April 7, 2013 sermon by Dana Hanson
LIFEhouse has lost a great prayer warrior who kept our community constantly in his prayers. Now, he cheers us on from the great cloud of witnesses! Fully healed and in the full presence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Friend, you will be deeply missed…
Thank you to Grant Bickel and all his “helpers” for painting our walls and doing landscaping at the front entrance patio, Awesome job!
plants at entrance
freshly painted wall!
low-maintenance plants at entrance
Mon 5/13 Psalm 63
Tue 5/14 Psalm 64
Wed 5/15 Psalm 65:1-8
Thu 5/16 Psalm 65:9-13
Fri 5/17 Psalm 66:1-7
Sat 5/18 Psalm 67:8-15; Acts 2:1-4
Sun 5/19 Pentecost!
In response to the frequently asked question, “How do you read the Bible?” Here is my usual response. It’s not complicated. You don’t need a degree in biblical theology to hear from God through the Bible. Think about it. Would God give us His Word so that only biblical scholars and pastors could understand it? God is our loving Father. Or as Jesus calls him, our “daddy.” What kind of dad would communicate and teach only some of his kids, and then leave the others in the dark?
How do you read the Bible?
Three words.
Read
Act
Share
Why read the Bible every day? Why not? Our loving dad wants to speak with us, wants to hear from us, and wants us to know things about our lives.
Why act on what we read? If we trust His word, and we hear from Him, why wouldn’t we follow through on it?
Why share this with someone? It is good to share God’s Word with a friend. They can also hold us accountable. And many times, God speaks to us through them!
So, here’s what you do:
Take time to read and pray about what you read each day, with a day off on Sunday where you reflect on the sermon you hear.
How do you do all this?
1. Pray the Holy Spirit would open you to hear from God.
2. Read the Daily Word scripture text.
3. Spend time in quiet reflecting on the Word.
4. Ask,
- “What might God be saying to me here?” (Listen)
- “What am I going to do about it?” (Act)
5. Pray on it. Act on it. Then…
6. Tell someone about it.
Example:
Text for April 19 is Psalm 51:1-6. I focused on verse 6.
“But you desire honesty from the womb,
teaching me wisdom even there.”
teaching me wisdom even there.”
Listen:
What I think I was hearing from God is that He is teaching wisdom through the womb, and He continues to teach through His Holy Spirit working primarily through parents when the child leaves the womb. The word I hear from God is, “You are their conscience now.”
Action:
I will continue to help parents in nurturing their kid’s faith.
Share:
I share this word with my favorite expectant mother, our daughter, Kristina.
If you have any questions or simply want to share what God is saying to you through your reading, you can tweet me @danahanson, or email me at dana@danahanson.org.
Sign-up now for Vacation Bible School!
Date is June 24-28th, 9am-12noon. Ages K-5th grade.
Cost $30 per child and each additional child $25.
Thanks to all the hard work of Bill Anz and Duane Cirks getting the final approval of the city for our new signage, you now know what church is at 18355 Roscoe!
Vacation Bible School (VBS) is coming June 24-28th from 9am-12 noon. The theme is REACH based on 2 Corinthians 5:16-20. This year I’m excited to announce we will be working again with the Camp Counselors from the Lutheran Retreats, Camps and Conferences (LRCC). The experience of the awesome Counselors and our fun Crew Leaders are going to make it another great VBS.
VBS is for kids (entering kindergarten- 5th grade). Cost will be $30 per child, each additional child will be $25. Spread the word to your friends. Registration will begin April 7th. Look for a registration table after the 9am service.
If you want to help out as a Crew Leader (6th grade and older), please contact Heidi Christopher via email at drheidic@msn.com.
If you have a child that is preschool age (2-4 1/2 years old), our preschool is available for them during the hours of VBS. Contact Kristie Godin at LIFEhouse preschool at 818-349-8519 for more information.
Applications for VBS will also be available after April 7th on the Church website (www.lifehouse.la).
Thank you to the great number of people who spent countless hours preparing, serving and cleaning up during Holy Week. The music, dramas, readings, decorations, cleaning of our campus, preaching and of course our Easter Breakfast provided us a joyous week to celebrate our risen Lord.
It was especially gratifying to see such a large group of people on Saturday helping to set up for our Easter Breakfast, decorating, practicing, and performing our Spring cleaning. It has been over 20 years since we have celebrated Easter Breakfast in the Hall, and sometimes we may take for granted the amount of time and people it takes put this on. A special thanks for all the people who spent so many hours making Holy Week such a wonderful worship experience for all, and helping to remained us that our Lord has risen indeed!
