The Thursday Update

Lakeshore Friends—

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has now been in our headlines for over a week, and I just read a report on Wednesday that more than 2,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed during these attacks - many of these casualties were children. 

This heartbreaking and devastating news is a sober reminder to continue praying for God’s protection on the people of Ukraine and for God to intervene by thwarting the efforts of the Russian military.  Please also pray that the voice of the Ukrainian church would continue to be a strong witness for Jesus Christ and that many would turn to Jesus in these difficult times. 

It is news like this that causes me to pause and give an extra-long hug to my wife and children. 

Make a great day,
Frank D.

Lakeshore Friends—

If I asked you to finish the sentence,  “Life is too short to ________________", how would you finish it?

There are lots of ways we could answer that question, but I wonder if this answer sounds appealing:  “Life is too short to not do what God created us to do.”  What do you think?  Doesn’t that sound like it belongs on a motivational poster (with a bald eagle soaring over a huge mountain!), or on a sticker you put on your bathroom mirror (so you can see it every morning and be motivated!)?  Not so sure?  That’s okay too!

But the truth is that so many of us pursue things that are nice, but we don’t always pursue what God created us to do with the best part of our lives.

And for each of us, that could be very different.  We each have somewhat unique personal gifts, spiritual gifts, personalities, experiences, and the like that all work together to make us who we are.  The question is, do we know ourselves and God enough to know what we are made to do with our one and only life?

I encourage you to make that your life pursuit.  God will help you if you seek Him.  And so will we as we begin a new series on Sunday.

I hope you’ll be here for it so that you can be sure to finish that sentence with the right answer.

Warmly,
Vince

Lakeshore Friends—

I hope you enjoyed Super Bowl Sunday, especially the best part which was being together as a church.  We get to tell God we love Him and to grow in our faith together.  As for the game, I enjoyed it (even if I wanted the Bengals to win), but not nearly as much as I did being with you in church.  I hope you did too!

Which brings me to this thought... 

It’s amazing how excited people get about football games and the Super Bowl (me included), and yet how nonchalant these same people are about the excitement of worshipping God and growing in our understanding of Him (me NOT included).  I realize so many people who really don’t care for God are going to act that way— you can’t expect someone to act like a Christian until they are one.  My amazement is centered on the fact that this “excitement discrepancy” is present in people who say they are Christians and say they love Jesus.  Which raises a question: if you get more excited about football (or insert any other thing here) than you do about Jesus and His church, what does that say?

The answer is pretty clear.

Our goal in this “Why I Love The Church” series is to get us all to fall in love with the church more and to make it the high point of our lives.  Jesus did that (Ephesians 5:25-27), so if we desire more of Jesus in our lives and want to be more like Him, then we will too.

As restrictions are being relaxed and we learn to live with COVID (which will be with us for the foreseeable future), I hope we will continue to have people return and continue to see more new people attend and become Christians. 

Having more people love Jesus and His wife (aka the church, the bride of Christ) is what life is ultimately about.

Warmly,
Vince