I Used to Be a Sixth Grader

By Matt Sasso, Pastor of Student Ministries 

For many students, entering Jr. High can be a confusing and exciting time. Exit 83 wants to help your student not feel alone during this time of their lives. Our goal at Exit 83 is to create an environment specially tailored to help them sort it all out.

Exit 83 – complete with a live worship band, relevant messages, heartfelt small group discussions, and fun games – is where students can explore their relationship with Christ and how that can influence every decision they make.

As you start to hear about ways that your student can get involved, we want to encourage you not to miss out on getting your student connected. We are available to help in this process and we hope to be a support to your family and influence your student’s life for Christ.

This Weekend's Message: One Justification

In 1991 Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep starred in a movie called Defending Your Life. It was a comedy about a man who, after his death, is forced to justify the way he lived before he is permitted to move on. The movie was set in a courtroom format, and the main character was forced to review his decisions and to demonstrate that he lived a life of courage and nobility rather than fear and selfishness.

What would you say if you had to defend your life? What would you say if you had to justify all your actions?

Whether or not we realize it, we are all seeking to be justified. This is why we get defensive when someone criticizes us. This is why we over-explain ourselves to those who question us. This is why we worry about what others think of us.

This Sunday we will read a passage in which the Apostle Paul talks about the different ways we look to be justified, and then he points us to the one and only source of true justification.

Dan

Youth Summer Camp

Summer camp is quickly approaching! This year’s theme is “Phoenix Dark,” which is a story shadowed with mystery and intrigue. A man is asked to uncover the truth about who Phoenix Dark really is before the clock runs out. This summer we will ask the same question that Jesus asked His disciples in Matthew 16:15: “But what about you?...Who do you say I am?”

Dates 
Jr. High Summer Camp: June 16-21 
High School Summer Camp: June 30-July 5 

Sign up online today or contact Matt Sasso @ (909) 981-4848.

LBF Global Missions Update

By Carol Hawkins, Missions Coordinator 

Enjoy reading about some exciting things that are happening with missions at LBF.

Scott & Tonia Berthiaume live in San Luis Potosi, in southern Mexico, where they serve the Pame people in scripture translation and linguistics. After four years of work, they recently published “The Pame Diaries.” These include stories, poetry, songs, sermons, and more, written by the Pame people in their own language. This is great news and the people are thrilled. One of the Pame translators working on the project said, “We never imagined that we would write it (the Pame language), but what we did know is that our language represented something very valuable to us – something that we really treasured. In spite of the fact that in the beginning all of us wrote with a lot of difficulty, it was precisely at this moment that we experienced the feeling of being the first authors of literature in our language.” It is difficult for us to comprehend people groups that do not have a written language. We can praise God that with Scott and Tonia’s help, the Pame people now have a written language, and there is a huge sense of pride in this work that has been accomplished by these translators. The Scriptures continue to be in the translation process. Pray for Scott and Tonia and this wonderful ministry to these people.

Mercy Ships was recently featured on the CBS program “60 Minutes.” One of our missionaries, Tom Velnosky, has been with Mercy Ships for almost 20 years. This is such a great ministry, serving the people along the coast of western Africa with medical care and community health training. These are people who don’t have regular access to medical services, so Mercy Ships literally brings it to them. It was very exciting to see the program and learn more about what goes on in caring for these precious lives. You can still view the TV segment on cbsnews.com. It’s worth your time and will bless you.

Jeremy Moore has been serving for almost two years with Africa Children’s Choir. He has been a chaperone to the choir and he also ran the sound for their performances. Over those many months and many miles on the road, traveling throughout the U.S., Jeremy has definitely bonded with those precious kids in the choir, and they have bonded with him too. The choir also spent some months in the U.K. performing in many venues there. The choir tour is now over and Jeremy is headed back home to Upland. He will have many wonderful stories to share with us about God’s blessings and provisions during his time with the choir. I’m sure you’ll be seeing him soon in church. Be sure to welcome him home.

William & Michelle Kiprop and their son, Ryan, were with us during the month of March. It has been fun to get reacquainted with this special couple who are serving in Kenya. Michelle will actually be with us for another week or two, so be sure to make a point to greet her and learn the many things they are doing in Kenya.

LBF is privileged to share in these ministries. Thank you for supporting God’s work around the world and for touching lives for eternity.

LIFE Groups Spotlight: Bouma Family

By Lea Lee, LIFE Groups Coordinator 

This month’s LIFE Group Spotlight – where we highlight a specific LIFE Group at LBF and their leaders – features the Bouma family.

Names: Curt and Jody Bouma

Tell us about how you came to faith in Jesus Christ. Jody and I were both raised in Christian homes; Jody was Seventh-day Adventist and I was raised Christian Reformed. We both feel like we have trusted in God since childhood and gave professions of faith and were baptized in our teenage years.

Tell us about your family. Jody and I were married about six years ago, and now have three young boys: Luke, Cole, and Case. Jody is full-time mom who always works overtime and I work for Kaiser Ontario and Assure Pregnancy Clinic. We both feel so blessed by the church, our LIFE Group, and this family of boys.

Tell us about how you found LBF. We found LBF while we were trying a few local churches after we were married. It was a men’s group at Chick-fil-a that got me connected to Jason and Russ, and I talked Jody into going to LBF.

How long have you been leading a LIFE Group at LBF? About 2.5 years ago we purchased the Truth Project and decided to invite our neighbors over to watch the video series. The group lost some, then doubled from 6, and now over half the group are LBF members. The babysitters are overwhelmed!

Tell us a bit about your LIFE Group. Our LIFE Group is young couples that are pusuing truth in the Bible. We are all committed to our marriages and raising children to love Jesus. We are studying the books John wrote right now. Before this we went through Ephesians. About every five weeks the men and women separate, where the men discuss the C.S. Lewis book they’re reading and the women discuss various books.

What are some of the discussion highlights you have had this year? One of our discussion highlights was the last part of Ephesians where we learned about marriage. Of course, sacrificing and submitting was fun to discuss as couples.

What has been the most encouraging thing that has happened in your LIFE Group? One of the most encouraging things about our group is watching all of the amazing children. We had new baby Dakota adopted last year, Emma and Case were born, and Deacon will be born this year. The group also had an amazing ski trip to Mammoth with guitar-only worship on Sunday morning by a fire during a snow storm.

How would you describe the importance of the LIFE Group you lead? This LIFE Group strengthens marriages, guides us as parents, encourages sleepless mothers, creates accountability with personal friendships, and keeps each of us excited about reading the Bible. Learning, growing, and staying in Christ is just easier with church teaching, reinforced by personal relationships founded in Christ.

What would you say to someone that is wary about joining a LIFE Group? It is hard to be consistently growing in sanctification. The LIFE Group connects you to people personally where you get to talk and ask questions while studying. You get to help others and when you are facing something difficult that may be personal, a LIFE Group friend is a good place to turn.

This Weekend's Message: One Family

When I was growing up, my siblings and I thought that we had the strictest parents who had ever existed. When I would talk to my friends, though, most of them claimed that their parents had the inside track to that title. It simply felt like we were always being given rules. Clean up your room. Don’t put your elbows on the table. Ask to be excused before leaving the table. Apologize to your sister. I could not figure out why my parents seemed so obsessed with these rules.

Now that I am a parent I understand that a family doesn’t work unless you have a certain way of doing things. If there are no standards that unify a family, then it is not a family at all. It is just an assortment of individuals who are all going their own way.

While this probably would’ve sounded nice to me when I was a child, none of us really wants a family that is disconnected. While I grew up with certain enforced limitations, I also grew up viewing my family through the lens of freedom. With them, I could be my real self. After acting certain ways at school and around my friends, I could let my guard down with my family. After all, I knew that they would still be my family no matter what. In my family, I experienced both freedom and limitations.

This Sunday we will explore the dynamics of life in God’s family. We will come face-to-face with both the freedom and the limitations that make it so wonderful to be adopted into the family of God.

Dan

Love in Action in Action

By Ron Weissmann, Love in Action Coordinator 

Most everyone is aware that in the last few years school budgets have been severely slashed. What I did not realize was that important programs were at risk of being eliminated altogether due to these budget cuts. Recently I was talking to Jason Craig, a member of LBF and a teacher of Industrial Arts at Upland Junior High School. During our conversation he told me of the concerns he had for his Project Lead the Way (wood shop). He was concerned about a lack of funding to purchase the needed materials for his students to continue to learn valuable skills in his class. After our conversation, I discussed the idea of taking on this challenge as part of our “Love in Action” initiative with Pastor Gary.

We started by identifying the current needs. Then we talked to local businesses to see what they could do to help. God quickly changed our direction when I received a phone call from a friend who had heard of the needs of Project Lead the Way and invited us to attend a local scroll saw club meeting for The Inland Empire Scrollers Association. We went and knew at once that we were in the right place. The scroll saw club immediately stepped up with kindness and generosity to Project Lead the Way. Each month donations are made on behalf of the club to the Upland Junior High School shop program, in the form of tools and materials. And because of these donations, the program will not be eliminated. Praise the Lord!

In addition to the wood donated by the local scroll saw club, our own “Love in Action” program was able to help with the donation of a nearly brand new band saw to Project Lead the Way. This $1,600 piece of equipment would never have been purchased with the current state of financial distress within the state and school district. We are also currently working to facilitate the donation of two wood lathes and additional materials, including hand tools, adhesives, hardware, and the wood needed for the projects.

Classroom budgets have been affected so drastically that both teachers and students are in jeopardy. It is vital that shop programs like Project Lead the Way continue for students to learn various skills in addition to the basic subjects. And we’re pleased that through “Love in Action,” the students at Upland Junior High can further their educational development.

But wait! It gets better. I recently learned that the students of Project Lead the Way used some of the donated materials to design and build more than 600 wooden toys, which they gave to programs that distribute them to underprivileged kids, such as Healthy Start-Upland, Spark of Love (ABC 7), Fontana Police Department, Mission Agua de Vida in Morelos, Mexico, as well as six additional missions throughout the Los Angeles area.

Under the leadership of Pam Chavira, their new principal at UJH, these students are studying the Seven Essential Virtues of Moral Intelligence (which are empathy, conscience, self control, respect, kindness, tolerance, and fairness) by Michele Borba. This project was one way for them to implement what they learned.

Thank you to The Inland Empire Scrollers Association for their generosity and contributions to Project Lead the Way. This journey of putting “Love in Action” is exciting and ongoing. Stay tuned for the next chapter!

Is It Okay to Doubt?

By Matt Sasso, Pastor of Student Ministries

Everyone has moments of doubt. We doubt if we are heading in the right direction when going some place new. We doubt if that low-fat snack is really as healthy as it claims to be. We doubt if the people in our lives really care about us – even in spite of the evidence that they do. And sometimes our doubts are about God. Can we trust God? Does God really have our best in mind? What does a particular Bible verse actually mean?

When questions arise, they can be a little unsettling, especially questions about faith. But what if God is big enough to handle the questions? He is. What if God is secure enough to handle our uncertainty? He is. And what if doubt actually paves the way to a deeper belief, a stronger relationship with Christ? It can.

Last month we talked about those nagging questions that seem to linger in the back of our minds – the ones we hesitate to ever speak out loud, admit we have, or let anyone else know we think. Questions like: “Does God hear me when I pray?” “Does He have a plan for my life?” “Does God really have everything under control?”

Questions and doubts can be unsettling if they are left unsaid. We begin to think we are alone in our doubt, and often our doubts only grow until they paralyze our faith. But when we learn to admit our doubts openly, we learn that we are not the only ones. Everyone deals with questions. And when we learn to live with doubt, doubt can be a tool that strengthens our faith.

This Weekend's Message: One Voice

Most people are aware that there are many voices calling out to us in our culture today. These voices think they have the answers to life and connection with God. They might say, “If you would just jump on board with our way of thinking everything will go well with you.” But how do we know if that is true? How do we respond to these many voices? How do we know if any of these voices are the one true voice we all long for?

This week as we continue in Galatians we will take a look at “One Voice.” We will look at the only voice worthy of being followed. To do this we will look at the life of Paul. What can we learn from the story of a life that was radically transformed that will help us in our own journey towards God? How do we know that the voice we are following is the One Voice of God?

We’ll take a look at these questions as we dig deeper into what it means to be “Freely Limited.”

See you Sunday!

Pastor Gary

Pray For America

By Gary Keith, Lead Pastor 

I want to invite you to join people from all over our nation for a time of prayer. On Thursday, May 2, LBF will be joining many across the nation to pray. For the last 62 years the first Thursday in May has been set aside by our nation for prayer and I believe this day of prayer can have a significant impact on our country.

We have a great opportunity to see the Lord’s healing and renewing power made evident as we gather to humbly come before God in prayer. The theme for this year is “Pray for America.” The goal is to emphasize the need for people to come together and through prayer make their requests known as they place their faith in the unfailing character of God who is sovereign over all governments, authorities, and men.

The organizers of this national event have chosen Matthew 12:21 as their key verse. This is a great passage as it restates a prophecy from Isaiah about Jesus Christ. In talking about Jesus it says:

“Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 

“He will not quarrel; or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory. 

“In His name the nations will put their hope.” 

Please consider taking some time (no more than 90 minutes) to come and join me and others from LBF in prayer for our nation. Let us call on our only hope – Jesus Christ. You’ll be glad you did!

Life Kids is the New Children’s Ministry

By Lauria Baiz, Director of Life Kids Children’s Ministry 

As you look around the Children’s Ministry you might have noticed that there is a new logo with a new name. We have been working hard to come up with a new name that coincides with LBF’s new mission statement and reflects the direction that our Children’s Ministry is headed. While mulling all of this over, the word “LIFE” kept sticking out to me. And since we are to passionately pursue LIFE in Jesus and our church name is LIFE Bible Fellowship, it became apparent to me that our Children’s Ministry should also use the word LIFE. And so Life Kids was put in place. This name encompasses our ministry to all of the children from birth-6th grade.

The next step was to come up with a theme and motto for Life Kids. Through many brainstorming sessions it was decided that the visual theme for the kids was going to be shapes. You may be asking why shapes? So here is the concept behind it: With using the idea of being shaped by God or being the clay and God the potter (Jeremiah 18:6 and Isaiah 64:8), I wanted our Children’s Ministry to be about shaping hearts for Jesus. Using a play on words the shape theme was born and you may have already noticed that some shapes have begun to pop up.

The most prominent place that you can see this is in the room that the 1st-4th graders meet in each Sunday morning for worship. Formerly known as “Worship Island,” it is in the process of being transformed into “The Cube.” There are new large graphics of cubes on the walls and other three-dimensional shapes that are currently being built.

With each age group there is going to be a different version of the shape theme. On the nursery side of the church the theme will reflect basic shapes. The basic, simple shape is similar to a new Christian that has a simple understanding or basic knowledge about God’s Word. As we get older and have more knowledge of God’s Word, we become more complex and so do our shapes. On the elementary side of the church you will see 3-D shapes that designate our 1st-4th grade space. Last, but definitely not least, our 5th-6th grade program will be referred to as 56°. Since this is our oldest group, they will have a building blueprint theme that is based on building their life by the blueprints God has laid out for them.

This is all in its beginning stages, but as time goes on you will see it being put into place more and more throughout the Life Kids Children’s Ministry. I have thoroughly enjoyed this project and am very excited for what’s to come!

This Weekend's Message: One Gospel

I remember the first time that I used a GPS. I have a miserable sense of direction and I frequently get lost, so the presence of a GPS was a welcome addition for our family. I would simply tell it where I wanted to go, and it would give me step-by-step directions. If I did exactly what it said, I would get where I wanted to go.

In a feat of irony, the GPS simultaneously brought both freedom and limitations. It brought limitations because I was instructed on exactly when to turn, when to exit, how many miles to travel, and what freeways to take. But it also brought freedom. It freed me from anxiety that I would go the wrong way. It freed me from ignorance about how far I had to travel. It freed me from the consequences of consistently being late to meetings or appointments. The GPS is just one example of how freedom and limitations come in tandem more often than we think.

This Sunday, as we begin our study in Galatians, the Apostle Paul will demonstrate how this idea of being freely limited applies to the gospel of Jesus. There is freedom to be had! But that freedom will be nullified if we don’t embrace certain limitations.

Dan

Freely Limited

By Dan Franklin, Pastor of Teaching 

I remember the first time that I used a GPS. I have a miserable sense of direction and I frequently get lost, so the presence of a GPS was a welcome addition for our family. We would simply tell it where we wanted to go and it would give us step-by-step directions. If we did exactly what it said, we would get where we wanted to go.

Here is the question: Did the GPS bring freedom or did it bring limitations?

It certainly brought limitations. Instead of simply going wherever I wanted, I was instructed on exactly when to turn, when to exit, how many miles to travel, and what freeways to take. It would be hard to argue that the GPS didn’t bring with it some limitations, but it also brought freedom. It freed me from anxiety that I would go the wrong way. It freed me from ignorance about how far I had to travel. It freed me from the consequences of consistently being late to meetings or appointments. The GPS brought freedom, but it also brought limitations.

We often think that freedom and limitations are at odds, but they come in tandem more often than we might think. We experience the freedom of security when we limit how we spend our money. We experience freedom from conflict in our relationships when we limit our words and don’t speak flippantly or rudely to others. We experience freedom from addictions when we limit our use of food or alcohol or other things.

Freedom is not at odds with limitations; the two are connected.

There is no way around the limitations that are given in the Bible. While we may choose to ignore them, God clearly has given us limitations through His ethical commands and limitations when it comes to our options for how we understand truth.

The Bible teaches that there is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4), one Savior (Acts 4:12), one way to salvation (John 14:6), one path to life (Matthew 7:13-14), one true gospel message (Galatians 1:8-9), and one way to eternal life (1 John 5:11-12). On top of this, the Bible gives us commands and limitations when it comes to sex (1 Corinthians 6:18-20), marriage (Matthew 19:1-9), money (1 Timothy 6:6-10), our words (James 3:1-12), and our attitudes (Galatians 5:19-21). There is no doubt that those of us who embrace the Bible embrace significant limitations on what we do and believe.

The big question is not whether or not God gives us limitations, but rather how these limitations impact our freedom. Do they kill our freedom or do they bring us freedom?

The book of Galatians is all about freedom. The Apostle Paul writes because of his passionate desire that God’s people would experience the freedom that God bought for them through His Son, Jesus Christ. But this freedom comes through one gospel (1:10) from one divine source (1:12) about one path to justification (2:16) through one Redeemer (3:13), bringing us into one new family (3:26-29). The freedom presented in Galatians comes to us only when we embrace the limitations given to us in Scripture.

If you embrace the Bible’s limiting teachings on salvation, you will be called intolerant by those around you. If you embrace the Bible’s limiting teachings on morality, you will be called prudish and judgmental by those around you, and you will have to deny yourself a lot of things that look appealing. There is a cost to embracing the path that Jesus gives us. But this cost, with its limitations, is not the enemy of freedom.

These limitations are the path – the only path – to the freedom that Jesus brings.