The Thursday Update

JUNE 5, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

Culture constantly sends us the message that joy comes from receiving. Corporate commercials tell us that if we just buy their product, we’ll be happier. The lottery tells us that if we win and get more money, we’ll be happier. Society says that if more people do what we ask of them to help our career, we’ll be happier. For the majority, it’s all about what we get. The more we get, the happier we’ll be. On the surface, it seems to make a lot of sense.

But with God, there’s another way to find something bigger and better than the happiness of receiving— it’s the joy of giving your life away through serving.

I’ve found that people who serve— whether it’s serving God’s cause or serving God through serving others— are regularly the most happy and always the most joyful. I don’t always see that in people who do lots of receiving in life. In fact, it seems to build a saddening sense of entitlement. And that never brings joy.

Serving is so important to God that Jesus said in Mark 10:45 that even He came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Do you have a spirit of serving? Do you serve God and people as a regular way of life? Do you find joy through it? We will explore the two primary ways people serve God and find joy in it on Sunday, as we continue our well-received series, “How To Find Joy In Life”.

Thanks for being a church filled with such a great spirit of serving!

Warmly,
Vince

MAY 29, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

Do you ever complain about things in your life? Do you do it rarely or a little more than that? Do you complain about things that you really shouldn’t complain about? If your answers to the previous three questions are, 1. almost never, 2. rarely and 3. not really then I have a fourth question for you: Would someone really close to you say that about you as well? Sometimes, we don’t always realize how much we complain and that’s where others can help.

I think that as bad as things are in the world, Americans probably have less to complain about than anyone else. In reality, sometimes complaining isn’t a situational issue but ultimately a spiritual issue. I say that because our next passage in our Sunday series in Philippians tells us that it is an issue we all face, even if we’ve been a Christian for a long time.

So how can you conquer complaining? It’s not easy, especially when we have well-trained and ingrained habits that naturally lead us in that direction, but it can be done. But it takes the power God and an open spirit to make the changes that we need to crush it in our lives. We’ll look at what God says about this on Sunday.

If you want more joy in your life, this is a critical step to getting there.

I hope to see you on Sunday as we celebrate four baptisms!

Warmly,
Vince

MAY 22, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

Perhaps the most misunderstood person who has ever lived is Jesus Christ.

Some think of Him as someone who never really existed, as just a myth or made-up legend. There are others who believe that He did exist but wasn’t who He, the Bible, and Christians say He is. They say He was just another man, a good moral teacher, a magician, an enlightened leader of a religious sect, a wise sage, and so much more that just isn’t accurate or (at best) isn’t complete.

It’s not His fault. People have lots of reasons for why they believe who Jesus is. Many times, they are derived from convenience and lazy thinking more than from a genuine search for the real Jesus. After all, it’s always more convenient to dismiss or minimize the true Jesus when He calls people to such challenging things as to “take up their cross and follow Him”, to “love your enemies and pray for them”, to “store up your treasures in heaven and not on earth” and the like. Just make Jesus out to be anyone that fits your lifestyle conveniences and any problems are resolved. Right?

Wrong.

Jesus is who He is and our responsibility is to seek Him and find out who He is and live our lives accordingly, not vice versa. The good news is that the Bible helps us see Him accurately again and again. And one of the most incredible, compact, and thorough passages that does this is found in Philippians 2:5-13. In it, I see five of the most incredible and important aspects of who Jesus really is. I’ll explain it more at services on Sunday. I can’t think of a more important message than this one. That’s because your view of Jesus impacts the way you live your life.

Like last week, we’ll be joined by another Lakeshore-supported missionary, Nabeeh Abassi, from Jordan. We went to Seminary together and he will talk about his incredible ministry in this Middle Eastern nation. It’s going to be a great Sunday.

Who do you say that Jesus is? No matter your answer, we’ll help you deepen it on Sunday.

Warmly,
Vince