And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27 ESV)

It was a lawyer who spoke these words to Jesus when asked “What is written in the Law?  How do you read it?” (Luke 10:26)  But the lawyer’s first question was simply, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25)  While this encounter focuses on “who is my neighbor?”  I would like to take a closer look at the first part of the lawyer’s answer.

He is quoting the great Sh’ma, the basic creed of the Jewish people found in Deuteronomy 6:4.  These words have been uttered on the lips of the Jewish people in all circumstances – even while being lined up to be shot and killed by their Nazi oppressors.  For the twenty-first century Christian, we often read these words, but don’t have the depth of its meaning in our minds our on our lips.

We read this text and understand it as saying that we should love God with our deepest emotions and passion.  But an understanding of the Hebrew word for soul (nephesh) can give us an even deeper meaning.  The word nephesh (translated “soul” would be better translated “life.”  It means your total being.  All your life.  Every moment.  All the time.   That means that everything you do, every activity you participate in whether dinner with your family, working at your favorite hobby, whatever show you are watching on TV, every word you say, should be done with God at the forefront of your mind and actions.

This leaves no room for division: this is the stuff I do for God and this is the stuff I do for me. That won’t work.  Every breath we take should be taken with thanksgiving for the One who gives breath.  Every idle word is a word wasted since it is not to the glory of God.

The apostle Paul took this very Jewish understanding of nephesh and fleshed it out in Romans 12:1: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do you really “love the Lord your God” with absolutely everything you are and have?  That’s what is required to be a true follower of God.   He doesn’t want some of you; He wants all of you.

Seeking to love the Lord with all my nephesh,

Pastor Leslie

All-Church Picnic – August 15th at 5:30 p.m. at Kruse Park.

At 5:30 we will have our closing VBS program. Dinner will be served at 6:00. Hot Dogs and Beverages will be provided. Please bring a large salad or dessert to share (to serve 8-12 people), plates and tableware. We have invited the VBS families to be our guests.

“Christmas in July”

The calendar may not say it’s Christmas, but it’s always appropriate to celebrate Christ’s coming to earth. On Sunday, July 25^th, we will be celebrating Christmas at Lakeside. We will sing familiar Christmas carols and see familiar symbols of the season.The highlight of our worship will be a special love offering for our missionaries’ Christmas. In order to get Christmas gifts to missionaries before Christmas, we want to mark out this time to honor them.

Hey Kids!! You’re invited to Lakeside Baptist’s V.B.S.

“High Seas Expedition”Sundays July 18 thru August 8

6:00 – 8:00p             Grades 1-6

Come and bring a friend!!

Are there days when you just want to throw the towel in?  You know what I mean.  You try to do things the right way, living by biblical standards and yet . . . everything seems to fall apart.  Your world is spinning out of control and all you want is to make it all stop.  I know that there are more times than I care to admit that I feel that way.  The old saying “misery loves company” is true!  Even God’s own servants; I mean people with their names placed at the beginning of books of the Bible; have also felt exactly the same way.  Take for example, the prophet Habakkuk.  Listen to the opening words he penned in the book bearing his name.

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1:2 – 4 ESV)

Is this the voice of a discouraged man?  And he’s one of God’s choice servants!  If you read further in Habakkuk, you’ll see that there are yet more complaints by the prophet.  Well, like I said, deep discouragement comes into all our lives at various times.  I don’t want you to think that the answer comes in a beautifully wrapped package and “BINGO!” your problem is solved and your distress and discouragement immediately disappear.  But I can tell you that the fight for joy is worth it!  Our problem is that we need to continually preach the gospel to ourselves.  We need to remember where to find strength.  Scripture tells us plainly; do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10 ESV)

That’s such heartening news.  You and I may not find joy in many of the circumstances of life, be we can find joy in the Lord!  That is our strength.  So don’t give up.  Keep your hope and trust in the One who created you and gave His Son for you.   Your strength comes through your unswerving gaze at the beauty and goodness of the Lord.  Glory in Him!  Joy in Him!

After Habakkuk’s complaints, he comes face to face with who God really is and he is able to say at the end of his book, 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. (Habakkuk 3:17 – 19 ESV)

Fighting the good fight and rejoicing with you,

Pastor Leslie

Converge Michigan Muskegon Area Churches Good Friday Service – April 2, 2010 1:00 p.m.

Special Speaker: Pastor Gary Rohrmayer, Executive District Minister of Converge MidAmerica

A special offering will be taken for the Haiti Baptist Mission to help with needs as a result of the January earthquake.

Maundy Thursday Communion & Tenebrae Service -Thursday, April 1, 2010 -7:00 p.m.

“Tenebrae” is Latin for shadows or darkness. The Tenebrae service can be used for Good Friday or Maundy Thursday. Each candle is extinguished one by one, symbolizing the extinguishing of Jesus on the Cross. It is a solemn and somber service, recreating the emotional aspects of the Passion story, the sense of the betrayal, abandonment, and agony of the events. It is left unfinished, because the story isn’t over until Easter Day.

Reservations are now open for a Whitecaps baseball game on July 24. Game time is 7:00 p.m. The night also features the movie ‘Star Wars’ and post game fireworks.

Reserved tickets cost $9.00 each.

For more information and for reservations contact Larry Halverson. Include your name and number of tickets with your total cost.

Money is due by June 15. Please note that your reservations are not complete until your payment is received at the church.

Please make checks payable to” Lakeside Baptist Church.” In the memo portion of your check please write “Whitecaps.”

Send to:

Lakeside Baptist Church

2250 Denmark

Muskegon, MI 49441

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:8 – 10)

Following Christ is not like the way advertisers try to hawk their products, telling us that their “new and improved” whatever will make your hair shinier, make your teeth brighter, or driving “our brand” of automobile will make you look more sophisticated.  These advertisers try to sell you the “goods” without pointing out the bad.

Jesus made no bones about it.  He said, “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38).  “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32 – 33).

The words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:8 – 10 is what one author calls “the fine print of the Christian life.”  Too many Christians lose grip of their faith when trials come.  They came to Christ to get into heaven.  But Jesus signs us up to be His disciples, not just “life insurance” holders.  Paul tells us that it is through our weaknesses, our difficulties that Christ is magnified.  That’s what we are to be all about – making much of Christ.  People will see Him most when we are least.

In the words of author John Fischer, “This is not just endurance training through tough times.  This is God’s strategy for ministry through us.  There is no other way for it to be done.  His strategy is His power and strength through our weakness – His life through our death.  This doesn’t just happen to some Christians; it happens to us all if we desire to be effective in our faith.

Let’s commit ourselves to live our lives to the glory and honor of Christ.  Let’s be willing to be wholehearted disciples of the one who gave His life, so that we could honor His life, with ours.

Pastor Leslie