Do You Love Being A Member at LBC?

After our meeting last night for the members of Lighthouse, I had a chance to read over the self-evaluations that I had asked everyone to fill out and it was both encouraging as well as a bit sad in seeing how many shared about where they stood in relation to their membership at LBC. It was tremendously encouraging to see that there are many who are growing and striving to seek after Christ, in being faithful in their spiritual disciplines and prayer life, and continually moving upward in their commitment to serve at Lighthouse. There are those who just wrote simply, "I love Lighthouse!" and in reflecting on their participation and attitude, I could heartily affirm that there are many who do indeed love Lighthouse and show it through their passion and excitement.

There were those who shared that they were challenged to really step up their participation, whether it was through prayer, giving, or serving. I know that I gave some pretty strong challenges at the meeting, as did elder Mike Chon. I know that it's not always easy hearing words of exhortation or admonishment, but the one thing that I am really thankful for is that many of you take it to heart and know that it's not simply to make you feel guilty or bad, but to earnestly challenge you to excel still more for the sake of Christ and His church.

So my prayer is that you would really just love Christ all the more, and out of that love strive to just love being His bride, the church. Submission to Him would be more of a joy if it was out of love than duty and I hope that your service to the Head of the church is not just something you feel obligated to do. Being the bride really is to rejoice in our high calling - can you believe that we belong to Christ? Can you believe that we have been called to be the object of His grace and love? We are so undeserving! We, in our sinfulness, have absolutely nothing to offer and yet He takes the tattered, dirty, sin-stricken souls and pulls us out of the miry clay to give us a new song that we might sing boldly to a dark world that needs to hear the light of the gospel of Christ.

So let's relish being His bride. Let Lighthouse, through our collective membership, really shine bright and bring much glory and honor to our Savior!