Miriam & I are in Hilo Hawaii!!!!!

We arrived here in Hilo this afternoon. We are staying with our good friends Allen and Julie Townsend. They are the pastor’s of the Hilo Church of God. They are a great young couple that are doing a tremendous job building a Church here in Hilo HI.

We will be spending the week with them. I will be speaking next Sunday (3-1-09) at the Kona Church of God with Pastor Keith Elliott.

We will be staying in touch through this Blog and emails and our new medium “Face Book”. I am new to Face Book but Pastor Thad White is trying to get me up on the latest and greatest tools for Ministry. We have started a Soldotna Church of God Group on Face Book. Check it out and join if you would like.

Our Church Purpose Statement is “Changing our world, One life at a time!”  I would like to ask you a simple question, Have you made a difference in the life of at least one other person today? If not, why not?

Think about it,

Pastor Alan

God’s 401K

I have been teaching a series this January/February on “Living is Giving”. You can watch the entire series on our Internet TV Channel. While I was preparing for the series it occurred to me that when we give to God He keeps a record of that giving. According to my understanding of God’s Word he blesses us in direct proportion to our giving. Luke 6:38, I Cor 9:1-15. It’s like God has His own 401K Plan!

Now I’m not referring just to giving money although that is a huge part of the giving I’m talking about. I am also talking about all sorts of things and all sorts of ways we can give. I’m talking about what I call “Acts of Random Kindness” we have the opportunity to give everyday. The little things that no one sees, except God! You know, like holding the door open for the person behind us. Things like putting the cart in the cart bin at the Grocery Store so the next person doesn’t ding their car door on it and the “cart chaser” doesn’t have to chase the carts all over the lot. You know just little things!

There are a lot of people that get very nervous when a preacher starts talking about “money”. There are some people that get down right Angry!!!! I have heard some people say “there he goes again, all that preacher wants is my money”. Well first of all I don’t want all your money and neither does God. However what God does want is all of you! He doesn’t want just 10 percent of you, He wants all of you. He wants us to surrender our entire being, body, soul and spirit, to Him. His Word is quite clear. Romans 12:1-2, Mark 8:34-37. Don’t forget it is impossible for us to give anything to God anyway because He already owns it all. I Chronicles 29:14-15

What God wants from us is obedience. He wants us to obey His Word and keep His Commandments. He really does have our best interest at heart. He commands us to “bring the tithe into the store house”, which I believe means your local church. Malachi 3:10. The tithe is 10% or our income. He thinks we are smart enough to figure out on our own how much that is. However it goes much deeper that that.

I love Matthew 22:36-40 where Jesus told the Pharisees the greatest command is to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength and the second is like unto it, to love our neighbor as our self.” Now that is GIVING!

Here’s the bottom line! When we give to God he keeps records and he also pays great dividends. It’s much like a 401K only better! In a 401K we pay into it all our life and when we retire we hope the market has done well enough there will be enough there to live on! With God’s Plan we are guaranteed “Eternal Life” and all the blessing that goes with it. However we are also promised great dividends in this life as well as the life to come.

Remember a guarantee is only as good as the person making it! God will fulfill His every promise, you can count on it.When was your last deposit?

Pastor Alan

 

Jerry and Margaret’s Second Sunday in Church!

Jerry and Margaret were in church again this past Sunday. We have two services on Sunday morning, 9:00 and 11:00. Last Sunday they came to the 9:00 service and this Sunday they attended the 11:00 service. Jerry came up and shared with the congregation again this week as he did last Sunday. He shared how much he and Margaret appreciated our church and the fact that they let me spend the time I did with them and all the support and prayers our church family provided for them during this difficult time in their life.

I am so blessed as a pastor to be part of such a wonderful fellowship of believers. I don’t say a lot about out church in the way of bragging about them but I am so honored to be here in Soldotna. Now don’t get me wrong we have our problems like all churches but we are blessed with an awesome fellowship of believers. The Soldotna Church of God has a tremendous sense of “Community”.

Living in Alaska for most of us means our families of origin are far away. Now this can be good and bad! There are many people that are happy not to have family close and I can understand that to some degree. However we all need family. We all need the closeness of others in a relationship of community. We really do need each other.

Now I’m no Sociologist and I haven’t had a lot of training in the area of Community living but, as that great philosopher Forrest Gump said, “I’m not a smart man but I know what love is”. I know that we all need to be loved and we all need to give love. I know that we all need acceptance and we all need to accept others. I know we all need to be forgiven and we all need to be forgiving!

These are three of the main ingredients for what I call a “Fellowship of Believers”. Jesus said the two commandments that all others in the entire Law and Prophets are built upon and can be summed up in are; to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is Christianity. That is Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness! We all need it. No, we all crave it! To me these are three of our greatest human needs. We all need to belong to a “Community”. In the words of another great philosopher “No man is an island”. We all need to be receiving and we all need to be giving.

The questions I want to ask you today are: Have you found your place in a Community? Have you found a “Fellowship of Believers”? Are you receiving Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness? And perhaps most importantly of all, are you giving Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness?

It all starts with you!!!! Go for it!

Yes You Can,

Pastor Alan

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