I can’t wait for one of my favorite Christmas traditions…honoring the people of LifeBridge who help create the dynamic, thriving community we are! Countless hours every week are given every week to make LifeBridge work, and without the hard work of the people of LifeBridge, we simply would not exist.
I’m excited this year to hear from Pastor G.L. Johnson, who led People’s Church to become the largest community of believers in the Central Valley. He is a tremendous leader and I’m confident that you’ll enjoy him as he is a nationally sought speaker! We are privileged to have him with us on December 9th!!
If you have not signed-up yet, you can do so by replying to this blog with how many people will be attending the banquet. Childcare is provided, and we will begin at 6:30 PM at Grand Occasions.
I can’t wait to see you Sunday as we celebrate what God is doing in your life this week!
I love being your pastor!!
Kevin
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Security and Protection
This past Sunday we kicked off a series called Breakthrough. A lot of people need a breakthrough in their life! I am anticipating that as we kick off 21 days of prayer and fasting this Sunday, that we will experience breakthrough, not just personally, but also in our church.
A key element to receiving breakthough is practicing righteousness, or right living. Getting along with others, handling conflict biblically, and maintaining right relationships with God and others is at the core of being righteous. One can say they are righteous, but if you find broken and strained relationships left behind in the wake of their life, you really have to wonder how righteous they really are! Righteousness is not obeying some external set of religious codes; rather it is a life that is continually being transformed from a thriving relationship with God!!
Here’s what 1 Peter 3:12 says, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." When we are doing our best to living righteously, this verse states that God watches us and listens to us!! This communicates security and protection in a crazy world! When we are confident that God is watching and listening to us, it raises our faith to point where we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God will “Breakthough” into our situation. Where do you need a Breakthough?? Ask God to show how you can become more righteous.
I can’t to see you Sunday as we celebrate our “Breakthrough” God!
I love being your pastor!
Kevin
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Happy Anniversary!!
Last week, Ellen and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary. We are so excited!! Proverbs 18:22 says “The man who finds a wife, finds a treasure, and He receives favor from the Lord.” I can honestly say that I am more in love with her now more than I was 10 years ago, and that I have found my treasure. Not to say I didn’t love her then; I was smitten from the first time we met in a pool! It’s just that my love for her is much deeper and fuller now that we have lived and experienced so much together. The ups and downs during the span of a decade have caused us to grow so much, not just in our relationship with each other, but also in our relationship with God.
This week has prompted me to review our marriage and to look forward to the future. It has caused me to ask the question “Am I the husband that she needs?” and “Am I leading her closer to God?”
One of the strongest purposes of marriage is to reflect the incredible unity and community that is found in the Trinity. The relationship between God as Father, Jesus as Son, and Holy Spirit as Comforter, is the flagship example of how relationships, particularly marriages, should work. Each member of the Trinity works in very distinct ways to accomplish one purpose: the redemption of humankind.
A husband and wife are very different: just ask any guy if he can understand the ways of his wife!!! Even though they are very different, they can accomplish the same purpose: showing the love and power of God through their relationship with each other and their family. A marriage was intended by God to be a real-time example of how God is so powerful. My deepest desire is to love Ellen so well that people would come to know Him!! My prayer that God’s love would be so dominate in my relationship with Ellen that people would be attracted to God.
In what ways can your marriage show how great God is? If you’re not married, how can your closest relationships display the power of God? I would like to challenge you today to take the next step! Feel free to contact me with any prayer requests or challenges that you are facing! Ellen and I would love to pray with you that your marriage would increasingly display the mighty power of God!!!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Happy Anniversary
Last week, Ellen and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary. We are so excited!! Proverbs 18:22 says “The man who finds a wife, finds a treasure, and He receives favor from the Lord.” I can honestly say that I am more in love with her now more than I was 10 years ago, and that I have found my treasure. Not to say I didn’t love her then; I was smitten from the first time we met in a pool! It’s just that my love for her is much deeper and fuller now that we have lived and experienced so much together. The ups and downs during the span of a decade have caused us to grow so much, not just in our relationship with each other, but also in our relationship with God.
This week has prompted me to review our marriage and to look forward to the future. It has caused me to ask the question “Am I the husband that she needs?” and “Am I leading her closer to God?”
One of the strongest purposes of marriage is to reflect the incredible unity and community that is found in the Trinity. The relationship between God as Father, Jesus as Son, and Holy Spirit as Comforter, is the flagship example of how relationships, particularly marriages, should work. Each member of the Trinity works in very distinct ways to accomplish one purpose: the redemption of humankind.
A husband and wife are very different: just ask any guy if he can understand the ways of his wife!!! Even though they are very different, they can accomplish the same purpose: showing the love and power of God through their relationship with each other and their family. A marriage was intended by God to be a real-time example of how God is so powerful. My deepest desire is to love Ellen so well that people would come to know Him!! My prayer that God’s love would be so dominate in my relationship with Ellen that people would be attracted to God.
In what ways can your marriage show how great God is? If you’re not married, how can your closest relationships display the power of God? I would like to challenge you today to take the next step! Feel free to contact me with any prayer requests or challenges that you are facing! Ellen and I would love to pray with you that your marriage would increasingly display the mighty power of God!!!
This week has prompted me to review our marriage and to look forward to the future. It has caused me to ask the question “Am I the husband that she needs?” and “Am I leading her closer to God?”
One of the strongest purposes of marriage is to reflect the incredible unity and community that is found in the Trinity. The relationship between God as Father, Jesus as Son, and Holy Spirit as Comforter, is the flagship example of how relationships, particularly marriages, should work. Each member of the Trinity works in very distinct ways to accomplish one purpose: the redemption of humankind.
A husband and wife are very different: just ask any guy if he can understand the ways of his wife!!! Even though they are very different, they can accomplish the same purpose: showing the love and power of God through their relationship with each other and their family. A marriage was intended by God to be a real-time example of how God is so powerful. My deepest desire is to love Ellen so well that people would come to know Him!! My prayer that God’s love would be so dominate in my relationship with Ellen that people would be attracted to God.
In what ways can your marriage show how great God is? If you’re not married, how can your closest relationships display the power of God? I would like to challenge you today to take the next step! Feel free to contact me with any prayer requests or challenges that you are facing! Ellen and I would love to pray with you that your marriage would increasingly display the mighty power of God!!!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
What the church really should be...
This past week LifeBridge Church produced our 5th Annual Kids Bash. There are so many wins that come out of this event every year, and this year it seemed like the wins were even bigger than previous years.
The biggest win is that more people were added to the Kingdom of God! This is why we do what we do, so that more people might know how incredible God’s love is for them. At the Celebration this past Sunday, many families from outside our church attended, and encountered God in an authentic way.
Another big win is how everyone pulled his or her time, talent and resources together to pull this event off!! It was so encouraging for me to observe how God used so many diverse people with diverse talents partner together to create something so huge!
Kids Bash is a microcosm of how any church should operate on a consistent basis; diverse people with diverse gifting, pulling together to make an eternal impact. Kids Bash is a great model for what our church should be. It’s not just a gathering of strangers on Sunday morning, rather it is a community of people that know and serve each other and the community in such a dynamic way that it becomes the most attractive group in any given city.
In 1 Corinthians 12:7 it says “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” Each and every Christ follower has been given an incredible gift to be used in the local church! When every one of us operates in our gifting for the “common good” (reaching people for God), the church (not just ours) can become the most powerful force in Fresno!!
So, let’s celebrate the miracles God did from Kids Bash, but let’s also let it be a model for how we “do church” around here!
I love being your pastor!!
Kevin
The biggest win is that more people were added to the Kingdom of God! This is why we do what we do, so that more people might know how incredible God’s love is for them. At the Celebration this past Sunday, many families from outside our church attended, and encountered God in an authentic way.
Another big win is how everyone pulled his or her time, talent and resources together to pull this event off!! It was so encouraging for me to observe how God used so many diverse people with diverse talents partner together to create something so huge!
Kids Bash is a microcosm of how any church should operate on a consistent basis; diverse people with diverse gifting, pulling together to make an eternal impact. Kids Bash is a great model for what our church should be. It’s not just a gathering of strangers on Sunday morning, rather it is a community of people that know and serve each other and the community in such a dynamic way that it becomes the most attractive group in any given city.
In 1 Corinthians 12:7 it says “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” Each and every Christ follower has been given an incredible gift to be used in the local church! When every one of us operates in our gifting for the “common good” (reaching people for God), the church (not just ours) can become the most powerful force in Fresno!!
So, let’s celebrate the miracles God did from Kids Bash, but let’s also let it be a model for how we “do church” around here!
I love being your pastor!!
Kevin
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
History of St. Patrick's Day
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here is a little backstory on Saint Patrick himself.
At the age of 16, Saint Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland where he became a slave to the chieftain of Ulster. One night, after six years of slavery, Saint Patrick heard a voice, "Behold, thy ship is ready." He traveled two hundred miles on foot to a place where he knew no one and had never been. He wrote in his autobiographical account, "After this I took flight, and left the man with whom I had been six years; and I came in the strength of the Lord, who directed my way for good; and I feared nothing till I arrived at the ship. And on that same day on which I arrived, the ship moved out of its place."
Patrick made his way back to Britain, found his family, and could have lived out the rest of his life in relative comfort in the land of freedom. But in 432 AD, he had another vision. He saw a man coming to him from Ireland carrying innumerable letters. "And I read the beginning of the letter containing 'The voice of the Irish.' And while I was reading aloud the beginning of the letters, I myself thought indeed in my mind that I heard the voice of those who were near the wood of Foclut, which is close by the Western Sea. And they cried out thus as if with one voice, "We entreat thee, holy youth, that thou come, and henceforth walk among us." And I was deeply moved in my heart, and could read no further; and so I woke."
Saint Patrick went back to Ireland as a missionary. No outside religion had penetrated Ireland in a thousand years. Saint Patrick founded more than 300 churches and baptized more than 120,000 people. His ministry was so influential that he came to be known as the one who "found Ireland all heathen and left it all Christian."
At the age of 16, Saint Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland where he became a slave to the chieftain of Ulster. One night, after six years of slavery, Saint Patrick heard a voice, "Behold, thy ship is ready." He traveled two hundred miles on foot to a place where he knew no one and had never been. He wrote in his autobiographical account, "After this I took flight, and left the man with whom I had been six years; and I came in the strength of the Lord, who directed my way for good; and I feared nothing till I arrived at the ship. And on that same day on which I arrived, the ship moved out of its place."
Patrick made his way back to Britain, found his family, and could have lived out the rest of his life in relative comfort in the land of freedom. But in 432 AD, he had another vision. He saw a man coming to him from Ireland carrying innumerable letters. "And I read the beginning of the letter containing 'The voice of the Irish.' And while I was reading aloud the beginning of the letters, I myself thought indeed in my mind that I heard the voice of those who were near the wood of Foclut, which is close by the Western Sea. And they cried out thus as if with one voice, "We entreat thee, holy youth, that thou come, and henceforth walk among us." And I was deeply moved in my heart, and could read no further; and so I woke."
Saint Patrick went back to Ireland as a missionary. No outside religion had penetrated Ireland in a thousand years. Saint Patrick founded more than 300 churches and baptized more than 120,000 people. His ministry was so influential that he came to be known as the one who "found Ireland all heathen and left it all Christian."
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Big Move- Greater Things!
In John 14:12, Jesus says “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
This verse promises so much hope for us! Earlier in the passage Jesus talks about the miracles he had performed. Then in this verse He states that His followers can do greater things than the miracles he performed. Those miracles included acts such as turning water into wine, raising people from the dead, healing the lame, walking on water, healing the blind, I think this gives us a clear picture of the acts that Jesus did.
As we prepare to make the BIG MOVE to Grand Occasions, coming SUNDAY FEBRUARY, 14TH, I think of what the “greater things” might mean for us as a church. I sense that God is going to open doors for us that we have never been able to walk through before. We’ll reach people that we would have never been able to reach staying at the school. The lives that will be transformed as result of LifeBridge will be nothing short of miraculous. Would you pray with me that God would do “greater things” in us as we prepare for our big move? In fact I’m calling an all church prayer meeting this Sunday evening, 6:30, at our house. I hope you’ll be able to make it! Not only does God want to perform miracles in our church, but He also wants to perform miracles in your life. I can’t wait to see what God does for you and for us this year. See you Sunday.
I love being your pastor!
Kevin
Btw- here’s the link to Grand Occasions so you can get a sneak peak at the facilities: http://www.gograndoccasions.com/index.html
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