The Thursday Update

Lakeshore friends—

Being in ministry has its highs and its lows.  Sunday comes every seven days (whether you’re ready or not), and at times it can be a grind to do all that we do to prepare for each week.  Don’t misunderstand, the staff love what we do, but like any job it can require a lot out of us.  That can be tiring.

But there is one thing that I never get tired of: life change!

Other than trying to bring more glory to God, seeing people changed by Him is what fuels me more than anything else.  Seeing a person grasp the grace of God extended through the sacrifice made by His Son Jesus Christ is what gets me out of bed each day.  Seeing them then grow and use their time as they attend church each week, their talents as they serve on a ministry team, and their treasure as they discover the true joy in giving to God is equally as energizing.

This Sunday, 11 people will be getting baptized to demonstrate their new changed lives in Christ.  It will be an energizing service for anyone who loves seeing lives changed like we do.

So if you’re like me and never get tired of lives changing, you’ll be filled up this Sunday!

Warmly,
Vince

Lakeshore friends—

On Sunday, we will celebrate Mother’s Day.  Our heart at Lakeshore, and my heart as an individual, is to simply say, “Thank you mom!” to all of you.

This will be the second Mother’s Day in my life that I will be without my mother, but I constantly think about all that she did for me as I grew up.  She helped me discern right and wrong.  She worked really hard to provide for our family.  She attended as many of my wrestling matches in High School as she could.  And she always told me that the happiest day of her life was the day I was born (which always made me wonder what she told my brother.  Hmm…).

I’m not sure how close or distant you are from your mom (whether physically or relationally) but I hope that you will thank God for everything that you can for her.  And that you will also thank her if you can.  And even more so if she is a woman whose faith in Jesus guided her.

Thank you ladies for the great and important role that you play in our lives and in our world.  We love you!

As we have gone through the current series on what God says about government, I’m reminded that there really is only one answer to all the challenges that face us.  It’s something that my wife told me that Tyler Perry so eloquently stated during the Oscars (I’m not a movie guy, so I didn’t watch it).  You know what it is?

It’s love.  It’s God’s love.  It’s God’s love lived out by more and more people for others to see.

Yelling louder, fighting harder, damaging more, and hurting people (or hurting them back for hurting us) has been tried and found wanting.  It’s high time that we realize that God’s love is the answer.  And that means it must start with us, those of us who have tasted God’s love, know how transformative it has been in our lives, and want others to know how amazing and beautiful it is.

How do we do it?  We simply live it out every day.  We model Jesus as if we are the only Jesus some will ever see because, in fact, we are.  And then when it makes sense to do so, we explain God’s love to others without feeling the need to convince anyone… that’s God’s job anyways!

When that happens, lives change, one by one.  Then, and only then, can our nation change.

God’s love is the answer,

Vince