New Year’s Eve Agape Feast

Agape – the Greek word for love. An Agape meal – a love feast of the early Christians. A time for sharing nourishment of food for the body, a time for thanking God, a time for prayers, songs, and scripture for the soul.

On Friday night, December 31, at 6 PM I invite you to gather at the Lakeview church for sharing and listening to one another… We shall gather together for healing… to be renewed.

Many years ago near the Sea of Galilee, it was a similar setting. Jesus needed to be renewed…. But there were sick to be healed, crowds of people had gathered, stories were to be told, there was preparation for the journey (Matthew 14: 14-21)

What a miracle! But more was going on than the abundance of food to satisfy hunger and tiredness…. it was an agape meal distributed with divine compassion.

The miracle was also the willingness to share out of what was at hand… God created a world where there is more than enough for all, if people will share with willingness of heart and mind.

The miracle is… in Jesus all person’s needs are supplied. “My God will supply every need of yours, even in the desert places of this life.” Philippians 4:19

Before we partake of the symbols of the Lord’s body and His blood we’ll follow the example of Jesus and will humble our hearts in the ordinance of foot-washing. John 13:1-17 Jesus instructs His followers saying, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” 

What a wonderful way this will be to enter in the realm of the new year! I’ll be expecting to see you at the Lord’s table tomorrow at 6 PM.

Let the Lord bless you in the New year!

Merry Christmas, Lakeview church!

What a privilege it was for the angel to announce the birth of the Savior. This unnamed angel was soon followed by a heavenly chorus of angels praising and glorifying God. That first Christmas morning the shepherds heard the “good news” of the birth of Christ.

On Christmas morning I invite you to come to the Lakeview church to sing Christmas carols, to read the Scripture and to see why Christmas is still Good News for us:

1. The Gospel Is Good News Because It Banishes Fear. – Lk. 2:10 – “fear not”

2. The Gospel Is Good News Because It Brings Great Joy. – Lk. 2:10 “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy”

3. The Gospel Is Good News Because It Is For All People. – Lk. 2:10 “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

4. The Gospel Is Good News Because It Saves – Lk. 2:11 “A Savior, which is Christ the Lord”

5. The Gospel Is Good News Because It Gives Real And Lasting Peace. – Lk. 2:14 “And on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Jesus Christ alone can give you true joy and true peace.

Merry Christmas to you, my dear friends! I’ll see you on Christmas morning at our Lakeview church.

Children’s church: This Sabbath, Marla have planned a “Happy Birthday Jesus” party for Children’s church. The kids will sing Christmas carols, color birthday pictures, play party games (musical chairs, and pin the hay on the nativity), decorate party hats and make a Christmas craft.

Lakeview Christmas Choir Vespers and Social

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Lakeview choir

Youth Ensemble

Sabbath, December 18, at Lakeview

Our Sabbath morning will begin with a Sabbath school program at 9:20 and will continue with a lesson study at 10 AM.

At 11 AM the church Children’s choir will present a Christmas musical program “The Light of the World” followed by a message from the Word of God. I invite you to find your personal response to the news of a new-born King. Will it be confusion? or anger? or praise?

At 5 PM everyone the Lakeview church choir will present musical vesper “Heaven Rejoices”. I encourage you to invite your friends and family members to this very special program.

At 6 PM you have a unique chance to visit dozens of international restaurants and to taste ethnic cuisines that will gather together in one place – the Lakeview church. Imagine that you will not be expected to pay for your food! Who would want to miss that treat?! However, you may want to bring your own ethnic dish to bless someone else who has not yet had a chance to try food from your country.

See you tomorrow! Happy Sabbath and Merry Christmas to you!

Pastor Peter

Celebrating Christ or human reason?

An atheist billboard near the Lincoln Tunnel, a 1.5-mile-long twin tube that connects New Jersey to New York, reads: “You know it’s myth. This season, celebrate reason.”

A New Jersey American Atheists group paid $20,000 in an effort to challenge drivers to “think hard about whether or not they actually believe in what is, in reality, an invisible magic man in the sky”, stated Mr. Silverman, the group’s president.

I feel sorry for the waisted $20,000. Imagine how many struggling families could have received a food basket for their Christmas dinner and found re-assurance that there is A REASON to live! I would also want to remind Mr. Silverman that the Soviet Union empire had spent way more than $20,000 on building the Atheistic society where the human reason would dominate over faith in God. The outcome was devastating: today Russian is the nation without the experiential , personal knowledge of God  drowning in alcoholism, plagued with drug-addiction and complete disrespect for human rights. Human “reason”  won, God was lost. I pray this never happen to the american nation. I tend to believe that there is no true REASON without the Creator of this reason. ”There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12 KJV)

Five Levitical Offerings

This Sabbath morning I invite you to continue the study of the Leviticus offerings. We have already studied the first 3 – burnt offering, grain offering and the peace offering. The fourth one is of an immense importance for my daily spiritual life. It is the SIN OFFERING.

The sin of ignorance was the violation of some command or ordinance of God’s, a violation of the holy things, or an inadvertant violation against a neighbour. Even though the sin was committed out of ignorance, it is still sin, and the sinner is still guilty. Ignorance of the law does not make the violation of the law a righteous act. In our own judicial system too many people are pleading insanity. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” or “I didn’t mean to do it,” they claim. In God’s economy the sinner was always guilty, and atonement must be made for all sin. We would do well to learn a lesson from God’s judicial system and the provision made for each one of us in God’s universal plan of salvation. I encourage you not to miss this study during the 11AM service.

Holiday Social Gathering

A message from the Lakeview Youth and Young Adult Ministries:

Hey everyone. Here is something Tiffaney has planned with some others, and I hope you all can come out. I will be presenting the vespers program, so please be sure to come out to support that as well.

• SAVE this Sabbath, Dec. 4th, 2010 from 6:00pm for our Holiday get-together.
• WHO: You and your families–and whoever else you’d like to invite!
• WHEN: Sabbath evening, December 5th at 6:00pm
• WHERE: Lakeview Church
• WHAT: Holiday Social Gathering.
• WHAT TO BRING: A small gift from around the house or less than $5 and bring one food or drink item per adult–if your first name starts with:

A-D: Drink

E-I: Appitizer (cheese and crackers, hummus and veggies)

J-O: Salad type (Fruit, potatoes, veggie, etc.)

P-R: Bread

S-Z: Dessert

How’s that?? Let me know if plan to come and what you’ll bring!

We’ll plan to play our Family Feud and have a White Elephant Gift Exchange–just bring something from around the house that someone else may like–or something under $5–have your kids pick out a toy or book to wrap and bring as well–we’ll do one for them too–but not quite the same way.

We will be singing some Christmas music together and most importantly, I will be sharing with you my recent trip to Ethiopia.  Don’t worry, it won’t be just slides of my “vacation.”  I want to share it with you in the context of “The Gift of Giving” and the meaning of a dollar during this season of giving.  I will also share how we, individually and as a church, can assist those less fortunate at the Gimbie Adventist Hospital in Ethiopia.  So, remember to bring a loaded wallet, or at least an open mind for God to inspire you to give.

Thanks.  Blessings to you.  David Esterline

 

Community Thanksgiving Dinner At Lakeview Church

Reflections written by Mrs. Monica Mitchell: Now that the dust have settled, we can take a look back and savour the moments and cherish the memories of this momentous occasion. For several months now we have been planning and preparing for our Annual Community Thanksgiving. Dinner was held on the 3rd Sunday in November

We invited a lot of community friends and our own church families. One of our first goal was to create an atmosphere that was inviting and friendly. We wanted our guest to feel special. Connie bought colourful festive tablecloths.

Dried flowers and tree branches cut from around the yard took on new beauty when sprayed and arranged in beautiful fall centerpieces. Special thanks to Carmen, Candyss and others who help to make the dining area so beautiful.

Dinner was scheduled for 4pm. We were ready. Thanks to the great team of ladies and men who arranged the food trays and set up the warmers for serving.

It is the responsibility of the host to make sure that adequate amount of food is available. God bless the loving caring hands that prepared the food. It was that special touch of care and thoughtfulness that goes into fixing the food that made every bite so delicious. We had enough food. Special thanks to Cynthia, Florence, Denise, Monica, Sharon Lilliana and Tom for preparing the food. To Tammy, Primonia, Carol.B, Blessed, Gloria, Carol, Esther, Rachael, Muriel, Wendy and Sylvia we thank you for your invaluable help.

Our guests were warmly welcomed by Pastor Taber Nudd. Smiles and warm exchanges were noted as they ate with good appetite. During the dinner, an inspirational mini concert was held during. Our hearts were blessed and our Father was glorified. Thank you Jariel, Shannel, Eleth, Basil and Carmen. You did a great job with such short notice..

It would appear as if our community friends broke out of their shell. They came to the microphone sang and expressed their gratitude for what we are doing for them. One of the ladies said to me,”Lakeview feeds me and dresses me”. “Really”, I said. Then she replied,”see these clothes, I got them here”

Some of our elders were present and very supportive. We really needed your support and interaction with our guests. Thanks to Seig, Oville, George, Tom and Humberto. We fed about 175 people. This was more than last year. We had to ask the church members who have already eaten to give up their seats.

Our goal is to reach the community for Christ. Steps to Christ books were provided for our guest. We thank God for everything. Thanks to all the church members who came out to give their support. Special thanks to Pastor Kulakov for his encouragement, even though he could not be there.