In response to God’s sovereign love and mercy found in Jesus Christ,

we endeavor to be a people who glorify God

in worship, education, outreach and throughout all of life,

 

All good and effective ministry begins with God. All good and effective ministry succeeds through God.  All good and effective ministry returns to God in worship.   That, essentially, is what Romans 11:36 teaches us:  “For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be glory forever.”  From this reality flows the officially stated mission of LCPC, which has been the heartbeat of LCPC for the last ten years.  To glorify the Triune God--- Father, Son and Holy Spirit--- throughout all of life.  So simple and yet so daring.  How would we presume to glorify God?  Obviously we can’t do it ourselves.   This mission is too vast, too noble, and too holy. We need God himself, through his Word, to show us how to glorify him as we ought, throughout all of life.  Thank God he is at work, especially in his church to do just that.  In fact, if I have learned anything “new” about God over the past decade, I’ve learned that Jesus is the best pastor, the best preacher, the best elder, the best deacon, the best Sunday School teacher, the best evangelist, the best leader, musician and administrator in the entire universe.  And God is pursuing his ministry of glorifying his name in the world today.  If we want to be involved, we will want his glory to be revealed in everything we do.

 

Wherever God is at work today, in whatever kind of healthy, gospel-oriented Church, he takes the initiative by pouring out the Holy Spirit. It has always been this way, and it always will be this way. (See Numbers 11:29, Joel 2:28-29, Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:33, etc.).  Until Jesus returns, all good and effective ministry will be wonderfully and supernaturally empowered from on high.  As I think about the next ten years, I believe God wants to empower us as never before.

 

Again, this takes us way beyond ourselves.  We’re talking here about something God does.   We’re talking about the Holy Spirit bringing to us the living presence and immediacy of God, to empower the proclamation and spread of the gospel.  We can’t manufacture this.  But we can and we should pray and open up!  Open our Bibles and read.   Open our minds and believe. Open our hearts and serve. Open our whole lives to God.   After all, God is giving himself away through the finished work of Christ on the cross.   He promised he would back in the OT, and he is keeping his promise.  He loves to give himself away to sinners like us.   Trust me, there is more for us in Christ than we have yet apprehended.

 

Again, without the power of God our ministry and mission, though it may be biblical and theologically proper, will eventually end up another disappointment.    God is our strength, our vision, our power and LCPC has no other back-up power system.  Along with A.W. Tozer we say, “For true faith, it is either God or total collapse.”

 

So what are the practical implications for us here at LCPC? What is God calling us to in the next ten years of life and ministry?  One, God wants his people to pray for more of himself (Luke 11:11-15). After all, Jesus is better than life itself (Psalm 63:3).   What is more, the Father supplies his Spirit not to the people who deserve him but those who simply trust him (Galatians 3:5).  Two, let’s allow the Word of God to dwell richly in our hearts as Spirit-given life, not just as some additional information (John 6:63; James 1:21).  Three, we must treat each other so well that we do not grieve the Holy Spirit among us (Ephesians 4:29-32).

 

                                                                                                        (continued on page 11)

And For The Next Ten Years

LYCOMING CENTRE

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Centre News

March 2009

Volume 2009 Issue 3