It’s the 2010 All-Church English Zone Refuel Meeting!  It's time to refuel and get ready for the Small Group semester!  Even though there are two locations for this Zone Refuel event, the meetings will be held simultaneously on Tuesday, August 31,2010 from 7-9 PM!

Our North Zone Refuel Meeting will be held at New Life Lakeview located at New Life Lakeview located at 2958 North Damen Ave in Chicago, IL 60618.  Our South Zone Refuel Meeting will be held at New Life Cicero located at 3601 South 61st Ave in Cicero, IL 60804

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact EJ Lyon by phone at 773-388-0637 or by email at ejl@newlifechicago.org.

To register online, CLICK HERE

We now have two teenagers in our family! Our 13 yr old daughter joins our 14 yr old daughter as our 2^nd teen. Some people roll their eyes and make discouraging comments about the teen years but we know that God can work in young people! Both my wife and I came to Christ as teens and I’m glad to be working with our youth at New Life Midway. It’s time for our all-church Youth Retreat on May 14-16th. The theme is “Live on Purpose”. This should be a great time! Pastor Joshua and the team from Melrose/MontClare are leading the teaching while Pastor Matt from Little Village is leading the games. 7th graders thru High School—sign up on line under the “Current Events” section of this website. Adults can apply to be a Chaperone. Don’t miss it!!!

There isn’t an easy or pat answer to maintaining balance in your life. Sometimes I think that Christians overate “balance”. It’s not so much about balance as it is about boundaries…living your life in such a way that the Holy Spirit is un- quenched and un-grieved in all your relationships/endeavors.

Practice life and ministry out of the intimacy of your relationship with the Trinity –just like Jesus did. In reading the gospels it often looked like Jesus life was out of balance…yet he only did what the Father told him to…he lived his life out of the overflow of his relationship with the Father.

 - JP

 

www.johnpalmieri.com

Relationships: A small group gives you the opportunity to get to know people at a more intimate level.  Sunday mornings are an awesome time to worship with the whole family of God, hear a sermon, engage in corporate vision, but a small group gives you a chance to build deeper friendships.

Learning the Word of God: Sunday’s sermon is a great time to get a broad teaching of the Word of God. However, small groups provide time for one on one discussion. Your group can provide a time to clarify answers to questions from Sunday’s sermon.

Opportunity to Serve Others: One of the greatest joys of being in a small group is the chance to bear others burdens, serve their needs, and step out beyond your own issues.

Place to invite friends: A small group is a natural place to invite friends and family. Sometimes people are more comfortable going to a small group then attending a Sunday morning service.

Place to Pray and Share your needs: A gathering of a few people is a natural environment for prayer. A big part of prayer is conservation with God and small groups provide the perfect environment for communing with God.

Engage in worship: Gathering in a small group allows you to experience worship at a very intimate level.

Follow the New Testament pattern: Acts 2:42-47 gives us a blueprint of what the early church was passionately committed to. The early Christ Followers gathered in homes, shared meals, read the Word, prayed, and worshipped. When you participate in a small group you are following the New Testament pattern.

Today I’ve chosen to be intentionally Thankful and oh! What a breath of fresh air giving thanks has been to me. I’ve lost count on how many times the Spirit of God has nudged me to give thanks…you know to focus on the positive instead of camping in the land of the negative. When I give thanks to the Lord I begin to become unstuck, I see and think more clearly and above all I cultivate an atmosphere of faith in my own heart…one that spills out into the lives of others. Oh God, let me never be comfortable in the land of an unthankful heart. I choose this day to praise you and give thanks unto you…you are good! Amen.

I Thess 5:18 “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

Psalm 106:1 “Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” 

We are now in the third week of Advent. Derived from the Latin venio, (come) and ad, (to) or come to, in Advent we anticipate the celebration of the coming of God in flesh. Often, I’ve found great comfort in the truth of God’s incarnation. There isn’t a day that passes when we do not hear of some type of human suffering, Throughout history, injustice, poverty, scandal, health issues and more have all dotted the map of humanity and yet in the midst of it all – God has come. He has answered the problem of human suffering by becoming human himself. Indeed, he has not abandoned us but took on our vulnerable state and taught us how to really live.

      My prayer for you this Advent season is to find time to nurture a sense of appreciation and anticipation of the coming of Christ –not only as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes; but also as the Second Coming King. 

John Palmieri 

    Have you ever been hurt by people who you trusted?  Ever find it easy to play a part and hard to be real?  Maybe you can relate to this song by Simon and Garfunkel?

“A winters day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.
I’ve built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
Its laughter and its loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.”

    Many times when we’re hurt we build walls to keep people out.  We figure if we can keep people out, then we can keep ourselves from being hurt again.  Anything to avoid pain, right?  That was my case.  Having suffered through my parents divorce and being stabbed in the back by friends who swore their loyalty to me, I came to the conclusion early on that people just can’t be trusted.
 
    I unknowingly built up walls to distance myself.  The message I got from my high school years was that I was on my own.  I accepted that and decided that if I was on my own, then I was going to live that way and not let anyone in.  Nobody was going to be able to hurt me anymore.  
 
    Well, that didn’t work either because as much as I didn’t want to admit it to myself, PEOPLE NEED PEOPLE.  God designed us for community.  “God said, It’s not good for man to be alone” Genesis 2:18.  “Two are better than one... If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!...” Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.
 
    At the age of 17 I laid my life in God’s hands and allowed him to shape me.  As time went on I began to realize (slowly) that these walls existed.  Even though God rescued me from the kingdom of darkness, I was (and still am) in a process of facing my fears and building real relationships with people I trust with whom I can be vulnerable.
 
    God used Nancy (my lovely bride) to help me see myself more clearly.  She is one of the biggest blessings I’ve ever known.  Her friendship has caused me to see how much I tend to pull away and isolate myself.  God used people to show me how much healing still lay ahead of me.
 
    Though it is quite scary at times, I’ve decided to be vulnerable.  It is then that God is my protector and fortress.  No more being my own protector.  As David said in Psalm 25:1-2 “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God.  Do not let me be put to shame.”  I’m letting God fight my battles for me.  I’m trusting His sufficiency to permeate my deep insecurities and fill my life with His love so that I can live life to His fullest intention: in community.  
 
    It is then that I see the great beauty and wisdom in God’s plan to use people in the lives of people.  Simon and Garfunkel were wrong.  No man is an island.  People need people.  Have you cultivated the kind of friendships that grant you the freedom to be vulnerable?  Why not start today?
 
    “Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does it’s work.”  Ephesians 4:15-16

Living a life of worship to the true God yields countless benefits to the worshiper.  She will soar above the burdens of shame, anxiety, fear, doubt, and depression to name a few.  She will not be tossed around and abused by the false gods of image, pleasure, and substitute acceptance.  She will experience victory over bad attitudes and skewed perspectives that pin people down.  
 
In the context of worship, God’s word says that “Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.  Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name” Psalm 97:11-12.  
 
Worship (to the true God) is the greatest activity available to us.  It is arrayed with benefits (Psalm 103:2).  Yet the benefit we experience is not the bedrock reason for our worship.  In fact worship is not about us at all.  It is not about what we can get from God, or how he can make us feel in his presence.  Like we sing in the song “I will not forget you”, “My sacrifice is not what you can give, but what I alone can give to you”.    
 
We worship God because of who He is.  His greatness is beyond description and his intimate love for us without limit.  Worship is a wonderful debt gladly brought by creatures lovingly wrought and redeemed.  “We were created by him and for him” says Colossians 1:16, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together”, and on top of all that, “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” Colossians 1:13-14.
 
As creatures, we owe a debt of worship to our creator just for the mere fact of our existence.  To refuse to acknowledge him as God, and our selves as his debtors is to harden our hearts in rebellion.  Rebellion against God separates us from intimacy with God; separation from his presence, from his goodness, from his life that we so desperately need.   “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator who is forever praised.  Amen” (Romans 1:21,25).  
 
We all worship.  If not God, we’ll worship our selves or someone else.  So, “Why Worship God”?  Worship God because he made you, he died in your place to save you, and if you don’t worship him your heart will grow hard and you will be given over to sin.  Worship Him.