The Thursday Update

Lakeshore Friends—

This Sunday, we will wrap up our series on what to do when life really hurts by answering an important question: why does God allow us to hurt in the first place? 

Great minds have strived to answer this question, and many have fallen short of finding and offering a satisfactory answer.

Some say that God would end all pain if He could, but He’s simply not able to.  Of course, this view is filled with problems because it denies the truth that God is all powerful.

Others say that God allows us to experience pain because He is uninvolved in the world’s affairs.  The problem is that this denies His control of all things, His sovereignty and His right to rule all things as He really does.

Still others say that God isn’t really loving and so He simply doesn’t care about our pain.  But if that were the case, why would God send His only Son Jesus into the world to save it by dying for it?

The truth is that no one can fully answer “why”, God allows us to experience hurt and pain, even though we know that human sin is somehow behind all pain because sin always leads to death (Romans 6:23).  But despite that, we can answer a more important question: “what?”

So “what” does God want to do in and through our hurt, our pain?  That’s what I’ll talk about on Sunday.  Know this: God never wastes a hurt in your life or in the life of anyone else.  And for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, He uses it for good.

Find out how on Sunday!

Warmly,

Vince

Lakeshore Friends—

On Sunday, I will be talking about the third person of the Trinity of God, the Holy Spirit, and how He is our comforter in all kinds of pain.  He is actually  called the Comforter in John 14:16 in many translations and he is known by many other amazing names like the Counselor, Advocate, Companion, Helper, and Paraclete.  We’ll learn a lot about the work of the Holy Spirit in helping us find peace in our pain.

Whenever it comes to the Holy Spirit being taught in churches, I find that there are often two extremes.

The first extreme is a constant, almost exclusive, discussion of the Holy Spirit that seems to drown out the other two members of the Trinity, God the Father and God the Son (Jesus).  It can sound really spiritual and personal at first, but in reality this extreme is incomplete because the entire Trinity shares the same glory as any of the other two members and it is out of balance to focus on just one.  People in this camp tend to focus more on the leadings, power, and miracles of the Holy Spirit over anything else.  And sometimes there is an abundance of focus on experiences alone.

The second extreme is the opposite, where the Holy Spirit is hardly talked about and, in effect, treated as somehow less than the other two members of the Trinity.  Talking about God and Jesus are absolutely essential but leaving the Holy Spirit on the sidelines of discussions and teaching is an injustice to the complete work of God.  People in this camp tend to downplay the leadings, power, and miracles of the Holy Spirit to their own detriment.  Sometimes there is an abundant focus on reason and logic, and a lack of focus on experiences.

I think at times I need to talk more about the amazing Holy Spirit than I do, and that’s what we’ll cover on Sunday.  We’ll study John 14, and show how the Holy Spirit comforted the disciples in their pain when they learned Jesus would be leaving them, and how He offers to do the same for us in our pain.  This message will be a little deeper than others in this series, but that’s a good thing.  Especially when you realize the Holy Spirit's role in the Trinity of God.

We need to know more about the Holy Spirit.

I hope to see you here on Sunday as together we learn more about the amazing person we call the Comforter!

Warmly,

Vince

Lakeshore Friends—

Last Sunday, I shared a statistic in my message that really got to me.  So much so that I want to expand on it in this weekly update.

More Americans are choosing to walk away from difficult relationships instead of working through them, according to a newly released survey.  Nearly two in five Americans (38% to be exact) say they have gone “no contact” with a friend or family member in the past year, according to a survey of 2,000 adults conducted last month by Talker Research.  That means that instead of working through conflict, more and more people are simply choosing not to.  They simply avoid people that they are in conflict with.  Younger Americans are more likely to go “no contact” than older ones.

Here are a few thoughts that I have about this data.

First, I am not really surprised.  I am hearing and seeing more of this than I ever have.  Friends have told me about this happening to them with more frequency than ever.  I’ve seen it happen in churches, and I’ve even experienced it in my own life.  It’s getting so common that we have emerging terms for it.  When we try to reach out to people and they don’t respond or simply stop interacting with us, we call it “ghosting” or “going dark” or “being blocked”.

Second, I know this really hurts those who have been “cut off”.  It’s a helpless feeling- being unable to work through conflict, and a feeling of hurt that cuts pretty deep inside as a consequence.

Third, it’s an indication that people are less skilled at conflict resolution and dialogue than ever before.  Is it the overuse of social media and diminished relational skills?  Texting over talking?  The toxic environment that exists in America where name calling and labels like Nazi, Hitler, Fascist, and Racist are so overused and misapplied for people who disagree with us that we have grown numb to the fact that all people do in fact bear the image of God and don’t deserve such false attacks?  Is it the work of the evil one to divide us?  I think it is all of this and more.

Finally, I think it is leading to more loneliness in the lives of those who actually decide to go “no contact”, and more pain for those who have to try to function around this relational disfunction.  They actually make their lives worse by cutting people out of their lives.

While I do believe that there is a place for “no contact” relationships— for example, non-stop toxic family members, abusers and the like— most of the time this trend is a reflection that our country simply does not live according to the truth of the Bible.  If they did, they would know that conflict resolution is always the goal and God provides the motivation and skills on how to do so in places like Matthew 18:15-17, Matthew 7:3-5, Ephesians 4:26-27, and Romans 12:18 to name just a few.

We need to get back to God and to the truth He teaches us in Scripture.  We need to value conflict resolution like God values it. After all, God had every reason to go “no contact” with us but instead made contact by sending Jesus as the Son of God to Earth to offer rescue and salvation.

I believe attending church often and faithfully is the place to start.  Being with others who are going in the same direction of wanting to discover more about God and to develop their faith has the effect of helping us mature faster than trying to live as The Lone Ranger in life. Don’t forget, The Lone Ranger did have his friend Tonto!.... yeah, you may have to Google that one.  We grow together.  We learn to relate to each other in love.  We serve together.  We worship together.  We pray for each other.  We care for each other.  We are there for each other.  Of course we don’t do it perfectly, but we strive for it and see the results in those who just want to get closer to God and others.

That’s what the church is all about.

Thanks for making Lakeshore a great church that strives to do these things.  Life is a lot better when we go “full contact” with God and each other.

Warmly,

Vince