The Big Dig (VBS 2011)

This is the video we made from our summer VBS (2011) where we taught our children about God's creation (called: The Big Dig). There were 14 children that put their trust in Jesus Christ and 9 of those were baptized. We had a high attendance day of more than 250. All glory to God for this powerful time to impact our children with creation TRUTH that counters the evolutionary theories they hear every day.

Dreaming Great Dreams

There is a common experience for those who dream of doing great things for God's glory. This can best be called the: "The Six Stages of Faith." There may be the occasion when you go from the "Dream Stage" to the "Deliverance Stage" without passing through the other stages, but it will be rare. Most of our dreams are realized as we grow in faith and learn to wait on God.

Stage #1: Dream Stage
God gives you a dream...an idea, goal, or ambition. It's bigger than you and greater than you can accomplish alone...it's a Good-sized dream. All great accomplishments begin with a dream.


"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20)


Stage #2: Decision Stage
The difference between dreamers and doers is "decision." This is where you determine to invest your time, money, energy, and reputation in your dream. You can't be "double-minded" about it. You must be willing to step out and sever your ties of security to follow the dream. 


"But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." (James 1:6-8)


Stage #3: Delay Stage
Delays are not denials. There is a difference between God saying, "no" and "not yet." This is the period when God is teaching you to trust Him, even when you can't see the outcome.


"For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry." (Habakkuk 2:3)


Stage #4: Difficulty Stage
The two most common problems during this stage are the CRITICS and the CIRCUMSTANCES. You can't expect everyone to agree or understand your dream. This is YOUR dream from God, but you can be sure your critics will want to share in the fruits of your dream once it has been realized.


Noah and Nehemiah had plenty of nay-sayers and their circumstances seemed impossible, but they pressed on (believing God) to see their dream realized.


"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ..." (1 Peter 1:6-7)


Stage #5: Dead-End Stage
As hard as it is to imagine, your situation may get worse before your dream is realized. It may well seem impossible to accomplish, but this places you on the verge of a miracle. God gave you the dream and He wants the glory for its accomplishment.


"For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead..." (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)


Stage #6: Deliverance Stage
Crucifixion becomes resurrection and death becomes life. Miraculously everything falls into place and God is glorified as your dream is realized.


I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13)


If God has given you a dream then never give up and never give in to apathy, indifference, and/or despondency. Keep pressing forward to see how God will transform your dream into reality. Then be sure to give Him the glory because it all rightfully belongs to Him!!

Return to Eden

You are invited to join us for our next "Return to Eden" class on marriage. Sometimes you have to "go back to Eden" in order to go forward in your marriage. It's a journey you won't forget or regret. Call our church office if you'd like to get more information or email j.shaffer@lmbc.org to reserve your spot in the next class.

Our Thirty-fifth Wedding Anniversary

Our First Sunday at LMBC (12/05/82)

Mary and I celebrate our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary today, August 13, 2011. It seems like just yesterday that I was waiting for her to step through the back door of our church to walk down the isle to become my wife. She was (and still is) the most beautiful bride I have ever seen!! In the middle of the ceremony we turned to the congregation and together we sang, "To Be Used of God," which was (and is) the testimony of our lives. I know that sounds archaic and/or romantically lacking to some, but it sure beats a lot of the overtly secular ideas that are used in weddings today. Our overwhelming desire was to honor God and to show others that we lived for a higher purpose than our own selfish ambitions. Make no mistake about it, it was an incredibly romantic ceremony, but we were careful that ALL we did honored God and reflected our high view of Him.

To my sweet wife of thirty-five years...thank you for sharing your life with me so selflessly and with such passion. There is not, nor will there ever be a woman I'd rather spend the remainder of my life sharing the joys of marriage. You are a gift from God that displays His matchless grace to me and without you in my life I simply would not be complete. You are beautiful, talented, filled with life and the most wonderful spiritual partner I could have on this journey of life. If we can spend seventy years together loving one another and loving our God it will still be too short a time for me. I sometimes get really busy caring for others in the work that we do, but I will never let any other person stand in the way of my caring for you! Aside from our Lord Himself, there is no one that I think about or want to spend more time with...THAN YOU!! I pray that God will give us thirty-five more years to share our lives as "one." And, I've asked Him that when the day comes for us to leave this world to take our trip to Heaven's shore that He will let us go together so we will never have to be apart. You are the love of my life and my gift from God above.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SWEET DARLING!!! I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!!


"He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love." (Song of Solomon 2:4)

Relief for Alabama -- by Dan Londeree, Asst. Pastor

On Thursday, July 14, 25 teenagers and five adults boarded the Lewis Memorial bus and hit the road. Twelve hours and 500 miles later, they reached their destination: storm-ravaged Pleasant Grove,Alabama.      

     While this year's missions trip was not completely unlike past teen missions trips, it did present a different type of opportunity to serve Christ. For two days, God led this group to form a bond with Mary Freebird, an 85-year-old widow whose home was severely damaged in the storms that blasted the south in late April.

     Matt McClay, who partnered with David O'Dell to help lead the trip, described the damage to Mary's home and the difficult financial circumstances she faced.

     "During the storm, her roof was blown off and her windows were smashed in," McClay said. "Her home sustained major water damage, which meant she needed someone to strip the house down and basically start from scratch. She was underinsured, so she didn't have the money to restore the house. The bank forced her to use her insurance money to pay her loan off. She had very little insurance money left to pay for restoring her home."

     Mary is a widow of 35 years and simply didn't have the money or resources she needed to put her home - and her life - back together. McClay said the teens and adults on the trip knew God's hand was at work when He placed them in Mary's home.

     "We didn't know who we would be assigned to," he said. "We worked with a loosely-knit organization of churches that came together to help uninsured or underinsured residents of the area. Doug Hodges' son, Marc, helped us connect with this group, which was on the ground before FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and is continuing to work after FEMA has left.

     "We prayed that God would give us a person we could reach out to; someone we could invest in. And God gave us Mary. We were reminded of James 1:27, where God tells us to care for the widows and the orphans. It was amazing how the Lord worked out the details, because many groups are split up and then moved from place to place, but they let our group stay on one project until we finished it. This allowed us to spend that time with Mary."

     McClay said Mary is a Christian who has served the Lord through teaching in Christian schools. He said helping her allowed the teens to serve God by working with their hands.

     "This type of work fits into our teenagers' skill sets," he said. "They love to work with their hands and are very experienced in manual labor. They have done roofing and construction on previous trips."

     McClay said the focus for the group was to strip the house down to the rafters and walls, and then get it under roof. The plan was to do this so that Mary could use the money she had left to hire contractors to handle the drywall, plumbing and electrical work. The teens pulled floors up, removed the old plumbing and wiring, and even rebuilt the roof.

     "While the group had some experience in this type of work, we still saw God empower many of them to do things in skills they didn't really have time to aquire before the trip," McClay said. "They were cutting angles on sheeting and framing, and they did a great job. Some of the teens who had a fear of dirt and germs broke apart sewer pipes."

     The work God accomplished through the teenagers stood as a witness to a local contractor.

     "We did have the opportunity to interact and witness to a contractor who showed up," McClay said. "This man was a roofer and he was astounded by how well our guys were doing and how professional their work was. That gave me a chance to tell him about other missions trips we've taken and how these teens have acquired skills to be used for God, and how they can share God's love by serving."

     Before any work could be accomplished - even before the teens boarded the bus to make the trip to Alabama - group leaders helped the teenagers prepare their hearts for what awaited them.

     "We asked the teens to leave their baggage at home," McClay said. "We told them to leave everything they had been dealing with at home and dedicate this weekend to serving God. We also needed to prepare them for what they were about to see. Anytime you see devastation like that you reevaluate your life and priorities."

     That spiritual preparation led to more growth while the group served Christ in Alabama.

     "During the devotion time each night we saw the group grow closer together," he said. "We saw some teens make lasting friendships, and others make big changes in their life that they needed to make to grow closer to God."

     These teens and adults experienced spiritual growth while serving their Savior, and they have been used to share the truth that with God, all things are possible.         

Is Christianese Always Bad? --by Laura Ziesel

I read this article recently and felt it made a very important point and wanted to share it with you. I asked Laura Ziesel (through her father-in-law) if she would grant me permission to re-post her thoughts on my blog for you to read. You can find the original article on Relevant Magazine's site, as well as read more of Laura's thoughts on other topics at her own blog site simply by clicking on the highlighted links. Hope you find this article as refreshing as I did! I love it when the generation coming behind us speaks with wisdom and clarity.

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How we can redeem the value of our spiritual jargon.

As is natural in all subcultures, Christians have developed dialects. Christians (Protestants and Catholics, clergy and laymen) use many terms non-Christians would not understand. Well, perhaps more often than not outsiders understand us—but we simply look odd. One of the biggest grievances against Christian culture is our bubble-like tendency. We can genuinely hurt the cause of Christ when we create holy huddles, only experiencing the world through our own eyes or the eyes of other Christians.

I've heard many people refer to this phenomenon as "speaking Christianese."

Some great examples of Christianese:

"Break bread together" vs. "Eating together"
"Testimony" vs. "Story" or "Account"
"Caused me to stumble" vs. "Was hurtful to me"
"Felt convicted" vs. "Felt bad" or "Felt remorse"

I hate to admit it, but lately I've found myself thinking in Christianese a lot more than normal. And this has me questioning my hatred of it. Upon giving Christianese a second look, here are a few solid reasons as to why it's not so horrible.

Born out of Scripture

Yes, we have Christian subcultures of all sorts: Baptist, Catholic, hipster, straight edge. But our Christian dialect is not born simply out of our subcultures; it is mostly born out of our holy Scriptures.

A large part of why Christianese is coming to my mind these days is that I have been editing a Bible commentary for nearly 10 months now. I spend most of my days reading Scripture and editing words about Scripture. And, to be frank, being over-steeped in Scripture is pretty hard to accomplish. Joshua 1:8a says, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night." That's a high bar to meet in terms of Scripture saturation, and I still don't think I've hit it.
If we, readers of the holy words of God, mingle the modern American vernacular with Scripture, I'm not so sure we should guilt ourselves about it; it's a result of time well spent feeding off of God's Word.

No Other Words

Sometimes we have no words of our own. Sometimes we are unable to form coherent thoughts and put words to feelings. This is a common occurrence during grief. During a hard break-up in college, I struggled to vocalize my feelings. I listened to a lot of Fiona Apple that summer; her album Extraordinary Machine gave words to my grief, an extremely important thing for me. While listening to her album was important to the process of grief, it didn't help me move through the grief. A dear friend simply said to me, "I think it would help if you stopped listening to Fiona Apple so much." I laughed, but he was right; I needed to focus on truth instead of simply what I was feeling. Scripture is valuable during grief because we can find expressions of grief among the words, but they are rooted in truth and hope.

After going through a miscarriage this spring, T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland ran through my mind a lot, but I longed for Scripture to reclaim the dominant place in my mind. And eventually, it did. Once I was able to borrow the words of Scripture to express my grief, I thought and spoke in Christianese a lot. But you know what? I finally had words—and I had words that were both helpful and true. Maybe I sounded like an 80-year-old church lady—but  I didn't care.

A Deeper Meaning

Sometimes the Christian way of saying something holds a different or more complex meaning that cannot otherwise be expressed easily.

When we say breaking bread is an important part of community, we don't simply mean eating together. Breaking bread holds more meaning. It carries connotations of sharing, giving, receiving, honesty and laughter. Likewise, "to feel convicted" is different than "to feel guilty" or "to make a decision." The word "conviction" implies an outside party, the Holy Spirit, has intervened and influenced your thoughts and feelings. That sense of external interference is not implied easily using normal terminology.

We’ve all seen how Christianese can be misused, abused and overused. Let’s strive to use it properly and passionately, in a way that communicates the heart of God like no other words can.

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Laura Ziesel is a seminary student at Azusa Pacific University and a freelance writer and editor living in sunny California with her husband. She blogs on matters of faith, gender, church culture and more at www.lauraziesel.com. She is also a contributing writer for The Redemptive Pursuit, a weekly devotional for women.