The depths of His Love

What do we know about Love? Human love has boundaries, limits, demands,obligations and requirements. We love others because of the favors they can do for us. We love others because of the places they can take us. We love others but not as much as we love others. What is up with our love? Its tainted. But we are to love others the way Jesus loves others. We must take our eyes off of our hearts and love them the way our Heavenly Father loves them. Ephesians 2:1-10 express the depths of God's love. It is so deep v7 says that "he might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable ( limitless, surpassing ) riches of his free Grace...." (amplified version). Did you see those words? God wants to clearly demonstrate his limitless, immeasurable and surpassing Grace to us. Those are attributes of a loving God. We meet people or have friends who love us so much, that they would probably donate a body part or sell thier house for us. Think about this for a moment..... God sent his ONLY Son, Jesus to die for us (John 3:16). Remember, Jesus was with God when they created the heavens and earth (John 1:2),and He is Holy (Leviticus 11:44). Our Heavenly father gave up his beautiful son for us. But heres the good news. In Ephesians chapter 2 it shows us the depths of God's love. Verse 1 breifly explains that we were dead in our sins. Verse 2 speaks about how we walked habitually in the world. How we were following the course and direction of this fallen nature. Obeying Satans lies,schemes and traps. Careless and rebelious opposing Gods way. Verse 3, we were controlled and governed by our fleshly desires and passions. Entangled by thier sick addictions, and possessing corrupted minds. And because of all that, we became Gods wrath. All of us deserve his just judgement. Why? Because we have sinned against a Holy God, we have fallen short of his glory (Romans 3:23). Friends, our sins have seperated us from God. But heres the beauty, in verse 4 reveals his heart. "But God is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us" (NKJV). Because of his never-ending love, and of his immeasurable depths of Grace, God sent his only son to take away our sins. And because of that sacrafice, he have been reconciled to him. Even while were dead in our sins, he continues to forgive us. When we do not love others, he loves us. When we hate our brother or sister. He continues to love us. When we question him. God, the father, still loves us. Remember, he is rich in mercy and full of Grace. Grace means unmerrited favor. Which also means giving us something that we don't deserve. What has he given us? The gift of eternal life. That is something noone else can give. You cannot buy that at a garage sale. You don't have to earn his love, you don't need to work for it. He has already given it to you. We just have to recieve, accept it and then walk in it. As the song goes, "your love is deep, your love is high, your love is long, your love is wide". Come and see that the Lord is good. Come and swim in the depths of his love. Be Blessed

Fellowship

Friday, January 22, 2010, 20 young people gathered at a local house, not for a pool party, or to play a game of Mad Gab, or to decorate someones front lawn with extra soft, 2-ply toilet paper. They gathered together to fellowship. Thats right, fellowship. Not drink booze or tap the beer keg, or play with dads shotgun. But to hangout with other young believers that share the same faith and worship the same God. Out of all the places they could've been, they decided to hang out with other teens at a house where Jesus was the center of attention. Twilight was'nt mentioned, newly purchased cell phones was not a topic of choice, and the latest Tweet did'nt seem to throw anyone off. "To Save a Life" was the movie of choice and we had decided to meet up at a house not to far from the theatre. Once everyone showed up, the house got louder and louder with conversations from the rain being an incovenience, to the place of where they were going to eat at next. But then a drastic change in the evening occured. Once the announcements were done, worship had takin over. The sound of the accoustic guitar, and 2 voices, started to bring the youth into a place of meditation and peace. All of a sudden, they didnt care about what happened 5 minutes earlier, or how hard the rain was pouring. All they wanted to do was worship God. Some sat on the floor, some cried, and the others had thier hands raised. Nothing is greater than seeing a crowd of young people, ranging from 14-18, coming to a place where they dont care about anything else, but worshipping Jesus. They dont want another Taco Bell in town, they dont want a parking space close to the exits at their schools. All they want to do is worship with other young people who love Jesus. It reminds me of a verse in Acts 2:47 "praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved". Through thier worship, it shows that thier hearts belong to the Saviour and noone can take that away from them. They love to fellowship with others who battle the same struggles, they want to be around similar guys and girls who have the same questions they may have. But most importantly, they know the value of fellowship and its reward. We fellowship with God, so we can know him. We fellowship with others, so we can grow in him. Make it a priority to be around others who strengthen you in your faith. Let it be a wing and not a weight. The wing will lift you up while the weight will only bring you down. Surround yourself with wings and you'll never have to worry about the wieght.

Fun-raiser

Last night Josh and Ryan created a video blog for Fusions first official Fun-raiser (say that 10 times) LOL. All I gotta say is that you cant leave these too guys alone together. They have way too much fun. But the purpose of the Fun-raiser is to purchase material and attend conferances and or outings that will equip the youth to strengthen thier faith and encourage others in their walk as well. All items are tax-deductable, and everything donated will go directly to Fusion. You'll see the first video on Sunday, Jan 24th. If you would like to know what you can donate specifically, any type of electronics, DVD players, Ipods, computers and furniture. If you have any questions you can email Josh@Lakeshorecitychurch.com or Ashley@Lakeshorecitychurch.com. By the way, I do realize it's spelled "Fun-raiser", lets have fun serving The King of Kings and never take our focus off of the purpose.
Be blessed!

New Beginnings

There's a new beginning for everything and everyone. We must all at one point, start something new. One stuck out to me the most. The disciples that Jesus chose. Before they witnessed his crucifixtion, before they had thier final meal with him, long before the multitudes came to hear him preach. There had to be a beginning. As I read in the Gospel of Luke chapter 5, I noticed something. Simon Peter,James and John witnessed Jesus speaking to the multitudes from thier boat then shortly afterwards,after catching no fish, Jesus suggests that they cast thier nets to the other side. After a doubtful remark from Peter thinking that they wont catch a thing,he obeys and lowers thier net. And then what, low and behold, they catch so much fish that they call for help and thier nets are breaking. All who were in the boat were astonished. They could not believe thier eyes, it was impossible, how could've that happened? Jesus performed a miracle that was impossible with man, and with God, all things are possible. James, John and Simon Peter could not doubt nor deny what just happend. Then Jesus said to them "Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men" (v10). And then this is what blew me away, after they arrived on land, verse 11 says this "they forsook ALL and followed Him." (emphasis mine). The word forsook means "to leave behind". They left everything! Like everything! Think about that... We cant even leave our cell phones on the desk while we walk to the kitchen. They left EVERYTHING! One question comes to mind. Have we left everything to follow Jesus? We see him transform the hearts of many and we hesitate his ability to heal at times. The one guy who had the most hardened heart is now the guy who leads the prayer team. The girl who loved to sing secular lyrics in karaoke bars is now praising God on the stage on Sunday nights. For these gentlemen, this was the beginning of following Jesus. This was the beginning of seeing more miracles. This was the beginning of letting go of the things that didnt matter, and trusting in Him. Thats what faith is. Hebrews 11:1 says "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is evidence of things we cannot yet see" (NLT). Lets begin to let everything go to follow Jesus. Let us trust in him for the questions and concerns that we have. Let us not lean on our own understanding, but lean on his word. Once we begin to do that, then we can have our new beginning.