Here are two new message series we have coming up during January and February at Lord of Life. In January we will take a look at the “Greatest Sermon Ever.” It is the Sermon on the Mount which is found in Matthew 7-9.
The second message series which will begin in February is called “A Family Miracle.” This series will be focused on marriages and families. Many families are going through a rough time right now and can use some hope and healing. We will look to speak God’s Word into the home.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? Luke 14:28
The year of 2010 is about to come to a close. It has been some year. No doubt it has been a year filled with both joys and sorrows along with setbacks and breakthroughs.
The end of the year is an opportune time to sit back and to review the past year and to plan for the year ahead. It is good opportunity to ask yourself some tough questions about where you have been, where you are going, and where the Lord might be leading you. I would encourage to take some time to do this during your daily devotions sometime in the next week for a year end wrap up and a new year ramp up. Here are some questions you might consider asking yourself. This list is by no means a comprehensive list.
Ask yourself about your relationship with the Lord. Have I grown closer or further away from the Lord during this past year? Why? What spiritual discipline are I going to seek to grow in this year? Prayer? Scripture memorization? Journaling? Worship? Serving? And what is my specific plan to grow in that discipline?
Ask yourself about your finances. Are there any debts I am carrying? Do I have a plan to pay that debt off in the next year? Are there any unnecessary expenses I can trim from my budget to simply my life and give me opportunity better serve my Lord?
Ask yourself about your relationships. Is there anyone I need to ask forgiveness from? Is there anyone I need to forgive? How is my marriage? Is there more I can do to better encourage my spouse? Do I have a plan to help enrich my marriage? Have I scheduled vacation time away from work to focus on my family?
Ask yourself about your physical fitness. How much do I weigh? Am I ok with that? What can I do to get where I need to be? Am I getting adequate exercise? How can I make my physical fitness more of a priority?
Ask what is in your hand. When Moses encountered the Lord at the burning bush, Moses doubted his ability and his calling. God then asked Moses a question. The question was: “what is that in your hand?” It was a shepherds staff. God would use that staff to accomplish great things through Moses. You also have special gifts which God has put in your life. Ask what has God given me as a special skill or talent? How might I better use that gift for his glory and kingdom purposes? Is there some new ability I might strive to learn or master in the next year? Maybe it is playing a musical instrument. Maybe it is sewing. Maybe it is photography. Maybe it is writing. Maybe it is wood-working.
Then set your goals and write out our plan. Winston Churchill is credited with saying: Failing to plan is planning to fail. Many of us have our bucket list of “someday” items. But if we never plan, that someday will never come.
I do want to offer you a word of caution. Don’t try to do it all at once. Many of us over-estimate what we can do in the short term, but under-estimate what we can do over a longer period of time. We will often bite off more than we can chew and give up in frustration after a short time. You might have several different areas in your life in which you are hoping to be a better steward. Don’t try to take them all at once. Focus on one or two. Maybe this year you want to focus on finances and spiritual disciplines. Work on mastering those two areas of your life before you move on to focusing in other areas.
Finally, recognize that unless the Lord builds the house, it builders labor in vain. (Psalm 127:1) It is important we do it God’s way and not our way. If we do it our way, our plans are destined to fail. But if we do it God’s way and trust in his supply we cannot go wrong. So let’s make 2011 to be a year all for Him!
It has been a great joy to see the wonderful ways in which Lord of Life has reached out to others during this last week. On Saturday we had 100+ volunteers visit the Illinois Youth Center just down the road. We sang Christmas Songs, talked about Jesus, and just spent time together with the boys.
Then on Sunday we heard from the Quilters of the King group that had made 26 quilts for mothers and children in crisis. We also heard how they will begin making dresses for children in Haiti. God has blessed the effort!
If that was not enough, the Lord of Life Executive Committee and Elders hosted our third annual benevolence brunch. The funds raised during the brunch will go to support Lord of Life families in need. More than $4300 was raised. Over the next couple of weeks we want to make sure these funds are distributed. So if you are in need of some financial assistance or you know of a family that is, please let me know, so that we can respond.
Finally, this morning we had a handful of volunteers and myself take the 200 dozen or so left over cookies from the IYC visit to the Elburn and LaFox train stations to distribute to the commuters getting on the train. It was a lot of fun to watch the reactions of the people. They would walk up to the train half asleep in the cold. You would then greet them with Merry Christmas while handing them a bag of cookies. The next thing you would see would be a big smile come across their face.
There was one interaction in particular I remember. There was one lady who was running to the train just as it was about to leave. This was the first time she had ever rode on the train. She did not realize you needed to have exact change for the parking meter. It was only a $1.25, but she did not have any change. She came up to me and asked if they would give her a ticket or if they would tow her car. I told her I didn’t really know and that I did not regularly ride the train myself. In the meantime the train was just about to leave. I told her not to worry. I wished her a Merry Christmas and told her to get on the train. We would take care of her parking meter. I did not know this lady or this story, but I would like to think we were there for such a time as this. That God had put us there at that moment to be a blessing to her.
These are the things that get me excited. Because this is the church in action. Many of us participate in church with the goal of self-improvement. We come with the mindset that if we can take something away from the church service or the sermon, then we are ahead of the game.
But we must recognize our Christian faith is not centered on self. It is centered on Jesus. So many years ago Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but he was not born so the shepherds and the wise men would come worship and adore him. He was born so that he might die on a cross. He was born so that he might fully give of himself. Living as his followers, our Christian faith is not about what we can get out of it, but what we can give from it.
Jesus he is the reason for the season. He is the reason to die to self and live for others. For we are to live, this is the only way to live. Be the blessing! I would challenge you to consider what ways you can reach out to your neighbors over the next few days and weeks and to love them unconditionally without expecting anything in return. Let the Lord be your reward. You be the blessing!
We are approaching the end of the year and it is a good time of reflection for where we have been and where we are going. During the month of December I always like to find some time when I can look forward to the next year and to set goals both personally and professionally. I have heard it said that if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time.
As I look back at this past year and consider the goals which I had set, I realized that I did not achieve every single goal I had established, but I know that I accomplished more than I would have if I had not set any of those goals. I might have came up a little short of where I had been aiming, but I made it further than I would have otherwise.
One of my big goals virtually every year is to read through the Bible. This is something I will likely accomplish once again this year as I just began the book of Revelation today. It is something that comes easily to me now, but when I first established that as a goal several years back, it was not so easy. It was a process of trial and error before I was able to push through. Finally, over the course of several years I was able to accomplish that goal. So what I want to say to you is don’t give up. If you failed last year, whatever your goal was, learn from your mistakes. Adjust accordingly and go for it.
A couple of adjustments that helped me to read through the Bible in a year included the following.
I didn’t try to read it from cover to cover. The first few times I tried this I failed miserably when I got to Leviticus.
I started to use a Bible reading plan. I now use The One-Year Bible Reading Plan. It can be found at oneyearbibleonline.org
I didn’t try to catch up. If you are like me, with a type A personality, you get stuck on reading every single word. If you get a couple of days behind you get frustrated considering the mountain you need to climb to catch back up. If you get too far behind, just skip ahead. Being in God’s word is to be a life long endeavor, not a one year thing. If you miss something this year, you will come back to it next year. Keep in mind the real goal here is not reading through our Bibles. The goal is to be in God’s Word and to hear him speak.
I started early. We are midway through December now. I remember the first time I was successful reading through the Bible, I started during the middle of December. This gave me the opportunity to get behind without getting behind. I had three weeks extra weeks built into my schedule just in case I needed them. And the first time I accomplished the goal, I made use of all three of those extra weeks.
I made use of technology. At the time I was using a Palm Pilot. I found there were times in the day when I could do some reading, but I didn’t have a Bible on me. But I always had my Palm Pilot and on my Palm Pilot was a Bible. This last year, I bought “The One Year Bible” on Kindle. Now I can read the Bible wherever I am at on my iPhone or computer. So I got that few extra minutes in the checkout line or stuck at the train tracks on LaFox Rd., it is a good time to get some reading done.
What works for me, will not necessarily work for you. Some people find that it works best for them to do it the same time every day. This is not something that works for me. I do my devotional time at different times each day. But it may be something for you to establish the habit.
Something else you might try is that instead of trying to read the whole Bible in a year, work to read through the New Testament in a year. Then next year set a goal to read through the Old Testament. So instead of reading through the Bible in a year, you will have read through the Bible over the course of two years.
You might consider partnering with someone else. It is easy to drop a commitment if you don’t tell anyone about it. But if you share it with someone, you will have someone else to keep you accountable. You will not want to let that other person down. Even better find an accountability partner who will join you in the challenge.
If you use a daily planner, set it on your to-do list. For me I have my daily devotion as the number 1 task to accomplish on my daily to-do list. When I check it off, it automatically reloads for the next day.
In the end, it is not about reading through the Bible. It is about spending time with God. It is about hearing his Word. It is about being sustained with daily bread. Imagine if you only ate once a week. You would be malnourished. That is what it is like if the only time we are exposed to the Word is on a Sunday morning. We will be spiritually malnourished.
When you open the Word ask, “what is God saying to me?” Ask, “what would God have me with what I have read?” We need to read for more than just information, but for transformation. We read to hear God speak into our lives.
So as we approach this new year, I would like you to consider joining me in reading through the challenge of reading through the Bible. You might say that you don’t have the time. Consider then how much time you spend watching TV or on Facebook or reading other books. There are lots of other activities in life we make time for. And of all the activities we make time for, there may be no more important one than this one.
So, if you are in let me know and have a great week!
The weather has grown cold outside. That has sent the rodents inside. On Monday this week at Lord of Life, a mouse fell from a light fixture in the ceiling onto Curt Berg. This is the chase that ensued.
When the mice found out we had caught their buddy they sought to get back at us. So on Tuesday another mouse fell on Brian Zielke from another light fixture. But never fear, that mouse was caught as well and both were put out in a nice cold field.
