LifeLink Devotional for Monday, January 20, 2025

Sometimes it’s just not possible. Our best attempts at reconciliation are met with stiff resistance. We cannot help but wonder – “How far should I go to make things right?”

How far should we go to bring peace? After multiple attempts we begin to feel we have nothing left to make things right. Maybe it’s because we believe we are responsible for other people’s choices. As a result, we develop a dysfunctional need to fix everything. That’s okay when working on a dryer or a dishwasher, but not with people.

I was challenged with this when I received an email from a reader who shared how she misunderstood this aspect of reconciliation. She said, “As a very young child there was a lot of yelling in my family. I tried to be the peacemaker by making excuses for everyone’s behavior. If that didn’t work, I’d apologize for whatever was wrong just to stop the fighting.”

“What the Father pointed out to me was that I was reinforcing Satan’s lie that I deserved no better than to be treated this way.  My whole life I have, in effect, accepted responsibility for other’s actions so that they wouldn’t feel bad and would have a way to save face. I tried to keep the peace. I came to realize that I wasn’t doing anyone any favors and maybe doing more harm than good. It’s not up to me to make excuses for anyone’s transgressions. It is my place to say ‘That hurt’ and forgive them. Or ‘I’m sorry I hurt you. Please forgive me’. Just like the Father does for me.”

Taking responsibility for another person’s choices and actions is not God’s model of reconciliation. Reconciliation isn’t real unless both parties agree. Both parties must take personal responsibility for their own choices and actions. It isn’t peace if both parties in the dispute aren’t brought to a point of repentance for their own actions.

Our Scripture passage today emphasizes this point of personal responsibility. The Apostle Paul writes, in Romans 12, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” We are only responsible for our choices. We are charged with living in peace with others. We are not charged with forcing others to live in peace with us.

Sometimes people reject our attempts at peace. I see three possible responses we could have. First, we could retaliate. But our Scripture passage in Romans makes it clear that we are not to take revenge in any form.

Second, we might try to manipulate the situation to bring what looks like peace. This may involve things we’ve mentioned before like taking false responsibility for an action, or by lessening the severity of the action or the hurt it caused. This type of dishonesty does not bring true peace.

Third, we can continue to love – not only in thought and feeling, but in activity. This is the only correct response to people’s rejection of our attempts at reconciliation. We must not deceive ourselves into believing that we are living at peace with everyone if that peace is in word only. There must be specific activities of good intentionally directed at our enemies if the evil is to be overcome.

We have not been commanded to do something impossible. By the grace of God in our lives, we can live at peace with everyone by acting towards them as if nothing is wrong, even though they may treat us differently.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional for Tuesday, December 31, 2024

One of the characteristics of reconciliation is restoration. It is difficult for me to consider the validity of anyone saying they have been reconciled to another person unless it includes the marvelous grace of forgiveness leading to restoration of the previous status of the relationship. Restoration to a previous state is not possible unless everything that damaged the relationship is removed and declared irrelevant.

Biblical reconciliation results in the restoration of our relationship with God to a former status. What former status is that? The status of intimate and secure relationship with God based on righteousness. We do not bring our sin with us into this relationship. Reconciliation requires the renouncing of anything that was responsible for the breakup.

There is tension between what the Bible says and what the world says is necessary for reconciliation. The world has declared war on the Biblical definition by stating that the only thing required for people to live in harmony with one another is tolerance. The biblical model of reconciliation challenges that philosophy by emphasizing the need for repentance and change.

In the Bible, reconciliation is all about change. In fact, the Greek word for reconciliation that the Apostle Paul uses in his writings means simply “to change completely”.

There is an ancient and deceptive philosophy called Gnosticism. It teaches that God is only concerned with the spirit and cannot be involved with the physical. That belief is still prevalent today and forms the foundation of the philosophy of tolerance. It is held by those who support and pursue the gratification of the flesh and all its desires. Mainstream culture today believes that people can be reconciled to one another without a change in behavior or beliefs. Logically, then, those same people conclude that the spiritual can also be reconciled to God without change in belief or behavior.

This is contrary to what the Bible teaches about the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.”

Saved people have the power of the Holy Spirit in them. He is creating the character of Jesus Christ in them. He is moving them toward holiness and the rejection of sinful behavior. True reconciliation with God requires repentance from sin. Unity and harmony with God are not possible when we intentionally continue in what God calls sin and reject the Holy Spirit’s transformational influence.

True reconciliation is based upon and results in change. As our Scripture passage said, every part of our lives that was once connected to and controlled by sin is gone when we are in Christ. We are a new creation, with a new purpose – to do the work of God.

Change. When we repent of our sin, we admit the need for change. God grants forgiveness, and there is a change in our spiritual standing before God. Our change in standing produces a change in our social behavior before man. When we are in Christ, we are to put off all the activity of the flesh so that our lives are lived in righteousness and holiness.

When we come to Christ for salvation, admitting to and repenting of our sinful nature, He changes us. The very life of Jesus Christ is created in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are new. Our minds are transformed. Our actions will follow our hearts. We are designed in our salvation to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

When we repent of our sin and believe in Christ’s righteousness that was made available to us when He paid our sin debt on the cross, we are reconciled to God and restored to our former relationship status. As a result, we renounce sin and live to reflect the glory of our spiritual condition. Then, one day, Jesus will return and finalize the reconciliation when He takes us into His perfect presence.

That’s reconciliation – restoration to God, complete and eternal.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions for Monday, December 30, 2024

As we prepare to enter a new year my mind has been captivated by a word. I am going to study it thoroughly. It is a word that has both secular and spiritual applications. In its most basic dictionary definition, it means “to restore to balance.” It can specifically apply to the restoration of friendship, the balancing of finances, or the composition of music to create harmony. In the Greek language it means “to change or exchange so that favor is restored.” You have probably figured out by now that the word is reconcile.

When we think of reconciliation, we probably think first of people who are restored to relationship after they have been separated by hurt and anger. But to even understand that completely, we must begin with the ultimate act and example of reconciliation – God restoring our relationship with Him. My mind is swimming with a multitude of ideas and insights into God’s work of reconciliation, and in the coming devotionals we will try to investigate them. But let me lay the proper foundation for this study by sharing with you a story told by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.

“A certain king was very rich. His power was known throughout the world. But he was most unhappy, for he desired a wife. Without a queen, the vast palace was empty. One day, while riding through the streets of a small village, he saw a beautiful peasant girl. So lovely was she that the heart of the king was won. He wanted her more than anything he had ever desired. On succeeding days, he would ride by her house on the mere hope of seeing her for a moment in passing.

“He wondered how he might win her love. He thought, I will draw up a royal decree and require her to be brought before me to become the queen of my land. But, as he considered, he realized that she was a subject and would be forced to obey. He could never be certain that he had won her love.

“Then, he said to himself, “I shall call on her in person. I will dress in my finest royal garb, wear my diamond rings, my silver sword, my shiny black boots, and my most colorful tunic. I will overwhelm her and sweep her off her feet to become my bride.” But, as he pondered the idea, he knew that he would always wonder whether she had married him for the riches and power he could give her.

“Then, he decided to dress as a peasant, drive to the town, and have his carriage let him off. In disguise, he would approach her house. But, somehow the duplicity of this plan did not appeal to him.

“At last, he knew what he must do. He would shed his royal robes. He would go to the village and become one of the peasants. He would work and suffer with them. He would actually become a peasant. He would give up his rights to the throne to win the heart of his heart’s love. This he did, and he won his wife.”

This is what God did for us. To win the hearts of His heart’s love, He became one of us in Christ. He made himself of no reputation. He became a servant. He humbled himself. He became obedient, even to the point of death. The Apostle Paul says, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.”

God sought to restore favor between himself and man. To do so, he made an exchange that brought change. Not change to Him, for He never changes. His exchange brings change to us, which in turn changes our relationship with God. According to Colossians chapter one, we were once alienated from God and were enemies in our minds because of our evil behavior. But now he has reconciled us by Christ’s physical body through death to present us holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Amazing! Awesome! We have been reconciled to God. This is incredible news. I can’t wait to see what else God is going to teach us in the days ahead.

Pastor John