Weekly Links (3/25/2016)

“This Gospel, then, is that God is our holy Creator and righteous Judge. He created us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, but we have all sinned, both in Adam as our representative head, and in our own individual actions (Rom. 5:12; 3:23). We therefore deserve death—spiritual separation from God in hell (Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:3)—and are in fact already spiritually stillborn, helpless in our sins (Ps. 51:5; Rom. 5:6-8; Eph. 2:1) and in need of God to impart spiritual life to us (Ezek. 37:1-14; John 3:3). But God sent His Son Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man (Phil. 2:5-11), to die the death that we deserved, and He raised Him up for our justification, proving that He was God’s Son (Rom. 5:1; 1:4). If we would have Christ’s perfect righteousness credited to us, and the penalty for our sins accounted to Him, we must repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation (2 Cor. 5:21; Mark 1:14-15).” (Mark Dever & Paul Alexander, The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel)

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Feliz Good Friday! I hope you all have been reflecting and meditating deeply on Holy Week, the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. I hope this week’s links will contribute towards that end. Here they are:

  • This whole week has been focused on remembering the last week of Jesus’ life here on earth, prior to His death and resurrection. Holy Week is ending, but Ligonier Ministries has compiled a list of resources to enrich our understanding of what Christ did during His final week pre-crucifixion. There is more than enough to last you through next year! Also, don’t miss out on the opportunity to receive a DVD series on the work of Christ for a donation (ends today)!
  • Like clockwork, criticism concerning Christ and the resurrection has arrived in the publication of Bart Ehrman’s new book, Jesus Before the Gospels. Melinda Penner from Stand to Reason provides a short response that addresses the fundamental claim to Ehrman’s work, and the evidence that disproves it.
  • Susan Heck stops by the Women’s Hope podcast to share a Scripture memory method that has led her to memorize 23 BOOKS of the Bible. Hopefully, this will be a starting point for you to bring God’s Word into your heart and mind.
  • If you are engaging Muslims about the claims of Christ, or would like to, you need to bookmark and read through this primer on Islam and Christianity.
  • If you’re wondering how to encourage your kids to have a deeper faith, consider a special time for them to ask questions. And just so the rest of you think you’re exempt from this since you don’t have kids, Voddie Baucham calls us all (according to Scripture) to engage in expository apologetics (don’t miss the audio interview at the end).
  • Continuing their series of ’25 Women Who Impacted the World for Christ,’ Revive Our Hearts turned their attention to Corrie ten Boom. May you be reminded, by her life, of God’s love for you in the face of trials.
  • In dealing with popular teaching on the Christian life, Don Whitney clarifies the biblical view of effort in the Christian life, and refutes the ‘let go and let God’ approach to sanctification in two posts. Highly recommended.
  • James White received backlash for writing on Facebook about the effects of fatherlessness, Planned Parenthood’s genocide of black babies in the womb, rebellion against God and authority, and the Gospel which is race-blind. The observations he made on his Dividing Line webcast are timely, and need to be said. Make sure you give some time to watch or listen to this.
  • CCEF has made available a sermon, published in the Journal of Biblical Counseling, from Ray Dillard, former OT professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, in preparation of Easter. May you meditate on the cup that Christ drank, and the cup we drink as believers in Him.

That’s all for this week! We invite you to come and remember the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior tonight and Sunday. Please consider coming to learn more about why Jesus came to die. Hope to see you soon!

Soli Deo Gloria

Old Elucidates the New

by Ryan McAdams

Having spent the better part of the last three years in lessons upon the Old Testament, our curriculum will bring us to the incarnation of Jesus Christ at the start of April. Some may wonder why we spent so long outside of the New Testament, and I will certainly grant that our journey took a bit longer than we expected. But even so, it felt like we had to rush through certain books and skipped most of the prophets. In spite of all of that, I hope that our children have gained at least a small understanding of God’s hand throughout the entirety of history.

For myself, I grew up in the church and heard all about Moses, David, Daniel, etc. – the main Bible characters. I prided myself on my Bible page-turning speed and mastery of Biblical trivia (I didn’t learn the definition of trivia until later). But, I missed the forest for the trees, and had no sense of the unifying story of God’s redemption of man underlying all of the stories I knew. Now, not everything we do in our children’s ministry stems from experiences from my childhood, but these experiences do provide concrete examples of dangers to avoid.

In our not-so-brief jaunt, we started with God’s creation and how He saw that it was very good. And that since the day that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, humankind has spiraled further and further away from God and God’s perfect creation has suffered, and yet God promised a victor over the serpent. We came to Abraham and saw God’s promise to bless all nations through him and how God counts faith as righteousness, and through the son that God promised, God raised the nation of Israel. We read God’s covenant with the people of Israel, and that He would treasure them above all other nations if they obeyed His covenant. And we spent time reading through that covenant, seeing how God has chosen to set apart His people to himself, but then seeing that after the initial conquest of the Promised Land, the people quickly turned from the Law to their own ways, and the resultant suffering and oppression. We learned how after His people rejected Him as their king, God selected David as His king and promised to establish David’s kingdom forever, but that immediately the kings following David turned away from God to other gods and to their own might, resulting in a kingdom split and eventual destruction and exile from the Promised Land. Even still, God promised and executed a return for the exiles and never revoked the covenants He made. In fact, God continued to offer hope to the remnant of His people.

Taking the brief overview, most of us can observe the cycles of sin and corruption along with God’s grace and orchestration of the events of history. But lesson by lesson, we had to try to both learn from the lesson itself and also tie it back to this larger picture. If the children were tracking with the lessons and had engaged themselves in the story, they would have experienced brief moments of hope followed by crushing disappointment. And, if we ended our lessons with the end of the Old Testament, the children would find themselves in the same state of despair as the first-century BC Jews.

But, we have the New Testament, and we know what God did. God sent Jesus, His son, to take the sins of the world, to bless all nations, to sit on David’s throne forever, and to crush sin and death once and for all!

The Old Testament gives us greater depth and appreciation for all that Jesus Christ accomplished with His death and life. If we want to teach the kids the Gospel well, the Old Testament introduces and prepares us for the good news that comes as a result of the true main character of the Bible, the redeemer, the King, the God-man, Christ Jesus, the Lord.

So, we’re looking forward to our curriculum’s foray into the New Testament and hope that the lessons and unifying themes from the Old Testament can help our children to understand God’s redemptive plan and Jesus’s mission on Earth in a fuller way.

In Him Dwelleth All The Fulness Of The Godhead Bodily

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Colossians 2:9,10

All the attributes of Christ, as God and man, are at our disposal. All the fulness of the Godhead, whatever that marvellous term may comprehend, is ours to make us complete. He cannot endow us with the attributes of Deity; but He has done all that can be done, for He has made even His divine power and Godhead subservient to our salvation. His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and infallibility, are all combined for our defence.

Arise, believer, and behold the Lord Jesus yoking the whole of His divine Godhead to the chariot of salvation! How vast His grace, how firm His faithfulness, how unswerving His immutability, how infinite His power, how limitless His knowledge! All these are by the Lord Jesus made the pillars of the temple of salvation; and all, without diminution of their infinity, are covenanted to us as our perpetual inheritance. The fathomless love of the Saviour’s heart is every drop of it ours; every sinew in the arm of might, every jewel in the crown of majesty, the immensity of divine knowledge, and the sternness of divine justice, all are ours, and shall be employed for us. The whole of Christ, in His adorable character as the Son of God, is by Himself made over to us most richly to enjoy. His wisdom is our direction, His knowledge our instruction, His power our protection, His justice our surety, His love our comfort, His mercy our solace, and His immutability our trust. He makes no reserve, but opens the recesses of the Mount of God and bids us dig in its mines for the hidden treasures. ‘All, all, all are yours,’ saith He, ‘be ye satisfied with favour and full of the goodness of the Lord.’

Oh! how sweet thus to behold Jesus, and to call upon Him with the certain confidence that in seeking the interposition of His love or power, we are but asking for that which He has already faithfully promised.

5.18a

Weekly Links (3/18/2016)

“What we suffer from…is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert–himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt–the Divine Reason.” (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Feliz Friday! Another week has come and gone, and God is still in charge. What a great truth that will never change! Here are your links for this week! Enjoy!

That’s all for this week! Please pray for those who are attending membership classes this weekend! See you all on Sunday!

Soli Deo Gloria

Love Them Like Jesus

by Pastor John Kim

The theme for Lighthouse Bible Church Los Angeles is “Love Them Like Jesus.” I explained that I used the same theme back in San Diego and while I tried to find a different way to phrase it, I just kept coming back to the song by Casting Crowns that painted a very vivid picture in my mind when I first heard it. We are surrounded by lost and hurting people who walk through the doors of the church and often times we have no idea just how much pain and suffering they have gone through. As ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven, the church has the great responsibility and task to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is an urgent matter, one that we cannot afford to be lax about since there are men and women dying every day and their eternal destiny is at stake.

I know and understand that the gospel must be preached. This is a non-negotiable issue that is something we must never compromise. But if there is one thing that really creates a complication, it is when the very lips of those who claim to represent Christ are attached to a person who contradicts the very gospel message with the absence of the love of Christ.

“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15)

If the love of Christ truly controls us, we are to no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died and rose again on our behalf. If we have even the slightest idea of the grace and mercy that has been shown to us at the cross and that we have been overwhelmingly loved with a love that cannot be separated from us (Romans 8:39), the question really does beg to be asked, “How can one who knows the love of Christ not only fail to manifest the love of Christ in the way that Christ has loved, but even go as far as to demean that love by belittling or ignoring the multiple times where Christians are commanded, not just suggested or advised, but given the imperative that is meant to be obeyed to the glory of God and to magnify the grace that has been shown through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

When Jesus confronts the church of Ephesus is Revelation 2, He confronts a church that is doctrinally sound, that is hard-working, and persevering in the midst of tribulations. But there is the one thing that He has against them, that they have left their first love. The church had departed from or abandoned their first love. There is no particular aspect highlighted here. It is everything to do with what God intended for love to be in the life of the church. Love for God, love for Christ, love for the Holy Spirit, for the church, for the lost – all of it was left behind. How could this be? How could those who actually have the very thing that the world longs for, true love, be willing to divorce themselves from that which would grieve the Lord Jesus Christ to the extent where He would condemn a church?

1 Corinthians 13 gives us a pretty good clue in that the apostle Paul confronts the Corinthian church, amongst many things, that they have failed to love one another with the love of Christ. They have turned the church into a chaotic whirlwind of selfishness, self-promotion, divisions, tolerance for sin, and at the heart of it, in the midst of what was to be the beauty of exercising their spiritual gifts for the edification of the body, they are vying for power, judging one another, and comparing against one another instead. This all completely failed to represent what the church was meant to be and do.

Jesus told His disciples in no uncertain terms in John 13:34-35 to love one another just as He had loved them.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)

We are called to love one another as Christ has loved us.

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1–2)

What is amazing to me and often leaves me completely flabbergasted is the blatant disregard, hard-hearted contempt, and absolute deliberate choice to treat others with a complete absence of grace and mercy and yet at the same time claim to desire someone’s spiritual growth. Yes, there is no one who perfectly matches up to the standard of Christ and we all, including myself, need to be corrected, admonished, and exhorted along the way. But if there is one thing that I continue to grow in my understanding, it is that the love of Christ controlling me and compelling me and constraining me cannot help but reveal itself especially in times where you deal with the pain of conflicts, the unfairness of judgments, and the unwillingness to seek peace by those who claim to be Christians. It is in the crucible of suffering that we find whether the love of Christ is truly at the heart of why we live. So we can be grateful and thankful that the times of suffering and trial give us opportunity to cling to the love of Christ as well as to display the love of Christ to those who would treat you like an enemy. Did not Christ call us to love our enemies?

Yet I can tell you that over the years I have grown to understand a little bit better what Paul meant when he wrote to the Philippian church these words:

“For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.” (Philippians 3:18–19)

The tears of grief and overwhelming sadness have been experienced many times because to fail to live in light of the love of Christ has lead some to the point where they actually become enemies of the cross of Christ. Paul’s heart broke, I’m sure, as the faces of those he once had fellowship with turned not only against him but against Christ and it caused him to weep.

Does your heart break, especially for those who claim to know Christ but contradict everything that Christ stands for in their refusal to love the way He loved? This has been my greatest struggle – to love those who are unloving. I can honestly say that God has allowed me to love the unlovely, the unlovable, and those who have never experienced love. It is because we all share common ground – we all know what it means to be unloved but now because of Christ, we are loved beyond comprehension. But those who purposefully, deliberately, and often times heartlessly display a harsh spirit, a judgmental spirit, a condemning spirit, a merciless spirit, a spirit that denigrates grace and spits on mercy, a spirit that measures others with a pharisaical hypocrisy that reveals their callousness of their own hearts, a spirit that is so self-righteous and arrogant that produces such a stench of putrid hate that it is no surprise that many turn away and are disgusted with such obscenity that claims the name of Christ. And yet, our Savior, when dealing with the very ones who plotted and ultimately called for Him to be crucified, was still patient and persevering, even to the point of death, death on a cross, for the very ones who even called for His death!

If Jesus could still love those who hated Him, if Jesus could still show mercy to the thief on the cross who only minutes before was cursing him but then begged for mercy, if Jesus could cry out to the Father, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do!”, if Jesus could for the joy set before Him endure the cross and despise the shame, if Jesus could love us like this, then I think we know that the way we are called to love all too often falls short of the love with which we have been loved. So will you love them like Jesus? Will you carry them to Him? Maybe instead of trying to give your answers to everyone’s problems, will you instead stand by their side and weep with them? Will you show a love that is patient, kind, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things?

My heart is so burdened with the lack of love by those who claim to be Christians that it really at times can be so disheartening. But as I have been recently reminded through reading Alexander Strauch’s books Love or Die and Leading with Love, I can only hope and pray the prayer that Paul prays in Ephesians 3:

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14–21)

May the Lighthouse churches know the love of Christ, be controlled by the love of Christ, and proclaim the love of Christ both in word and deed to His glory.

Thou Art My Servant; I Have Chosen Thee

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Isaiah 41:9

If we have received the grace of God in our hearts, its practical effect has been to make us God’s servants. We may be unfaithful servants, we certainly are unprofitable ones, but yet, blessed be His name, we are His servants, wearing His livery, feeding at His table, and obeying His commands. We were once the servants of sin, but He who made us free has now taken us into His family and taught us obedience to His will. We do not serve our Master perfectly, but we would if we could. As we hear God’s voice saying unto us, ‘Thou art My servant,’ we can answer with David, ‘I am thy servant; Thou hast loosed my bonds.’

But the Lord calls us not only His servants, but His chosen ones-‘I have chosen thee.’ We have not chosen Him first, but He hath chosen us. If we be God’s servants, we were not always so; to sovereign grace the change must be ascribed. The eye of sovereignty singled us out, and the voice of unchanging grace declared, ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love.’ Long ere time began or space was created God had written upon His heart the names of His elect people, had predestinated them to be conformed unto the image of His Son, and ordained them heirs of all the fulness of His love, His grace, and His glory.

What comfort is here! Has the Lord loved us so long, and will He yet cast us away? He knew how stiffnecked we should be, He understood that our hearts were evil, and yet He made the choice. Ah! our Saviour is no fickle lover. He doth not feel enchanted for awhile with some gleams of beauty from His church’s eye, and then afterwards cast her off because of her unfaithfulness. Nay, He married her in old eternity; and it is written of Jehovah, ‘He hateth putting away.’ The eternal choice is a bond upon our gratitude and upon His faithfulness which neither can disown.

5.17p

Weekly Links (3/11/2016)

“This generation listens with its eyes & thinks with its feelings.” (Ravi Zacharias)

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Feliz Friday! The Lord has gotten us all through this week, and continues to work through His saints in providing rich content to digest. I hope you enjoy this week’s links!

  • This past Sunday, Jerry Bridges went home to be with the Lord at 86 years of age. Tributes have been written about him all week, most of which have been collected by Don Whitney. Paul Tautges wrote what most of us would consider our perspective: Bridges as an unseen mentor. Also, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, in honor of Bridges’ life and ministry, have made available some of the messages he gave at their Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology for free this month. Make sure you get a chance to continue to be blessed by the faithful life of one of God’s servants.
  • Jason Engwer annually posts about Easter and the number of topics that come up around this time on the Triablogue website. Here’s his post for 2016, which also includes links to previous years’ posts. This is a great tool to get involved in apologetics about the central event in all of Christianity, actually in all of history.
  • Danielle Spencer writes of the importance of thinking of the next generation as our culture continues to spiral downward into moral darkness, providing a few goals for those involved in the discipling of children in the church, whether they’re your own or someone else’s. Natasha Crain addresses a common question many kids eventually ask: “why does God matter so much?”
  • On church history matters, Kenneth Samples gives a crash course post on Augustine, while Steve Lawson was recently interviewed on his newest book about Pastor Martin Lloyd-Jones. Time to marvel again at the work God has done in the past, and thank Him for leading us to the truth still.
  • In a day where psychological ideas run rampant in the culture, and in the church, Kelly Needham writes the truth about self-pity and low self-esteem.
  • Recently, at the 2016 Ligonier National Conference, a statement on Christology was presented to the attendees, and made available to the church at large. Stephen Nichols gives the reasons why they made a statement, which includes affirmations & denials, an explanatory essay, and more. This could be a great resource for further study into the Person and work of our Savior. They even translated it into 15 languages (including Spanish and Chinese)!
  • Michael Kruger writes of the problem of the lukewarm church. Trust me, it’s a bigger problem than most people think!
  • How should we approach the Bible? Robert Zink shows us nine aspects that not only engage the mind in reading it, but also the heart.

That’s all for this week! Keep our collegians in prayer, as finals are coming up for both UCSD and SDSU very soon! See you all on Sunday!

Soli Deo Gloria

What Kept Jesus on the Cross?

by Roger Alcaraz

Last year, our college ministry tabled at UCSD during Triton Day. It’s an event where all of the school clubs get to advertise to the incoming students. Coincidentally, our church was right next to the Atheist Club. And I was curious what the club does since it centers around a non-belief, but I found out they like to watch debates, specifically those against Christianity. And after talking with them, I came to the conclusion that this club wouldn’t have been started apart from Christianity because their main focus wasn’t to attack God in general but to attack Christ. The atheist club should have more accurately been named, the Anti-Christian Club.

But this is nothing new. People have always hated Jesus since the time of his ministry. While he was on Earth, the Jewish leaders saw Jesus as a threat to their power and tried to get rid of him. They tried various tactics, but eventually realized that the only way to get rid of Jesus was to kill Him. So they devised a plan and this eventually led to his death on the cross.

While on the cross, spectators had the opportunity to hurl insults and even taunt Jesus. Luke 23:35 gives the following account: “And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!’”

The claim was, “He saved others; let him save himself.” So the question then is, why didn’t Jesus save himself? In other words, what kept Jesus from coming down from the cross?

Was It the Nails?

Some would argue that the reason he couldn’t save himself was because Jesus was just a man, like any other. So of course he couldn’t save himself, he didn’t have the power to. But Scripture tells us the opposite. Jesus did the impossible and he did it with plenty of witnesses.

He once told the storm to be still and the winds immediately obeyed his words. Later, 5,000 of his followers got hungry, so Jesus took a small amount of bread and fish and multiplied them to be able to feed them all. On multiple occasions, Jesus visited crowded funerals and raised the dead. Other times he gave sight to the blind, healed the leper, and commanded paralytics to walk and they would instantly obey. Jesus was so popular that people came from all over Israel to be healed. Even Romans were coming to him, believing he had amazing power. And his power extended over spirits as even demons obeyed his every word and even trembled at his mere presence.

Clearly, Jesus proved himself to be a powerful man, capable of controlling spirits, nature, even life itself. The clearest explanation for this is that he is God incarnate. All this is to say that we’re dealing with someone who, if he wanted to, could have easily pulled himself off the cross. So again I ask, what kept him there?

Was It Our Sin?

Maybe you’ve heard before that it was our sin that nailed him to the cross and kept him there. And I think there is an element of truth behind that statement. What is true is that Jesus’ death on the cross was necessary for salvation. We have all sinned and deserve death. But God has allowed for someone to stand in our place. And Jesus Christ is the only acceptable sacrifice that can remove God’s wrath from coming to us because he alone is perfect.

And so it’s true–if we had not sinned, then there would be no need for Christ to die, so it is really our sin that nailed him to the cross. But here is where the answer falls short of answering the question, “What kept Jesus on the cross?” God was never obligated to save anyone. He could have looked at sinful humanity and decided to simply condemn us. This would have been the easier option for him. And he would have been perfectly just to do so.

In fact, 2 Peter 2:4 tell us that this is what God did with the angels. It says, “God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell.” That could have been us. So then, Jesus certainly was powerful enough to remove himself from the cross, and God was under no obligation to save mankind. Then why didn’t he save himself? Why did he instead say, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing?” as he continued to bear the wrath of sin?

It Was Love

Before Jesus was handed over to be crucified, knowing he only had a few hours left, he fervently prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39). It’s here where we begin to see why Jesus went and stayed on the cross. It’s because God the Son, loved God the Father. Jesus submitted to not his own will, but to the will of the Father and obeyed him to the point of death, even death on a cross.

In John 10:18, Jesus talks about his impending death, saying, “This charge I have received from my Father.” Thus Jesus was commanded by the Father to die on behalf of humanity. And the reason for Christ’s obedience was his love. Later, while Jesus is speaking again on his imminent death, he says, “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father” (John 14:31).

Perhaps it’s expected that the Son loves the Father, but amazingly, mankind is also the recipient of Christ’s great love. Romans 5:8 is one of my favorite passages of the whole Bible because it speaks of the superior nature of God’s love. It reads, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Incredible! God loves sinners! Which tells you that God’s love is not something we earn or could ever deserve. We might think that God should love us because we’re used to thinking of ourselves as lovable, good people. But in God’s eyes, we are sinners. Even so, the good news of it all is that he still loves us. The good news is that his love has nothing to do with anything we have done, but it has everything to do with who God is. God is love. He is the very definition of love.

This is ultimately what kept Jesus from saving himself: his love for the Father, and his love for sinners. And so he provided a way of salvation by paying the ultimate sacrifice. Praise Jesus Christ for his love!

@LBC (3/9/2016)

by David Zhang

Sermons

Communion and Commission by Patrick Cho

  • How can we live out the implications of being disciples of Christ?

Special Features

  • The Singles affinity group had their retreat this past weekend, with sermons given on the topic of the Disciple’s Prayer. Be sure to check out the media from the event in the coming weeks! Here is an article on the mentality we should have in carrying out the Great Commission.