The Thursday Update

JANUARY 16, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

The multiple and separate fires that are taking place in Los Angeles are having a devastating affect on many homes and many lives. Entire neighborhoods are being devastated by it all.

Can you imagine if that happened to you?

I’ve heard lots of reactions from many people. How should we respond to this all? Here are a few thoughts that I have.

1. When other people are hurting, it’s an opportunity for us to show compassion. Rather than make judgmental comments about the government in California or Hollywood, let’s offer up prayers for the people who have lost so much.

2. Loss ultimately reminds us to appreciate what we currently have. In a culture where only “more” satisfies us (and by self-definition, it never will satisfy us because only “more” will), it takes intentionality to appreciate all that we have right now. Take time to thank God for all you have right now.

3. This incident reminds us that material things are never guaranteed to be ours forever. They will come and go, and we have limited control on “if” or “when” they will. So let’s be sure to accumulate the true wealth that Jesus talked about in Matthew 6:19-24.

Warmly,
Vince

JANUARY 9, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

Life is filled with choices. 

From the moment we wake up, we are faced with literally thousands of choices as the day progresses.  Some are trivial and related to what we’ll wear, eat, and the like.  Some are more important and involve choices on how much money we’ll spend, where we will invest our time, and what we will apply our energies to.  But there is one choice that we must make every day that is more important than any other choice.  What is it?

Choosing who we will serve.

Some people reflexively respond that they are Christians and that they have already made the choice to serve God.  In a certain sense, they have a point.  In reality however, the decision to serve the Lord must be made every day— actually, every moment of every day— not just at some point in time in the past when they become a Christian.  The reason is simple: at any given moment we can easily choose to serve someone other than the Lord and that someone is usually ourselves.  It may be that we choose to serve our selfish desires, or our creature comforts, or our personal conveniences over serving the Lord, but whatever it is, choosing anything over the Lord at any given moment has consequences. 

At first, the consequences may be hard to notice.  Over time though, these choices will become detrimental.  Given enough severity, these choices could be really destructive.

That’s why Joshua says in Joshua 24:14, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”

Are you making the right choices these days?  Is the Lord your first choice more often than anything else?  Have you ever made the choice to make Jesus the Lord of your life by putting your faith in Him alone for eternal life?

The greatness of your life depends on it.

Warmly,
Vince

JANUARY 2, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

Happy New Year to you all! With the new year, it’s really common for people to do two things:

First, we assess the past year. Like a highlight video, we recall things that happened in 2024, both good and bad, and learn lessons from both. The other thing we tend to do is get ambitious with new goals for the new year. We dream about how things could be over what things are like right now. It could be related to our relationships, family life, finances, physical fitness, spiritual growth, or walk with God. We long for things to be better in the year ahead.

In a phrase, we yearn to “take new territory” in some areas of our life where we really want to see progress.

That’s what we began talking about last Sunday in our new series, “Taking New Territory.” Based on Numbers 13-14, we looked at God’s offer to give Israel His beautiful and prosperous promised land. Most of the people were too afraid to enter into this land, while Joshua and Caleb were too excited to not enter it. From this contrast, we looked at four things successful people do that unsuccessful people don’t, can’t, or won’t do. If you missed it, watch it here.

We’ll continue this series on Sunday because we want to help you take new territory in your life this year. Do you want to see that happen in your life? If so, join us on Sunday and get your new year started on the right foot.

Warmly,
Vince