Announcements (Page 3)

Dear LifeSpring Family, What a blessing it was to have Pat Koh preach on “Increase Our Faith in Our Covenant God” this past Sunday.  She suggested we close our eyes and imagine space with a line going through it, representing ourselves as a dot on this line. She also prompted us to see in our mind’s eye, where God was in this picture. This is what I “saw”.  I saw the vastness of space, like the pictures of the Milky Way…

It was a blessing last weekend to hear from Pat Koh, who is such a faithful spiritual mother in the LifeSpring family. As you can probably tell, one of Pat’s many gifts is the ability to teach, as she showed in her message on biblical covenants. In her message, Pat described the importance of three of the most important covenants in scripture. The Edenic covenant in Genesis 3:15 is about God’s covenant or promise to humanity of a Savior who…

I was listening to a few of our Family Weekend recordings this week, which you can access through the links below: Stephen Hawkins – Session 1: Where is Your Faith Stephen Hawkins – Session 2: Fighting for Your Faith Stephen Hawkins – Session 3: Live by Faith Stephen Hawkins – Session 4: From Fear to Faith Stephen Hawkins – Session 5: People of Faith As I was listening to Session 1: Where is Your Faith? the thing that stood out…

Something that has been stuck on me the past couple of weeks is the idea that we can move from Fear to Faith. These words have sat in my spirit, and I have been reminded of so many times in my life where faith has replaced fear. Most people, including myself, can be afraid and weary of the new. New circumstances, new surroundings, new experiences all come with a degree of uncertainty. In fact, the older I get, the more I…

We had an opportunity to hear from Adib and Sikander on Sunday, both who are Afghan Christians. One of the things that I appreciated about their message was their perspective coming from a background that is so different from ours. Adib and Sikander both became Christian in Afghanistan, and had to flee their homes because of persecution. In one way, their story is so different from ours. Yet as they shared, I also realized that their story had so many of…

I’ve been catching up on our Family Weekend recordings, and one of the main things that stood out for me from Stephen Hawkins’ sessions was when he spoke on the walls that we put up around our hearts. He said that out of our hurt, we put up a wall around our hearts because we don’t want to get hurt again, and when we do, we “lock out” the Holy Spirit from ministering to us. This also hinders our faith…

One of the fundamental beliefs I have is that we are all created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Not only are we created in His image and likeness but I also believe that we have everything we need in us to live. This requires an ongoing journey of self-discovery in order to unpack the unique human qualities God has bestowed in us. Christians have been freely given a gift that is not innate or inherited upon birth but…

For those of you who joined us at the Family Weekend, I believe you now understand why I wrote my grade 8 assignment – the most interesting person you know – on Stephen Hawkins. I chose to write this paper when I was 13 years old. That was 28 years ago and I could write a new paper on him today. For LifeSpring, it felt like he was the right person, for the right time. A man that would encourage…

Youth ministry comes with many challenges. Whether it’s planning, preparing or rolling with the punches, I find that one of the things that anchors me is W.W.J.D.  W.W.J.D stood for What Would Jesus Do. Growing up W.W.J.D was a cliché used by Christians to course correct on the journey of becoming more and more like Jesus. If you remember getting wrist bands with W.W.J.D on them, you may know what I am talking about. The W.W.J.D that I sometimes use…

This year’s theme for our family weekend’s children’s program was the Armor of God from Ephesians 6. Throughout five sessions, our kids learned about the belt of truth, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. I led the younger class (ages 4-7) and as it turns out, the fundamentals of truth, faith, and salvation are a little too deep for that group. As the weekend went on, the priority…

One of the quotes I’ve heard a lot around LifeSpring is “The longest foot is the distance it takes from something to get from your head to your heart [paraphrased].” Lately, I’ve found that to be true as I’ve been experiencing a lot of what I intellectually know, but haven’t internalized. Let’s take a common phrase: “the Grace of God” – which can be translated to “God’s gift and favor to us that we didn’t and couldn’t earn.” It has…

Dear LifeSpring Family This past Sunday, I had the privilege of opening the word of God with our MLCF family.  Together, we discussed the Book of Romans focusing on Romans chapter 8:15-17 (ESV):  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then…