrounded it, and killed every inhabitant, including women and children—three hundred people in all. Not more than three miles away was the Rift Valley Academy, a private boarding school where children were being educated while their missionary parents worked elsewhere. Immediately upon leaving the carnage at Lauri the Mau Maus came with spears, clubs, torches, and bows and arrows to the school, bent on destruction.

“You can imagine the fear of those children at the school. Word had already reached them about the destruction of Lauri. There was no place to flee. The only resource was prayer.

“Out in the night, lighted torches were seen coming toward the school. Soon there was a complete ring of these terrorists about the school, cutting off all avenues of escape. Shouting and curses could be heard coming from the Mau Maus. Then they began to advance on the school, tightening the circle, shouting louder, coming closer. Suddenly, when they were close enough to throw a spear, they stopped. They began to retreat, and soon they were running into the jungle. A call had gone out to the authorities, and an army had been sent in the direction of the school to rescue the inhabitants. But by the time the army arrived, the would-be assassins had dispersed. The army spread out in search of them and captured the entire band of raiding Mau Maus.

“Later, before the judge at their trial, the Mau Mau leader was called to the witness stand. The judge asked him, “On this night did you kill the inhabitants of Lauri?”

“The leader replied, “Yes.”

“Was it your intent to do the same at the Rift Valley Academy?”

“Yes.”

“Well then,” asked the judge, “why did you not complete the mission? Why didn’t you attack the school?”

“The leader, who had never read the Bible and never heard the gospel, replied, “We were on our way to attack and destroy all the people at the school. But as we came closer, all of a sudden between us and the school there were many huge men, dressed in white with flaming swords. We became afraid and we ran to hide!”

You may not be in danger of an army, but you are in a spiritual war, and your enemy the devil is stalking you like a roaring lion, seeking to devour and destroy you. But every attack can be, and for our spiritual health it must be viewed as an opportunity for our faith and trust in the keeping and protecting power of God to be displayed in our lives. If only we would get out of the way and let God do His work in us.

Charles Chu, writing in Leadership Journal, tells this story:

“A few years ago I had a chance to become a hero, but it turned out to be an embarrassing moment. I was in China on a tour group. Our tour bus was on the way to a scenic spot with another tour bus in front of us. It was snowing, and the road was muddy.

“Suddenly the bus ahead of us skidded off the road and tipped over on its side in a rice field. I quickly jumped off my tour bus, ran to the overturned bus, and jumped on top. Windows were shattered, and people inside were obviously hurt. The emergency door was facing upward, so I grabbed the handle of the emergency door and pulled. The door did not open. I kept pulling hard, but it wouldn’t budge.

“By this time, others had come and were pulling people out through the windows, so I gave up on the door and joined them. After I moved away from the door, another man went over to the door. He turned the door handle, and the door opened easily.

“I suddenly realized why the door did not open for me: I had been standing on the door as I tried to open it. With good intentions to save lives, I had become the biggest obstacle blocking the door of rescue.”

“The temptations and trials in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the test to be more than you can stand. When you are tested, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Happy Valentine’s Day. I say that to you to acknowledge the fact of the holiday and to wish you well, but there is only one person in the world to whom I say Happy Valentine’s Day with all the love this heart can muster, and that’s my precious wife. She is God’s gift to me. She has my heart for the rest of my life.

Of all the passages in Scripture about love, there is none more descriptive of the love between a man and a woman than this one.

Song of Songs 8:6-7 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

I have used it as the basis for more wedding ceremonies than any other passage next to the famous love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. It speaks to my heart about the permanence and public nature of one’s love for their husband or wife.

• The one you love is to seal your heart for a lifetime from any and all other options.
• Your love is to be displayed publicly as an armband, but also as a seal keeping you from ever touching another person in an attempt to woo then or satisfy some lust of your heart.
• Your love is to be as permanent as death.
• You are to never stop fighting to keep your love (jealousy is a Godly attribute – it is the fight to keep what is rightfully yours).
• Your love should ignite every other emotion of your life and burn visibly to all others.
• Nothing in this world can ever quench true love, not matter how fast and furiously they flow into your life.
• Love cannot be bought or sold. You must never exchange the pure gold of true love for any other option or temporary passion.

True love between a man and a woman in marriage (and might I add that is the only kind of marriage God honors), is designed by God to last a lifetime if both individual’s hearts are in love with Jesus Christ as their Savior.

If only we could love like God intends us to love. If only we could move from the emotional side of love to the commitment side of love, then maybe more people would stay married. Love is not an emotion. Emotions are the product of love. Love is a decision to sacrifice self for the sake of another, like Jesus did when He loved us even though we were in rebellion against Him because of our sin. Love ceases – it absolutely ceases – in the moment that we consider ourselves better than or more important than anyone else. You cannot love self and seek to serve self at the same time you claim to love someone else.

That’s convicting, but it’s true. Just look at the reminders of that in 1 Corinthians 13 –

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

So nail it down – there is only one other person in this world that you can truly love with all your heart while you are loving God with all your heart and that’s your spouse. Be proud of that. It’s not a punishment. It’s to be made public and displayed as a testimony to the world of the love God has for us.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Monday, February 13, 2023

The rest of Second Peter chapter two gives a further description of the lifestyle and attitudes of false teachers. Read it carefully and let the Holy Spirit bring increased discernment to your mind and make application to your own life where He needs to.

• False teachers claim authority not given to them by God. “These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling. But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings.” 
• False teachers appeal to human instinct not spiritual discernment. “These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done.”
• False teachers show no shame for their choices. “They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you.”
• False teachers prey on those who are weak in their faith by appealing to their unconquered flesh. “They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse.” 
• False teachers are covetous and will exchange the truth for personal gain, like Balaam. “They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.”
• False teachers draw attention to themselves. “These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting.”
• False teachers approve of anything just to please their followers. “With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.” 
• False teachers have never been saved, nor have their followers if they return to their sin. “And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.” 

Tomorrow we will go back and look at a few verses we skipped, but this has been an important study on false teachers because they are so prevalent in our world today. It may not be what you normally expect in these daily devotionals, but feel-good stuff isn’t what I’m about. I want us to grow into the depths of knowledge that bring us spiritual maturity, and I hope this study is doing that for you. Please don’t gloss over these things. Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten your understanding and sharpen your discernment so you can stand against all the attacks of the enemy coming at you through false teaching. Stand strong for Jesus.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Friday, February 10, 2023

2 Peter 2:10 (NIV)  “This is especially true of those who … despise authority.”

The next characteristic of a false teacher is the display of disrespect for authority. They even go so far as to despise it. Their message is filled with animosity towards government leaders, bosses, and even parents. They use anger as a rallying point. They encourage revolution, not repentance. They focus on rebellion not reconciliation. They are known more for what they are against than what they favor.

These are some good practical points for us to watch in our lives as well.

• How often are we caught belittling and disrespecting our government leaders? Romans 13:1-2  “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.”
• How much time do we spend in the break room at work or elsewhere talking down about our bosses? Ephesians 6:5-7  “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” 
• How often are we involved in discussions that disrespect our parents or memory of them because we blame them for the choices we are currently making? Ephesians 6:2-3  “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”

Respect is an attribute of character that is not taught very well by our modern society. I found this tragic quote:

“Our youths love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority—they show disrespect for their elders and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up food, and tyrannize teachers.”

What may surprise you is that this statement of the condition of the culture was made in the year 400 B.C. by Socrates.

But the disrespect of youth for authority is not our only problem. As adults we are in denial about how much disrespect we show towards the youth. Here’s a story that illustrates the point.

“A waitress was taking orders from a couple and their young son; she was one of the class of veteran waitresses who never show outright disrespect to their customers, but who frequently make it quietly evident by their unhurried pace and their level stare that they fear no mortal, not even parents. She jotted on her order pad deliberately and silently as the father and mother gave their luncheon selection and gratuitous instructions as to what was to be substituted for what, and which dressing changed to what sauce. When she finally turned to the boy, he began his order with a kind of fearful desperation.

“I want a hot dog—,” he started. And both parents barked at once, “No hot dog!” The mother went on. “Bring him the lyonnaise potatoes and the beef, both vegetables, and a hard roll and etc. etc.”

“The waitress wasn’t even listening. She look right at the child and said calmly, “What do you want on your hot dog?” He flashed an amazed smile. “Ketchup, lots of ketchup, and—and bring a glass of milk.”

“Coming up,” she said as she turned from the table, leaving behind her the stunned silence of utter parental dismay. The boy watched her go before he turned to his father and mother with astonished elation to say, “You know what? She thinks I’m real! She thinks I’m real!” 

We can argue about the waitresses tactics of not respecting the parent’s wishes and authority over their son, but maybe…just maybe the real cause of disrespectful adults is parental modeling. Just a thought for you…and me.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, February 9, 2023

If you are following along in Second Peter verse by verse, don’t be alarmed: you haven’t been in a coma. I skipped a few verses to continue the study of false teachers. We’ll come back to the ones we jumped over.

The next two attributes that we need to recognize in those “religious” leaders who speak the language and gather large followings but are doing it for the wrong reasons are these –

• they are motivated by the gratification of the flesh and…
• they attempt to enhance their own status and authority by disrespecting true authority.

2 Peter 2:10 (NIV)  “This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.”

As always, we need to personally check our own hearts on these issues before we even begin to point the finger at others.

The news is consistently reporting the activity of religious people who have been caught in the corruption of sexual sin. They seem to get their own warped sense of fulfillment from tearing down the lives of those who are already being beaten up by the real enemy of our souls. But that does not diminish the fact that each one of us is responsible before God for our moral purity. Those who claim to proclaim the Gospel are even more accountable.

From my perspective, and I humbly say from my experience, moral failures start with an unresolved need for emotional attachment and approval. I have talked to many men and women over the years who have been trapped in the bondage of sexual perversions of all kinds. As we whittle away the layers of excuses and justifications, it usually comes down to an admission of the need to be accepted and approved by someone. This HUGE need we all have is the result of the sin nature within us which destroyed our ability to see the image of God in which we were created. We don’t know who we are apart from Christ.

However, even after we come to Christ, this sin nature still exists, and for many of us it still holds us captive to its desires. The emotional bondage of being rejected or constantly criticized as a child is powerful. The bondage of being convinced that one’s worth and value is only earned through performance is debilitating. We all experience it to one degree or another.

The words of Peter are important to look at carefully if we are ever going to experience the victory of Jesus Christ over the desires of the flesh. Most importantly he calls such desires corrupt. We have convinced ourselves they are not. In fact, we even call them necessary for fulfillment. That is the great deception of Satan. Remember how he deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden? He said that God was holding out on her, and that she could have more if she opened her mind to the knowledge of good and evil both. Same lie. Different era.

The desire to satisfy the flesh – through sex, prestige, or power – is corrupt. We must face that fact, admit that it is true, and confess that we are guilty of it. We must come into agreement with God about our flesh if we are going to experience His victory over it. For most of us we do that in the “big” things. But it’s those small nagging desires for approval and acceptance that continue to motivate our choices and behaviors. It’s time to resolve them. We must stand in the authority of our relationship with Jesus and not succumb to the abuse of reasoning with the enemy. 

The way I remind myself of my standing with Jesus is to quote Colossians 1:10-14 over and over in my mind. They are the verses God led me to as I started the still ongoing journey of victory. They may help you…

“Live worthy of the Lord and…please him in every way: bear fruit in every good work, grow in the knowledge of God, be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

2 Peter 2:3 (NLT)  “In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money.”

Today Peter addresses another of the characteristics of false teachers and false churches – the issue of motivation. It’s a topic we don’t always enjoy looking at in our own lives. We prefer to be graded on our performance not our motives. We insist on hiding the depths of our heart to impress others and earn their approval with external appearances. We even intentionally choose wrong motives thinking that other people will be shallow enough to only see the action and reward us. Many times – more than we probably choose to admit – we are motivated by greed – that deep desire for personal benefit.

For example, many years ago, some vandals cut down six royal palms along Miami’s Flagler Street. Since the palms were very expensive, Dade County authorities weren’t sure if they could replace them very soon. But then someone donated six more and even had them planted. The old ones had been about fifteen feet tall and provided a nice foreground for a “Fly Delta” billboard. The new palms were thirty-five feet tall—completely hiding the sign. The new donor: Eastern Airlines.

Or what about the motivation of making oneself look good to others? We tend to talk down about others. Sometimes we go on and on talking about the flaws of others and the only real reason is because we think it will improve our own status or image in someone’s eyes. But nothing makes a long story short like the arrival of the person you happen to be talking about. At that moment we have proven that our motivation was not for their benefit but for ours.

M. Scott Peck writes, “Utterly dedicated to preserving their self-image of perfection, they are unceasingly engaged in the effort to maintain the appearance of moral purity. They worry about this a great deal. They are acutely sensitive to social norms and what others might think of them…. They dress well, go to work on time, pay their taxes, and outwardly seem to live lives that are above reproach.

“The words “image,” “appearance,” and “outwardly” are crucial to understanding the morality of the evil. While they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their “goodness” is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. That is why they are the “people of the lie.”

“Actually, the lie is designed not so much to deceive others as to deceive themselves. They cannot or will not tolerate the pain of self-reproach.”

Before we even begin to talk about the motivation of money, which we will do tomorrow, we would all benefit from some personal introspection today on this issue of “image consciousness” and the power of its motivation in our lives. We must not be apathetic about this. It has become one of the strongholds of Satan in our lives, and He uses it daily to keep us from becoming truly surrendered to Jesus and effective as His servants. We must crucify daily the desire to please self and build self-worth. We must take up our cross and follow Jesus as people of integrity – people who are real and true to the core.

We would all benefit from following the advice of Albert Einstein, who said, “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.”

Pastor John