We each have the opportunity to serve others in our community. Whether it’s picking up trash in our neighborhood, volunteering at a local school, serving with a local ministry that cares for the under resourced or joining a once/month team at LBC, we can model God’s love for others through the way we serve them. It might cost us a little time and possibly a little sweat, but the eternal difference our service can make is worth it.
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 14
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 13
The Kingdom is not just for grown-ups, for those who have their lives and acts together. Christianity is the most inclusive movement the world has ever seen. CEOs and custodians, lawmakers and criminals, doctors and invalids, PhD’s and people with special needs, singles and married couples, locals and internationals… and yes, little children.
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 12
In the short-term, sanctification can easily be a discouraging process. Sin’s influence in our lives is deeply ingrained and won’t easily be defeated. However, this is where the great hope of the gospel comes into play. Paul tells us in Philippians that God will be faithful to finish the good work he began in us.
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 11
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 10
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 9
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 8
We want the church to be beautiful, but it’s actually broken. We want the church to be full of saints, but it’s full of sinners. We want the church to be the image of a radiant bride, but really we’re just a band of misfits.
But Jesus loves the church like a good husband loves his wife, both at her best and her worst. That is good news.
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 7
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 6
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 5
If you are struggling with doubt, plagued by fear that you aren’t strong enough to really trust God, take courage. You need only pray, “I believe; help my unbelief!” We can confess the weakness of our faith, comforted by our confidence that “God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:9).
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 4
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 3
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 2
2016 August Prayer Initiative - Day 1
As our church family begins this prayer adventure together, it's good to reflect on the "pattern" prayer that Jesus gives us in Matthew 6. Jesus' guide for prayer has been the basis of Joe White's sermon series throughout July. The prayer begins with community: “our Father.” And it begins with gospel: “our Father.”
Darkness in Nice, France
This weekend we lament yet another tragedy at the hands of darkness and evil. We stand with the French people and the churches in France. Pray for worship services on Sunday where the hope of the gospel will be preached. Pray for all of those who lost loved ones on the dark night of July 14 in Nice, France.
Lament and Confession in the Wake of Violence
In the beatitudes, Jesus teaches his followers how the gospel will transform the way they live and interact with others. In light of recent events in our country, these truths ring fresh in our hearts as we own our sinfulness, repent, and seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.