You Are Gifted

>>  BLOG Saturday, January 16, 2016 Jeff Lampl A Month of Spiritul Renewal   You Are Gifted A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 1 Corinthians 12:7 Tomorrow Pastor Gary begins teaching a one session course called Connect.   It is the hope of your leadership team that every one of you in the CLC family will take this one session course.   It is designed to be a springboard for your thinking and dreaming about how God can use your giftedness for the sake of building his Kingdom on earth, edifying and building up others and at the very same time enlivening your faith in way that it has never been enlivened before.    This one session class will be offered at 5 different times:   Tomorrow at 9:00 and 10:30.   Next Sunday, the 24th at 9:00 and 10:30, and Wednesday the 27th at 7:00 pm.    Some of you have taken gifts inventories in the past.   If so I encourage you to do so again. Sometimes our giftedness changes based on our life experiences, spiritual growth, and God's work within us.   As you take the inventory ask God to reveal to you his heart for your place of service.    The assessment is only a tool, a guide, a place of departure for experimentation in serving others in your areas of strength, passion, ability and giftedness.    Mostly importantly, whatever gift God has given you, think of it as the Israelites thought of the manna they received for food in the desert.   The manna could not be stored or held over for the future.   It had to be used or it was wasted.   Not using our gifts for God and others has a way of working against us. We become corroded from the inside out. Conversely using them as God intended in the "now" of our lives makes us alive as never before.   Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Others of you will discover this truth when you've jumped into your God-led area of service.    "Lord, I want to know the feeling of being fully alive because of and through you.   Your word tells us that when we give ourselves over to you and your purpose for us, it is then that we find true selves.   Lord, lead me into your purpose for my life, regardless of the cost. Amen"     Comment For more:           follow on Twitter @jefflampl             This is a regular communication from Christian Life Center. If you would like to add, modify, or delete your email address from this list please email us at clcfamily125@gmail.com  Christian Life Center 125 Saginaw Road, New London Twp., PA  19352

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A Month of Spiritual Renewal

>>  BLOG Friday, January 15, 2016 Jeff Lampl   A Month of Spiritual Renewal "I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you" 2 Timothy 1:6 I and all of us on your leadership team are hoping that each of you are in the process of renewing your faith for 2016 and beyond.  God accepts each of us "where we are" but does not leave us where he found us.  His goal is to grow us up.  To that end it is our hope and prayer that you choose to do the following through January 24 as a way to "prime the pump" of your spiritual growth. Attend worship each Sunday:  If you have missed either of the first two Sundays please visit our website and listen to the messages.  They are extremely important for your spiritual health. Pray the 21 days of prayers.  You can get them via text here. Renew your membership.  More on why in tomorrow's post. Connect and serve by attending one of the Connect Classes taught by Pastor Gary at both Sunday services on Jan 17 and 24 and also on Wed, Jan 27 @ 7pm.  Please download and complete the Spiritual Gifts Assessment prior to attending the class. On January 24 renew your baptism vows and attend the CLC family luncheon immediately after the second service.  Lord, thank you for this opportunity to renew my faith in you, my service for you and my commitment to the CLC family.  Please Lord, help me to stay on the path of loving and serving you.  I desire so much for 2016 to be a year I can look back on and say, "I experienced You more deeply and more profoundly than ever before. Amen"      Comment For more:           follow on Twitter @jefflampl             This is a regular communication from Christian Life Center. If you would like to add, modify, or delete your email address from this list please email us at clcfamily125@gmail.com  Christian Life Center 125 Saginaw Road, New London Twp., PA  19352

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Biblical Community - The Real Social Network

>>  BLOG Thursday, January 14, 2016 Megann Graf   Biblical Community   Pastor Jeff has been doing several blogs on the topic of "why church membership?" He asked me to keep that theme as I write this week. This might one of the easier topics to write about! We came to this church about 10 years ago. Neither my husband or I have family in the immediate area, and it soon became clear that this church was a body of believers that we could not only worship with, but that we could come to trust and count on in times of need. I will be honest, we "joined" the church because we wanted to have our daughter baptized, and you had to be a member in order to do that.   So, we went to the new members class, met a few more new people, stood up before the church, and then we had our daughter baptized. It could have easily been the end of our church involvement story. But, thankfully, God opened more and more doors for us to come to know people at the church and really start feeling like we belonged. The church provided so many opportunities for us to see the love of Christ. The people in KidZone loved our kids and were always excited to see them. In fact, when our son was hospitalized as an infant, it was a nursery worker who was close with my older child (who was a toddler then) who came into the hospital to sit with us one Sunday afternoon, because she had heard at church that day that he was still admitted and would be there a little longer. She came straight from church. She brought us balloons and a smile. And, I will always remember that. We began getting involved in different small groups, which really helped us start to connect with others on a deeper and more personal level. If you have never jumped into a small group, I encourage you to try it out. It can be uncomfortable at first, and I know for many, it definitely is out of your normal comfort zone, but the benefits far outweigh the initial awkwardness. When Pastor Gary talked about our safety net and what people would be there for you, I immediately thought of my friends from home group. I have some sisters in Christ who are praying up a storm right now for my family and some situations we have.   I know if I called out in a crisis, these women would be there with a safety net, and probably food too! While we laugh and have a lot of fun together as a group, we know that these are people in our lives who will come together and support us when we are in need.   As we continue in this month of renewal, I encourage you to look for ways that the church can or does help you. Look for ways that you can or do help the church. Really, these are not separate things. We are the church. Our membership is a commitment, not a piece of paper. And that's because, as a body of believers, relationships are increasingly important to our relationship with Christ. Loving others can certainly be messy. But, I can tell you that when you're the mess that needs some help, you'll be glad to have some folks in your corner, speaking the truth in love to you and speaking the God's truth over your situation to you. That's something the world cannot offer.      Comment     For more:           follow on Twitter @jefflampl                   This is a regular communication from Christian Life Center. If you would like to add, modify, or delete your email address from this list please email us at clcfamily125@gmail.com    Christian Life Center 125 Saginaw Road, New London Twp., PA  19352

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Willingness

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Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Jeff Lampl

 

Mary said, "I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to do whatever he wants.

May everything you said come true."

Luke 1:38 (TLB)

 

 But Paul answered, "Why are you crying and breaking my heart?

I am not only willing to be put in jail for the Lord Jesus.

 I am even willing to die for him in Jerusalem!"

Acts 21:13 (CEV)

 

On the Sunday before last I compared total surrender to the Lord to wedding vows.   Total surrender is not like getting a set of marching orders and trying by your own effort to follow them to a "t".   Rather total surrender is more like wedding vows and living them out in marriage, where perfection is not the goal, rather sustained relationship and loyalty to your spouse "until death do you part" is goal. 

 

No spouse carries out vows perfectly, no spouse is the quintessence or epitome of loyalty, no spouse fails to fail the other somehow, sometime.   No spouse is ever without need of forgiveness and restoration of relationship with the other.   In this way, no spouse has to live feeling like a failure in marriage because success in marriage is not measured by doing everything right, rather by staying in the marriage, forgiving, receiving forgiveness, continually starting over, recognizing that it isn't the quality of my love that holds the marriage together, rather it is the strength of my marriage that makes my love such that it can be continually renewed.

 

Our total commitment to the Lord is like that but with one huge difference.   In my "weddedness" to the Lord, it is His faithfulness to me that holds our "wedded eternal surrender to one another" together (Yes it all started with the surrender of His life for the rescue of mine).    

 

In other words I am safe in surrendering my life to Him.  Safe from the need for self-condemnation.  Safe from the need to feel the debilitating guilt of failing Him or breaching loyalties.     Personally I am fully aware that I do fail Christ.  I know that I am a terrible spouse of His, yet in all my failures, my desire to love Him better grows and even becomes more effective as I come to experience more and more deeply His faithfulness to me.

 

Therefore, back to the prayer of yesterday's post

 

"I pray that I do not even desire to be secure (in this world),

 to be in control (of my life or the lives of others),

 nor to be esteemed by men."

 

That prayer implies a willingness that I must cultivate.  Perhaps the kind of willingness that sets us free to live on the things of heaven is captured in the following prayer.

 

"Lord, I am willing to pray 'teach me the lessons I need to learn that decouple me from the securities provided by job or any other earthly attachment.

"Lord I am willing to relinquish any, any at all, any holding on to control in my job, control over what I want, control in my family, anywhere in my life.   Show me Lord the difference between my needing control and the responsibility you have given me to be a humble steward of that with which you have entrusted me.

"Lord I am willing, by whatever means you determine, to live on the fuel of Your esteem me, regardless of achievements, successes or "wins".  

Lord I am willing to accept the loss of the "esteem of men" on which so much of my life has been based

Lord I am willing to enter the new world of living the so very foreign but so very freeing words of Psalm 23:1

"Because You are my Shepherd, I have everything I need"

Amen

 

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Freedom and Joy

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Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Jeff Lampl

 

Freedom and Joy

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Galatians 5:1 (NIV2011)

 

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Philippians 4:4 (NIV2011)

 

On Sunday, January 3, I gave a message that I said was the most important message I had ever given.   That's a really big claim, but I still can't think of anything I've ever said that's more important than what I said then.  I hope you listen to it on our website if you weren't there.

 

In the picture above you see an eagle soaring on the currents of the wind.   Wind and Holy Spirit are the same word in both biblical Greek and Hebrew.   It's a picture of the Christian Life . . . .soaring, be carried by God.

 

The two passages above speak of freedom and of rejoicing.   Both verses speak of God in Christ as the source of freedom and joy.   That's easy to say and write and to believe cerebrally, isn't it?   Not so easy in practice.

 

My New Year's goal?  It is live on the fuel of God's love and provision for me and my loved ones, regardless of circumstances.   I am seeking whatever it takes to experience joy and freedom in Christ alone, whether by willful choice or by submissive reception.    I seek to live on the fuel of the things of heaven, of the Kingdom of God, not on the temporal highs of this fleeting world.

 

I want so much to know joy and freedom while I am experiencing the "fellowships of Christ's sufferings (Phil 3:10), when my prayers (seemingly) go unanswered, when the worst is upon me and I don't see the light in the darkness.   It is then, we are told in the scriptures, (ex: Psalm 23:1) that the things of heaven are still available to me.  

 

So I am practicing.   Faith does not just happen.  It takes practice.   My current practice entails praying this prayer (below) and allowing it to guide what is happening in my heart and mind as I live out each of my days.  It was given to me years ago by a friend and it has now taken hold of my heart.

 

"I pray that I do not even desire to be secure (in this world),

 to be in control (of my life or the lives of others),

 nor to be esteemed by men."

 

Can you imagine making this your prayer as well?

 

 

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CLC Life Cafe begins THIS Wednesday, Jan 13

 

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Annual Spiritual Checkup

>>  BLOG Saturday, January 9, 2016 Jeff Lampl   "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments."   Matthew 22:37-40   NOTE:  As some of you know, I follow the work of the CS Lewis Institute in Washington DC.   Each year they send this Spiritual Checkup to all of it's followers.   It's longer than most of you will probably take time for, but may I suggest that you skim the categories, select one that God may prompt you to work on in 2016, and then "click" on one of the articles in that category and read it, allowing God to speak into you what will help you most know Him in that area in 2016?    God wants to give you Himself.  May 2016 be the most Christ-centered year of your life so far.   In Christ, Jeff   "Lord please guide my review of the following opportunity to allow you  to prompt me to grow more and more into Christlikeness in this coming year, 2016.   Thank you Lord, for always pursuing me!  Amen" Annual Spiritual Checkup    Comment     For more:           follow on Twitter @jefflampl                   This is a regular communication from Christian Life Center. If you would like to add, modify, or delete your email address from this list please email us atclcfamily125@gmail.com    Christian Life Center 125 Saginaw Road, New London Twp., PA  19352

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