Saturday, September 10th at 6:00 p.m. we welcome Dr. John M. Perkins of Jackson, MS to our church as part of our 130th Anniversary Celebation. Dr. Perkins established the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation & Development for the sole purpose of supporting their mission of advancing the principles of Christian community development and racial reconciliation throughout the world.

Rev. Joe Lane II from New Life Christian Center will be our worship leader.

On Sunday, December 26, we will be having ONLY a 10:30 am worship service.  So that our families will have more time to celebrate this special season with their loved ones, we will not have Sunday School or our Sunday night activities this weekend (All of these will resume next week.).  This special “Christmas weekend” service will continue to celebrate the great and glorious gift which we have received in the Incarnation of Christ.  Also, at the conclusion of the service, Lakeside Baptist Church will be giving our members a very special Christmas gift which can help you grow in your knowledge of the Savior whom we celebrate during this wonderful season.  We hope that you will be able to join us for this very special time of worship – and we hope that Christ will be supreme in your thoughts at Christmastime and throughout the year.

B. J. Johnston as John Wesley

We are VERY excited to announce that Lakeside Baptist Church will have the great joy of hosting Christian actor B. J. Johnston, who travels the country performing a one-man play on the life of John Wesley titled “The Man from Aldersgate”, on Thursday, December 9, from 7:oo – 8:00 pm.  John Wesley, born in 1703, is generally credited (along with his brother, Charles) as the founder of the Methodist church.  However, his contribution to church history is even more significant than this, and continues to inspire Christians from many denominations to pursue holiness and biblical faithfulness in their daily walk with the Lord.  John Wesley rode over 250,000 miles on horseback to bring spiritual renewal to the English-speaking world of his day, and through B. J. Johnston’s dramatic presentation, taken from the journals of Wesley himself, the powerful, Christ-glorifying words of John Wesley can be heard again in our day.  Please make every effort to join us for this very special presentation.  The event is free and open to all, though free-will donations will be accepted after the performance.  For additional information about the presentation, please visit B. J. ‘s website at www.kareproductions.com.

Let me begin by saying that Karen and I are absolutely delighted to be here with you at Lakeside Baptist Church!  You have all been so very kind to us, and we can already see that we will be building some truly lasting relationships with many of you.  So, thank you, for your faithfulness to the Lord, your love for people, and the kindness that you’ve already shown to the two of us.  May EVERY person who visits our church feel as blessed by the sweet spirit that indwells the active members of this church family!

Now, please allow me to offer a few “quick” updates for visitors who might want to see what we’ve been up to lately, or hear what we have coming up in the next few weeks….

October 31 was a big day in the life of our church…but NOT because everybody was running out to dress up in crazy costumes and gather candy!  Instead, we had the joy of seeing God move in some very wonderful ways throughout the day.  First, during the Sunday School hour, we had a community breakfast along with our quarterly business meeting.  The meeting provided some excellent updates, gave everyone a chance to hear about the physical improvements that will be happening to our church building this month (carpeting our “Blue Room”, painting the walls by the front entrance, etc.), and gave opportunity for some fruitful dialogue about our church budget, which we hope to have finalized and approved by the church within the next couple of months (Anybody who has specific recommendations or thoughts about our proposed church budget for 2011 which you would like to have considered, please submit this in writing to the church office by November 21st.).

Our morning worship service that day called attention – NOT to “Halloween” – but to the REAL holiday worth celebrating, “Reformation Sunday”!  I was deeply honored to be able to share a couple of my own readings during the service about the rich and exciting historical movement known as “The Protestant Reformation”, which played a significant role in helping all of our Protestant denominations (including ours!) eventually come to exist.  Our sermon, however, was by our distinguished guest preacher, Dr. Jim Lacy, who shared a powerful and challenging message (which, sadly, all churches need to hear) on the topic of overcoming conflict within the church.

In lieu of the evening service on October 31, we held our evangelistic outreach to the community, known as “Trunk or Treat” – and it could hardly have been a greater success (Thanks to everyone who assisted with this special event!)!  In addition to having around 15 “trunks” from which TONS of candy was given out, we also offered face painting, balloon animals, a couple of “ball toss” games…and even had a real life race car that people were invited to look at, climb into, and take pictures of.  In the span of a mere two hours, we had WELL over 200 people come by (and possibly as many as 300!).  Throughout the night, we were able to show the community that we cared enough about them to do something like this.  Everyone had fun, and many of our guests heard the gospel clearly presented.  Needless to say, we’re already discussing our plans to host this event again NEXT year!

Finally, this past Sunday, we celebrated the Lord’s Supper together as a church, and I had the great joy of preaching the sermon.  For my message, I shared from Ephesians 4:1-16, focusing on the theme of “Membership in the Body of Christ”.  A single sermon can only begin to scratch the surface of what the Bible says about being the church, but hopefully God’s Word was proclaimed faithfully – I sure was blessed to have the privilege of preaching it!

This month, of course, we encourage everybody to give serious thought to all of the things that they are thankful for, and – as our annual Thanksgiving holiday draws near – to be ever mindful of who exactly we’re to be giving our thanks and praise to!  We’re all pretty good at knowing what we’re thankful for, but we often forget to give thanks unceasingly to our Lord, from whom EVERY good gift comes into our lives!  So, let’s all remember this over the coming weeks (and EVERY week!), and celebrate the great things that He’s doing in each of our lives…as well as the great things that He continues to do at Lakeside Baptist Church!  Blessings to all of you – and thank you for your faithfulness to the Lord, and your support of this church family.  May we all grow closer to Him as we contemplate the numerous ways that thanks are due to Him!

During the month of October we will be looking more in depth on the subject of “Worship.”  Why focus the preaching on this subject?  First of all, because God commands worship and we should desire to learn what God expects from His children as they gather together each week at what is called the “worship service.”  Second, we should focus on the subject of worship because the Scriptures have much to say about it.  As we claim the Bible as our only source and guide for life, what it says about worship is paramount to our understanding of it.  Third, giving to God His worth is the best way for us to find true satisfaction and joy.  If Jesus is truly our Supreme Treasure, nothing should give us greater pleasure than to make much of Him.

One of the most practical and informative books I’ve read on the subject of worship is by well know author and teacher, Warren Wiersbe.  I’d like to share a portion of his book, Real Worship, where he explores the “Invitation to Worship”[i]:

• We worship God because He is worthy and not because we as worshippers get something out of it.  If we look upon worship only as a means of getting something from God, rather than giving something to God, then we make god our servant instead of our Lord, and the elements of worship become a cheap formula for selfish gratification. . . . Worshiping God with a wrong motive can be as deadening as worshiping a false god with a sincere motive.  Both are wrong, but certainly the enlightened Christian faces a greater judgment than the sincere pagan.  After all, we know the God we worship! We know that we live in His world and that we bear His image; and as believers, we know that we belong to His family.  We have His revelation in His Word and the personal instruction of His Spirit.  Believers who have a commercial approach to worship have certainly forgotten these truths and have turned God into a celestial Servant who rewards them for faithful worship.  Satan accused Job of being that kind of worshiper.

• We worship God because He is worthy and because He has commanded us to worship Him. . . . “Through worship man comes to God at first hand, has an immediate experience with God, and goes forth transformed and stimulated to new levels of endeavor.”[ii]

May we all commit ourselves afresh to worshiping God with our whole heart, mind, and strength.  And may our greatest joy and satisfaction be found in Him alone.

Worshiping our Great God with you,

Pastor Leslie

[ii] Albert W. Palmer in Paths to the Presence of God, quoted in Thomas S. Kepler, comp., The Fellowship of the Saints (New York: Abington-cokesbury, 1948), p. 680.

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.

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.

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