Personal well-being blossoms among U.S. adults who strongly identify with their religion, regularly attend church and have three or more close friends in their congregation, say sociologists Chaeyoon Lim of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Robert Putnam of Harvard University. Members of this devoutly connected group cite especially high levels of life satisfaction regardless of how many or how few friends they have outside their congregation, Lim and Putnam report in the December American Sociological Review.

Wow. Regularly going to church & having Godly friends really does make your life happier!

Here are a two bible verses that said it first:

Psalm 5:11-12  But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Spread your protection over them, that all who love your name may be filled with joy.
  For you bless the godly, O Lord; you surround them with your shield of love.

Psalm 133:1  How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!

So, don’t ignore the evidence – get connected to God through your local church.

Here are 5 quick tips on how to be happy:

1. Know the Lord as your Savior – nothing else matters!

2. Join a vibrant, Bible believing church. You ought to sense the joy of the Lord when you walk into the building. If you feel like you are at a funeral service – visit somewhere else!

3. Join a small group / Sunday school class / life group – or whatever you want to call it. You need to meet & make friends with people who are in the same life situation as you.

4. Go all the time. The study found that it was people who attended regularly that experienced more happiness. You can’t go to church too much!

5. Grow in the Lord – the closer you get to Jesus the more joy & happiness you will find.

Be happy – go to church!!

Think for a moment about some of the odd events that surrounded the birth of Christ:

1. Mary, a virgin, conceived the child of God. Angles appeared to her and spoke to her and she told people about it.

2. A star guided a band of wise men – traveling in all their pomp  - to Jerusalem looking for someone to be king! They told the current king they were being guided by a bright light to his replacement!!

3. Jesus was born in a manger. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born in a smelly cave surrounded by sheep and manure. But, in the providence of God, where else would the Lamb of God be born!

4. Shepherds, working the third shift, were visited by a multitude of the heavenly host and told of the event. They probably saw and heard thousands of angels. Shepherds – not royalty – had the birth of Christ announced to them.

5. Joseph had his engaged wife tell him she was expecting – and GOD was the father! They lock people up for saying things like that.

I could go on and on. That’s just the main characters. That’s just enough to make you ponder a little bit this Christmas season.

Don’t just read the Christmas story. Read the story and talk about it. How would you have felt? Reacted?

Then remember, God did all of that so you could have a relationship with Him.  He did it so that your sins could be forgiven – so that you could go to heaven – so that you could be saved.

It’s a great story.

And…… it really was a strange way to save the world.

I’m not talking about your crazy uncle or cousin that everyone is ashamed of at the family reunion. {if you don’t know of a crazy uncle or cousin you’re probably it }I’m talking about how crazy our family and home situations can be at times.

The days of the perfect family seem to be over. Where did ‘Father Knows Best’ and ‘Leave it to Beaver’ families go? Fact is, our family lives don’t resemble that well ordered life anymore.

So what does that mean? Can God still do something with your family? Can God still use your family? Can some “sense” come out of your crazy family?

Believe it or not – He can do great things with your Crazy Family! There are a lot of crazy families in the bible and there is help and hope for yours!

Join us beginning on Mother’s Day and find out how. Invite someone to be with you. Almost all of us know a family that is hurting and needs help. You can really make a difference in their lives by just inviting them to church.

PS. If you click on the picture you can watch a video where I talk about the upcoming series even more.

1. My marriage is fine I don’t need a workshop.

2. My marriage is a mess but it is too late.

3. My marriage is a mess but I’m not going to admit it. My head is in the sand.

All three are the result of faulty thinking.

First if your marriage is fine you can use the workshop to make it great. Marriage is not one of those things you “conquer” and then move on to something else. It is one of those things that has to be continually managed. Problems can develop overnight that set us back. You can use the Real Life Marriage workshop as preventative maintenance.

For the second group, know that is never too late. I have seen marriages come back together from the worst of circumstances. Your marriage is worth giving it every effort you can. Your marriage is well worth a six hour and $97 chance.

For the third group – get your head out of the sand!! Don’t play games with your marriage. It is too important.

The Real Life Marriage workshop is just a few days away. I urge you to sign up.

Your Marriage is worth it!!

There may be 50 stupid things people do for love, but according to Hayley and Michael DiMarco, those stupid things are derived from five basic acts: emotional, mental, physical, social and spiritual. These acts of cupidity are motivated by an erroneous belief system: the assumption that the world’s views on love supersede the logic and direction of God on the matter. Embracing this false assumption—and the lies that spring from it—inevitably leads to “cupidity” [a play on the words “stupidity and cupid] and its snares and pitfalls.

But lest you lose hope and think your “cupidity” is incurable; it isn’t. And this book on the subject goes a long way to enlighten you on how to cure your “cupidity” with a good dose of biblical wisdom. The Spiritual truths they present will detail how the lies you have been buying from the world have been keeping you from experiencing real love: God’s way.

Grab a copy of the book for you or for someone you know who is in a relationship and needs some advise before they make a mistake.

According to Barna, “More than 8 in 10 adults in the U.S. claim they had weekly religious education before age 12. Of those, 69 percent now attend religious programs weekly.”

What does that mean?

Parents that means you cannot overestimate the importance of having your child in church when they are young. Being part of a good children’s program and youth program has  a great impact on their spiritual lives later on.

So, to all of the parents reading – here are some admonitions:

1. Model a consistent Christian life for your child / teen. It is even better if they see Jesus in you!

2. Make Sunday School and Wednesday night youth worship/AWANA’s part of your regular routine without fail. I know your child has homework on Wednesdays but if they need to stay up a few minutes late it won’t harm them for life. Being detached from the youth group might. Make sure they are in Sunday School every Sunday. Don’t be a “hit or miss” family when it comes to Sunday School – your children will pay the price later on!

3. Make Christ the center of your home. Talk about Jesus / church all the time in a positive way. Don’t ever let them hear you complain about something going on at church.

We all want our children to grow up to be good citizens and good Christians. It doesn’t happen by accident!

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

As a matter of fact, this time of year many people make resolutions that revolve around molding them into the person they want to BECOME. Sadly, most people drop their resolutions within weeks.

According to A Marist University Poll,

Keeping Their Word?

33% of Americans recall making a New Year’s resolution last year, but how successful were they?  Of those residents, 65% said they kept their promise for at least part of the year while 35% did not.  Men were more steadfast than were women.  70% of men kept their resolution for at least part of 2009.  This compares with 59% of women.

Dedication has grown among Americans who have previously made a resolution.  While 65% of residents kept their resolution for 2009, 60% did so in 2008.

Why do we fail in our New Years Resolutions? Because we don’t know how to change. The Bible gives us clear instructions on how to BECOME the person we would like to be.

Starting this Sunday, I will share with you how you can BECOME all God intended for you to be. I will examine change in general, and then over the next few weeks we will look at some of the New Years Resolutions everyone makes and what the Bible says about them.

If you want to improve your family, finances, organizational skills, and many other things – don’t miss a service.

Check us out at www.libertybaptistchurch.ws

See you Sunday – prepare to leave changed!!

And its not just the numerical growth that is great, but Spiritual growth is taking place as well. Next week I will baptize over 1/2 dozen teenagers and college kids who have been saved recently. I am texted & Facebooked regularly by college and high school kids who ask me Bible questions and Christian living questions. Right now, we have college kids who are fasting from food, media, and television in order to draw closer to the Lord. Every week when I preach it is a huge encouragement to look down at the first 5 or 6 rows in the middle section and see our youth sitting there listening to every word or raising their hands in worship!!

With all of this going on here, I am reminded of something – God often sends revival through youth. One of the greatest revivals the world has ever experienced was the Great Welsh revival of the early 1900′s. Evan Roberts, who was just a young man, went about the countryside preaching a 4 point sermon:

1. Confess all known sin
2. Deal with and get rid of anything ‘doubtful’ thing in your life
3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly
4. Confess Christ publicly

Evan was full of the Spirit of God and for 2 years (until he collapsed from exhaustion) he saw hundreds come to Christ. People were changed in so many ways. The crime rate dropped, drunkards were reformed, pubs reported losses in trade. Bad language disappeared and never returned to the lips of many – it was reported that the pit ponies failed to understand their born again colliers who seemed to speak the new language of Zion – without curse and blasphemy – even football and rugby became uninteresting in the light of new joy and direction received by the Converts.

So, pray for your youth at Liberty. Pray for revival at Liberty. If you know someone who has a teenager invite them to church.

One of the greatest things they can do is to get that teenager involved in a youth group that is on fire for Jesus!

Right now – @ Liberty – they are on fire!!

You know we are living in a hedonistic society when 10 year olds are worrying about their body shape. Obviously, there may be some extreme cases where they should worry. That would be the exception not the rule. A few pounds here and there shouldn’t even be on the mind of a 10 year old!

If you are one of those kids – don’t fall into that trap. Don’t set the rock / country music or Hollywood stars up as your idols.

If you are a parent, don’t push that on your child. Let them be a kid. Teach them the greatest qualities in life are character & integrity. Teach them that their walk with God is far more important than their external looks.

1 Timothy 4:8 Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.

Johnny Diaz recently spoke to the same issue in his new song…enjoy….

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So, sign up and enjoy!!