Lisa and I  went to see “Get Smart” yesterday afternoon……  It was goofy, but I think that was the plan.  I had read several pretty bad reviews but it was not all that bad.

If you have an afternoon with nothing to do or you want something to rent when it comes out on DVD…..  There are some funny make you laugh scenes…….and some good explosions and wrecked car scenes….and a little romance…..

e-note to LCC

Dear Friends,

This past week was an awesome week for the testimony for LCCers being God’s love with skin.  I think the final total was 47 who showed up eager to serve at an elderly widow’s house in Euless to work hard for hours building, painting, and over a huge construction dumpster full of cleaning up.  We met at 8:30am at the church for breakfast and then caravanned over to the house where some worked till after 6:pm.  A few others are still going back to finish odds and ends.  Even though it was hard work and summer hot,  it was a good time for all involved including a very appreciative home-owner  named Dorothy. 

 A special thanks for all the pre-work and organization done by Pastor Brent, Matt Bedlington (In House Contractor) and the Iron Men 2008 men’s leadership team.

 We have committed to the City of Euless to another house and we are working on the date or dates for that event. 

 LCC is back to work this week, June 30 - July 3, as we participate in “Feed the Kids 2008″ in partnership with G.R.A.C.E.(Grapevine Relief and Community Exchange).   We will  feed over 200 kids daily who qualify and receive free lunch at school but need lunch in the summer.  We were a part of this last summer and it was a great experience.  There will be a list of food donations and you can sign-up to volunteer in Connection Corner on Sunday morning.  Volunteers will help with preparation, serving, and playing and talking with the kids at lunch time.  Take a lunch break this week and use it serving kids and being God’s love with skin.  We still need some volunteers and I can promise it will be a blessing for you.  If you want more info you can e-mail Patti@lifeconnectionchurch.org or call her at 817.685.1110 first thing Monday morning.

 Our Back Pack ‘08 is another opportunity to make a difference.  On Saturday, August 16, we will have a Carnival Day at LCC and be giving away back packs full of school supplies to any kid that needs it.  Bear Creek Elementary will be letting kids know.  Your donation of $30.00 will by a bag full of supplies and we will have opportunities to volunteer at the event and a Christian Illusionists will be performing and sharing the Gospel with kids in a very unique and entertaining way…… You can donate on Sunday morning or mail your check to: Life Connection Church, 101 W. Glade Suite 102, Euless, TX  76039…..  $30.00 will purchase one back pack.  We have set a 200 back pack Goal…..  We are getting donations from companies who are willing to help also so you might want to ask your company if they would participate.  For more info Email Chantel@lifeconnectionchurch.org .

 As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities to jump in and serve to show God’s love with skin and we will be doing other events throughout the year.  DOK is an important part of LCC’s ministry. 

 This Sunday at LCC will be a baptism Sunday in both services.  We have a wide age range of people being baptized and showing the world their commitment  to making Jesus Christ Lord of their lives and the life change Jesus has made in them.  There is still time to get on the list to be baptized this Sunday.  Reply to this email, I want to be baptized, and leave me your phone number and I will call you to answer any questions you may have about baptism and explain the procedures.

 I will be continuing teaching the series:   Jesus: …so that you will know the truth…The Gospel of Luke this Sunday.  We will be looking at the childhood of Jesus and how we can learn to develop in our relationship with God by looking at Jesus.  Luke is the only writer of the Gospels to mention Jesus’ childhood and we will find out why it was so important to him.  

 I have received some great reports of the life changing impact LCCers have had as we have gone through this study of the life of Jesus.  God is moving and changing our lives. 

 If you are part of the LCC family or are looking for a church to call home, I hope to see you Sunday.  If you are part of the extended LCC Family as supporters through your friendship, prayers, and even resources, thanks for all you do and I hope you will be in church worshiping and serving our Lord on Sunday.

 If you are vacationing, be safe and remember your prayers and financial support are still appreciated and needed at any church to which you belong.

Serving with you in Christ

Royal

Looking for a good animated sci-fi summer family movie?  According to Josh Hurst of Christianity Today, Wall-E is one to see.

Here are some out takes from his review:

WALL•E is rated G, and, apart from one or two scenes that might be a little frightening for the very young, it’s suitable for all ages. The short film that precedes it, Presto, contains some Loony Tunes-style, slapstick violence.

The real story here is WALL•E himself, a small, lonely robot—indeed, the only functioning bot left on Earth—who spends his days compacting garbage, with a faithful cockroach as his only companion. WALL•E (a Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is marvelous, perhaps Pixar’s greatest character yet—a (mostly) silent film star who is as expressive, as empathetic and as multi-dimensional, as an animated character can be … and this despite the fact that he doesn’t speak a language other than the beeps and blipsand other cutesy “bot talk” one might hear from R2-D2 or Luxo Jr. (Pixar’s little lamp mascot). WALL•E is an amazing feat of character design and of animation.

This is science fiction the way science fiction is meant to be. It creates a world that’s clearly not our own, but it’s totally believable as the place we’re headed, maybe a hundred years down the line. But it’s not cynical or misanthropic; like the best sci-fi, it uses these imaginative conceits to ask big questions about our world and our humanity. It’s a movie about love amidst chaos, about the dangers of unchecked greed and the forces that overcome it.

It’s a film that continues the trend of Pixar’s last movie, Ratatouille—a trend toward more complex storytelling that’s as much for grown-ups as it is for kids. That trend seems set to change at some point, what with a third Toy Story in the works, but, if WALL•Eis any indication, Pixar’s unbroken trend of excellent, meaningful film making is in no danger of slowing down. This movie is an extraordinary achievement, and an example of truly fearless filmmaking.

You can find the rest of the article by clicking here……

Do you find it harder to forgive some people than others?  There are the remorseful who obviously are sorry for whatever pain they have caused you.  For the most part these folks are the easiest to forgive…. Maybe easy is not the right word.  I guess it depends on the offense.  Maybe in your mind you can forgive but ever trusting again could possibly be elusive. 

There are other offenders who are not remorseful.  They feel it was their right to hurt you and they may even say they are sorry but it is obvious by their actions and maybe the circumstances they are not….  It is just easier for them to say sorry…  Like the child you tell he won’t get dessert or get to go out and play unless he says he is sorry.

I guess the degree of forgiveness difficulty is effected by the circumstance, the person, and whatever history the offense is being filtered through.  We want the offender to pay.  We want the offender to hurt at least as much as we hurt.  Some offenders wonder throughout life offending people they get close to and then moving on toward the next offense believing to be justified in their actions with the last…..

We have a hard time forgiving those who show no remorse.  We want them to  pay before they are let  off the hook.  For those offenders, we have to learn to give mercy.   I think mercy is the key to forgiving those who are the most difficult to forgive.  We want them to pay for the pain they have caused.   In order for the offended to heal, he must give mercy to the offender.  

Mercy  Jesus said, “Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Matt 18:33

I like Blackaby’s devotional today.  Maybe it will help.

Mercy is a gift. It is undeserved. Punishment and consequences are sin’s just reward, but the merciful person does not demand justice for the guilty person. If it were not for God’s mercy, we all would have faced His terrible judgment long ago. If not for His mercy, He would have condemned us after our first offense. If not for His mercy, He would punish us each time we sin. But rather than letting us bear the full punishment for our sin, God demonstrated His mercy when He paid the penalty for our sin Himself.

Do you find it hard to show mercy? It may be that you do not comprehend the mercy that God has shown to you. Jesus commanded His disciples to extend the same mercy to others that they had received from God. When they considered the incredible, undeserved mercy they had been granted, how could they refuse to extend the same unconditional mercy to others?

Could anyone sin against us to the same degree that we have sinned against God? Could any offense committed against us be as undeserved as the abuse hurled against_the sinless Son of God?How quickly we forget the mercy that God graciously bestowed on us, only to focus on the injustices we endure from others! If you find it difficult to forgive others, you may need to meditate on the mercy of God that prevents you from experiencing God’s justifiable wrath. Scripture describes God as “Ready to pardon, / Gracious and merciful, / Slow to anger, / Abundant in lovingkindness” (Neh. 9:17b).

e-note to LCC

Dear Friends,

St. Francis of Assisi is credited with saying, “Preach the Gospel always, and when necessary use words.”  I am not sure who said, “People don’t care how much you know, till they know how much you care.”, but it is true when it comes to sharing the Good News of Christ and Christianity with the pre-Christian.  As Christ-followers, a very important part of our faith in action is to show the love of Christ to others.  We are to be God’s love with skin.  Jesus said that what is most important is to love God and to love people and the only way to really show our love for God, and His love for us, is to love others.  That is why I love our Deeds of Kindness ministry.

 Our DOK ministry is about showing people God’s love with no strings attached.  We serve others to show God’s love.  Every DOK event is planned with that goal in mind.  It is always neat to see the response of the recipients of DOK and it’s effect on the witnesses of God’s love in action.  Our LCC DOK volunteers are very generous in their serving and more than blessed for their efforts.  In the past few months LCC DOK people; fed free lunch to the teachers at Bear Creek Elementary School, volunteered at Bear Creek’s field day to free up parents to be with their children, and served at the Euless Arbor Days Weekend.  My prayer is that people in our community look at the people of LCC and Christians in general and realize that God’s people are good and we love others because God loved us first.

 DOK doesn’t rest in the summer.  In the next couple of months we have some more DOK opportunities to serve our community.  Tomorrow (Saturday) at 8:30AM, 50 volunteers will meet at LCC for breakfast and then head over to Denton drive in Euless to do repair and clean up the yard and the outside of a nice older lady’s house.  We will be painting, cleaning, and replacing wood and siding around the outside of the house, fixing a fence, and doing some much needed yard clean up and tree trimming as part of the Revitalize Euless Project of the City of Euless.  Brent has talked to and obtained donations for food and supplies from Home Depot, Lowes, Incredible Pizza and Kroger.  There are still some last minute donations coming in and I will report on all of those in a later e-mail.  We are extremely excited about the number of LCCers who are taking part in this DOK event.

 We need some more volunteers and donations for the week of June 30 - July 3 as we participate in “Feed the Kids 2008″ in partnership with G.R.A.C.E. to feed over 200 kids daily who would not normally have lunches for the summer.  We were a part of this last summer and it was a great experience.  There will be a list of food donations and you can sign-up to volunteer in Connection Corner on Sunday morning.  Volunteers will help with preparation, serving, and playing with the kids at lunch time.  If you want more info you can e-mail Patti@lifeconnectionchurch.org or call her at 817.685.1110 first thing Monday morning.

 Our Back Pack ‘08 is another opportunity to make a difference.  On Saturday, August 16, we will have a Carnival Day at LCC and be giving away back packs full of school supplies to any kid that needs it.  Bear Creek Elementary will be letting kids know.  Your donation of $30.00 will by a bag full of supplies and we will have opportunities to volunteer at the event and a Christian Illusionists will be performing and sharing the Gospel with kids in a very unique and entertaining way……

As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities to jump in and serve to show God’s love with skin and we will be doing other events throughout the year.  DOK is an important part of LCC’s ministry.

Thanks and God Bless

Review today is by Todd Hertz at Christianity Today…….

Get Smart seemingly does several things right in remaking the quirky spy parody created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. First, it involves Brooks and Henry in some capacity as consultants. Second, it features near-perfect casting with Steve Carell as CONTROL agent Maxwell Smart, Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, and Alan Arkin as their Chief. And thirdly, it largely captures the spirit of the original while paying homage.

However, the film still can’t overcome its biggest hurdle: Get Smart is just not funny.

You can find the rest of the review here…..

I have several weddings coming up this summer that I will be officiating.  During pre-marital counseling and even in the ceremony itself I stress the fact that opposites attract.  I believe it is part of God’s plan.  We each have our own set of strengths and weaknesses and we are attracted to a person who will compliment those traits.   Early in the relationship these differences are what attract us but later in the marriage the things we loved about our differences become the object of many conflicts.  We lose patience with our spouse’s weaknesses and we often get angry with the direction our mate goes with her or his strengths, especially since his or her strengths tend to maginify our weaknesses. 

The answer to these problems is obvously love.  To make opposites work.  Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!  1 Cor 13:4-8

Gary Thomas has an article in Christianity Today that gives seven ways to accept our differences with each other and make the marriage relationship strong.

You can find the article by clicking right here…..

There is an article in today’s UK Telegraphon internet addiction.  British psychiatrists believe that 1 in 10 online users are addicted.  I know what you are thinking, “Man, maybe I check my email too much or I am hanging out on Myspace too long. 

Many of us probably do spend way too much time on the internet or checking our emails.  Before a behavior can be diagnosed as an addiction it must have a certain amount of control over your life.  The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something in a way that it effects your every day living and when you are not doing it it compulsively occupies your thoughts.

They suffer four symptoms: They forget to eat and sleep; they need more advanced technology or more hours on-line as they develop ‘resistance’ to the pleasure given by their current system; if they are deprived of their computer, they experience genuine withdrawal symptoms; And in common with other addictions, the victims also begin to have more arguments, to suffer fatigue, to get lower marks in tests and to feel isolated from society.

Early research into the subject found highly educated, socially awkward men were the most likely sufferers but more recent work suggests it is now more of a problem for middle-aged women who are spending hours at home on their computers.

 See the rest of the article here……..

Unlucky for some? Dutch statisticians have established that Friday 13th, a date regarded in many countries as inauspicious, is actually safer than an average Friday.

A study published on Thursday by the Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics (CVS) showed that fewer accidents and reports of fire and theft occur when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday than on other Fridays.

See the rest of the article here…..

It’s Friday again and I think that Christian parents ought to be aware of the movies that are out there and have the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about movies they watch and allow their children to see.

This week “The Incredible Hulk” hits a theater near you..  This movie is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images, and brief suggestive comment. Russ Breimeier of Christianity Today gives Hulk 2 out of a possible 4 stars. 

Breimeier writes:

The opening 15 minutes are the best: a fascinating character study of Banner (Edward Norton) with minimal dialogue. The scientist is laying low, living in a slummy one-room apartment and working at a juice bottling factory. It’s the portrait of a sad, lonely man learning to control his “condition” while quietly searching for a cure. Treating his radiated blood as an infection, he wears a wrist monitor to keep track of his pulse rate, practicing yoga and breathing exercises to manage his stress lest he become his raging alter ego. The film cleverly keeps track of this with an occasional caption, noting that it’s been 158 days since Banner’s last transformation—a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

Many are saying that this film is more exciting than its predecessor, but I’m not so sure. It took 45 minutes for the Hulk to appear last time, with a total of 3 or 4 action sequences. The Hulk appears earlier in this film-though mostly in shadow, and there are also 3 or 4 action sequences total. All in all, The Incredible Hulk follows a predictable pattern of talk, chase, “Hulk smash,” repeat. And with action as staged as this, I found myself longing for more context and character development (like Iron Man).

Too bad we never quite find it.

See the rest of the review here…….