The Thursday Update

OCTOBER 20, 2022

Lakeshore Friends—

Now that our 3D Christianity series is over, the “living it out” part still lies ahead of us.  Whether you are still discovering (remember that if you really seek God with your heart you will find Him), or are learning to consistently develop your faith (recall the “grow, know, row, and show” plan?), the ultimate goal is to progress to the declare stage— that place where we are the salt and the light for people who need it (Matthew 5:13-16). Most people in our world really need it!

The key to declaring your faith is to INVEST + INVITE— that is to invest yourself into people “right where they are” and then to invite them to faith and to church.  If you missed last Sunday’s important message, be sure to watch it here.

For our entire history, we have been an Invest + Invite church.  Our services are created with this in mind.  Hundreds of lives have been transformed because of this.  Yours may be one of them. We are putting a renewed emphasis on the Invest + Invite strategy and we want you to be a part of it!  It starts with a desire to see people around you come to faith in Jesus.

If that’s you, I want to encourage you to complete an Invest + Invite card at church and put it up next to the many that are up right now.  We’re going to be praying together for these people to allow us to engage them with the love of Jesus.

Nothing compares to the joy of helping one person find faith in Jesus Christ.  If you agree, join us in the Invest + Invite cause.

Warmly,
Vince

OCTOBER 13, 2022

Lakeshore Friends—

What if I told you that you just won the Lottery and you have a choice of being paid a lump sum of $50 million dollars or getting $2 million a year for the rest of your life?  Understanding that God has a dim view of gambling, let’s just say that you were given the ticket by a friend...  I “bet” you’d be excited, wouldn’t you?  After tithing $5 million to Lakeshore (it’s free to dream, isn’t it?), you’d be set for life…. but just this life!

Now, what if I told you that after you die, you will spend eternity with the living God in bliss and joy that is so incredible that it is simply unspeakable to describe?  All your aches and pains and problems would disappear and all you would do is wonder in amazement at why God would let you spend eternity with Him.  You’d be set for more than life… you’d be set for eternity!

Anyone of a sane mind would choose the latter every time, right?  And yet, we don’t always spend our days on earth thinking that the latter is infinitely greater than the former because if we did, we would tell everyone we could about how to spend eternity in heaven.

On Sunday, I will cover the third and final “D” of 3D Christianity: Declaring!  It’s something that few of us do as well as we’d like (me very much included), and yet something that is important for others to hear (see Romans 10:14).  And the Good News is that there are ways to do it that make it more natural and relatable to the people we talk to.

I hope you’ll be here on Sunday if you want to live the Christian life to its fullest and experience the joy that comes from it that Jesus Himself promised us.

Warmly,
Vince

OCTOBER 6, 2022

Lakeshore friends—

One of the great tragedies I see all the time (and all around our country) is people who have discovered faith in Jesus Christ and seem to be okay with not going much further in their faith beyond that decision.  Sometimes the reason is that their decision was not a true decision for Jesus, and that explains it clearly.  But other times, it is a case of being fine with believing in Jesus, asking Him into my life by faith, and not doing much more than that. 

That’s tragic.  If you were to ask someone who is in this spot in their faith some spiritual questions, too often their answers may sound like this:

“Are you reading the Bible regularly to get to know God and truth better?” “I’m too tired to read it.”

“Are you connecting with other Christians at church and in a small group so you help each other grow?” “I’m just too busy for all that.”

“Are you using your gifts in the way the New Testament teaches so that you help Christ’s church thrive?” “I’m not sure I can help.”

“Are you putting Jesus and His will first in every decision you make to glorify God and to find true joy in your life?” “Sometimes.”

“Are you giving back to God a tithe of what He has given to you?” “Um, have you seen my bills?”

Jesus promises us an abundant life if we take the next steps beyond simply discovering faith in Jesus, and that’s what we’ll talk about on Sunday as we continue our series, 3D Christianity. 

If you want to live a truly fulfilling Christian life instead of the bland, consumeristic version we see around us, this series is for you.  You can watch last week’s kick-off message here, and you can see our “3D flowchart” showing each stage here.

Hope to see you here on Sunday (and Thursday, October 6 for Midweek Bible Study),

Warmly,
Vince