Re:group

Blog »    Wednesday, January 22, 2014   Jeff Lampl

“Our  bodies have many parts, but the many parts make up only one body when they are all put together. So it is with the "body" of Christ. ¹³  Each of us is a part of the one body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But the Holy Spirit has fitted us all together into one body. We have been baptized into Christ’s body by the one Spirit, and have all been given that same Holy Spirit."
                                                                    1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (TLB)  

Check out the list below.  It’s great isn’t it?  So many people, all serving and growing in Christ in so many different ways, each blessed in their serving, giving and growing.   On Sunday I hope you take the time to check out every group immediately following the 9:00 service.   You’ll get to know others, and you’ll have a grasp of all that God is doing so that you will be able to tell others what is available for them.   Sometimes all it takes is knowledge of what’s available and a simple suggestion, invitation, or word of information to be the crucial link in the chain that connects another to Jesus.   Do you have an idea for a group that would honor God and edify others?  Just let us know!

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Your Renewal of Membership

Blog »    Your Renewal of Membership  

Tuesday, January 21, 2014    Jeff Lampl

On Sunday each of us will have the opportunity not only to renew our baptism vows, but also to renew our commitment to the CLC Family as full blown active members!  

In addition to the meanings of baptism explained in yesterday’s blog, baptism also implies becoming an inseparable  member of a local Body of believers, which the Bible calls the “Body of Christ”.   The Body of Christ is a family and that family always functions locally (as well as globally)  in a way that demonstrates to onlookers an uncommonly deep and loving unity not found in other  organized communities.      

“Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian”
                                                                                   Ephesians 2:19 (TLB)
          
“Each of us is a part of the one body of Christ.  . . . .  baptized into Christ’s body by the one Spirit, and have all been given that same Holy Spirit.
                                                                                  1 Corinthians 12:13 (TLB)

For this reason you will have the opportunity this Sunday to recommit yourself to membership in the CLC Family.  Members are those who can be counted on to be present in worship, to grow and serve in their calling within and   through the church and to represent Christ as a joyful and happy member of the CLC family.   Below is the Membership Covenant which will be in each bulletin on Sunday.   Take some time to review and pray over it so that your recommitment on Sunday will hold deep and lasting meaning for you.    Read each line carefully so that when you sign the card, you know what you’re signing up for!

 

If you choose to sign the membership commitment but  have never become a member  it is still necessary to attend our New Members Orientation.   Our next orientation will be held Sunday February 10^th from noon until 3:30.    Lunch and Childcare are provided.   You can register via email, our website, clcfamily.net or by calling the church office   610-869-2140.

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Sunday's Baptism Renewal

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Sunday will be a very special day!!  

We will worship at 9:00 and after worship we will have the opportunity to browse the 50+ Community, Service and Outreach Groups of CLC and plug into where God’s place of belonging and growth for each of us in 2014
will be.  

The Message will be God’s Greatest Adventure.   At the conclusion of the message you will have the opportunity to renew your baptismal vows if you wish.   Here’s what doing so means.  

1.   Baptism means “to immerse”.   The water on your forehead will symbolize your having been immersed in the cleansing waters of God’s forgiveness and your having emerged cleansed, forgiven, and in God’s eyes “just-as-if-you-never-sinned”.  The old is gone and the new has come.  

       “Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism.
       When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of
       the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! That's what
       baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of
       Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is
       raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new
       grace-sovereign country. Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the Cross with
       Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we
       believe is this:  we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his
       life-saving resurrection."            Romans 6:3-8 (MSG)  

2.   Baptism renewal is much like the renewal of your wedding vows.   It is a recommitment to the one I have chosen to love forever.    But it is also a remembering.   It is remembering that the one to Whom you are recommitting is the one who Himself has made a covenant in His own blood to never leave or forsake you.    Philippians 3:12b relates this to how we should live on a daily basis.  

3.   It is also a sign of who you are, your actual identity.   You were born into a family and given a last name.   In Baptism you were reborn into a new family whose Father is God.   Your baptism is the sign or marker that you are a son or daughter of God and that your ultimate home will on the New Earth with God your Father and Christ, your Brother, Savior, and Lord.  

Baptism is not magic.   The acts of initial baptism and baptism renewal are signs.   They are the sign and symbol of what God has done for you, is doing for you, will do for you and, ultimately, will have done for you.   It’s all God.   Therefore baptism is a sign that you proudly wear by living in gratitude to God who has first loved and chosen you.  

Pretty amazing isn’t it?   I’m looking forward to being with you on Sunday!  

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When God Whispers Your Name

  Blog »    When God Whispers Your Name
  Friday, January 17, 2014   Jeff Lampl 

“the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,"
Galatians 5:22  

The Following meditation from Max Lucado is worth reading slowly.   Perhaps that’s what you need most in your life . . . . slowing . . . . slowing long enough so that you can hear, so that God can a word in edgewise.   Jeff

IT’S QUIET. It’s early. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is still asleep. The day is coming.
In a few moments the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be exchanged for the noise of the day. The calm of solitude will be replaced by the pounding pace of the human race. The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met.
For the next twelve hours I will be exposed to the day’s demands. It is now that I must make a choice. Because of Calvary, I’m free to choose. And so I choose.
I choose love . . .
No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.
I choose joy . . .
I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical . . . the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.
I choose peace . . .
I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.
I choose patience . . .
I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing the one who takes my place, I’ll invite him to do so. Rather than complain that the wait is too long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clinching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.
I choose kindness . . .
I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.
I choose goodness . . .
I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness.
I choose faithfulness . . .
Today I will keep my promises. My debtors will not regret their trust. My associates will not question my word. My wife will not question my love. And my children will never fear that their father will not come home.
I choose gentleness . . .
Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.
I choose self-control . . .
I am a spiritual being. After this body is dead, my spirit will soar. I refuse to let what will rot, rule the eternal. I choose self-control. I will be drunk only by joy. I will be impassioned only by my faith. I will be influenced only by God. I will be taught only by Christ. I choose self-control.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek his grace. And then, when this day is done, I will place my head on my pillow and rest.  

From When God Whispers Your Name 
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1994) Max Lucado

An Audience of One

  Blog »    An Audience of One  

Thursday, January 16, 2014   Jeff Lampl

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore . . . . ”
Matthew 28:19-20   

The following devotional from Michael Youseff was sent to me recently.   I hope that it helps to solidify your hope in Jesus and the world over which He has all authority.  I also hope that it helps you to place the purpose of your day to day living in the context of God’s Big Story.  

Listening to most of the pundits and tea-leaf readers, you might think that 2014 will follow a doomsday scenario. I don’t know who is right and who is wrong, but I am looking forward to experiencing the coming year through the eyes of eternity.

For some people, 2014 will be just another uneventful year. For others, it may be joyous and blessed. Still for others, it may bring tragedy and difficult circumstances. That’s how life is and always will be. There is nothing new under the sun.

But when seeing circumstances through God’s eyes—whether they be good or bad, joyful or sorrowful—they are just that: circumstances. What matters to God is how we faithfully persist in serving Him and others.

We press on by focusing on the following facts:

1. God is, and always will be, on His throne. He is working out His plan, and no catastrophic event can change that.
2. God’s power and the power of His Word will continue to work in millions of lives around the world.
3. Like last year and the year before, millions of people will come to Christ, responding to the supernatural love He displayed on the cross.
4. Many of those millions of new Christians will choose to follow Christ with the full knowledge that they are risking their lives.
5. Millions of faithful believers will sacrifice their resources, their health, and even their lives to reach those who are in desperate need.
6. As we begin another year, God will continue to separate His sheep from the goats—meaning He will separate the blessed from the cursed based on faithfulness to Him getting us ready for the final day. 

If I am one of the people to face death this year (or more accurately, enter into the true eternal life), I want to make sure that I do what I have been doing, but with more intensity, more passion, and more faith.

Why?

Because I am primarily concerned with the one and only event that will follow my physical death. It is what I often call the “audience of one.”

You may not believe it, but God will indeed meet each of us after our death. Then, He will ask us to give an account of how we invested the life and resources that He placed in our hands.

Mercifully, God gives us seasons and years so we can take stock of our lives, and when we come up short, we can start anew. This New Year, instead of just ringing out the old and ringing in the new, we all need to do an audit of our lives. We should determine, with God’s help, how we can re-up our purpose for living.

Remember, it is never too late with God.

So whatever the coming year brings, I am re-upping my commitment and my passion. If I know anything about God’s Word, I know He rejoices in our Godly desire, and He will supernaturally empower it to become a reality.

Have a faith-full New Year!

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Is There a Difference Between My Spiritual Life and My Normal Life?

  Blog »    Is There a Difference Between My Spiritual
Life and My Normal Life?

     Wednesday, January 15, 2014   Jeff Lampl

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 
1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV)  

The following reflection is from the CS Lewis Institute . . . .  

Many view life as compartmentalized into two sections-the sacred and the secular. They believe and practice that work and necessary items are done Monday through Saturday, but ministry, that which really matters to God, is done on Sunday. C. S. Lewis addresses this misunderstanding in a sermon on vocation entitled, "Learning in War-Time." He preached this message to students in Oxford in the fall of 1939 soon after Britain had been dragged into World War II. Lewis states,  

"...religion cannot occupy the whole of life in the sense of excluding all our natural activities. For, of course, in some sense, it must occupy the whole of life. There is no question of a compromise between the claims of God and the claims of culture, or politics, or anything else. God's claim is infinite and inexorable. You can refuse it: or you can begin to try to grant it. There is no middle way. Yet in spite of this it is clear that Christianity does not exclude any of the ordinary human activities. St. Paul tells people to get on with their jobs. He even assumes that Christians may go to dinner parties, and, what is more, dinner parties given by pagans. Our Lord attends a wedding and provides miraculous wine. Under the aegis of His Church, and in the most Christian ages, learning and the arts flourish. The solution of this paradox is, of course, well known to you. "Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." All our merely natural activities will be accepted, if they are offered to God, even the humblest: and all of them, even the noblest, will be sinful if they are not. Christianity does not simply replace our natural life and substitute a new one: it is rather a new organization which exploits, to its own supernatural ends, these natural materials. No doubt, in a given situation, it demands the surrender of some, or of all, our merely human pursuits: it is better to be saved with one eye, than, having two, to be cast into Gehanna. But it does this, in a sense, per accidens-because, in those special circumstances, it has ceased to be possible to practice this or that activity to the glory of God. There is no essential quarrel between the spiritual life and the human activities as such... The work of a Beethoven, and the work of a charwoman, become spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of being done humbly "as to the Lord". This does not, of course, mean that it is for anyone a mere toss-up whether he should sweep rooms or compose symphonies. A mole must dig to the glory of God and a cock must crow. We are members of one body, but differentiated members, each with his own vocation. A man's upbringing, his talents, his circumstances, are usually a tolerable index of his vocation." ¹  

It is encouraging to know that God has created each of us with a unique vocation. This calling encompasses not just our church and devotional life, but all of our activities, including our work, family, and social life. God just desires that we do all for His glory.
¹ C.S. Lewis. The Weight of Glory, "Learning in War-Time." Eerdmans: Grand Rapids: 1969, pp.47-49.

 

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Each of Us Matters

Blog »    Each of Us Matters

     Tuesday, January 14, 2014   Jeff Lampl

“God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.. . . . Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."       

                                             1 Corinthians 12:18, 27 (NIV2011)

I hope you take two minutes to watch the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JCm5FY-dEY   and think about its meaning for your life (it’s the one I showed in worship on January 6, and if you were there, I recommend re-watching it.)

There is a sense in which every aspect of life that really matters works just like the video.  One domino impacts the next which impacts the next.   I suspect that if you examine the contours of your life you’ll find that God has orchestrated an improbable set of “falling dominos” to bring you to where you are today. 

Of course this perspective assumes that God has you in mind as his goal and that is true as far as it goes.  But it goes farther.   Your end is not just to be blessed through God’s orchestrations of all of life for your benefit, rather you are blessed to be part of the “chain reaction” to bless others.  That’s the whole point.   Genesis 12 makes that point and the rest of Bible plays that out.

Therefore each of us must remember the incredible responsibility we have to “fall”, be moved by God to touch others, to live beyond ourselves, to be moved not just to be blessed but to bless.   It only takes one selfish or prideful or avoidant domino to stiffen up an not to “fall” and thereby break a chain of blessing that God intends for so many others.

How have you felt God’s Spirit moving to “fall” and impact another, to go beyond yourself and thereby find yourself gifted with playing a part in God’s reaching others for His Kingdom?          

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