Welcome! Welcome to Abundant Life! We are glad you are here. We trust that wherever you are on your spiritual journey, that you will find something for you and your family here at ALCC. It is our hope that as you join us in your our journey of seeking and finding God, your purpose and His plan for your life, that you will be changed. Those who call ALCC their church, their home, are everyday people just like you. We are all wanting to follow Christ and bring the message of hope to a hurting world. REAL PEOPLE, REAL LIVES, BEING TRANSFORMED A Monthly Insight into the Abundant Life MARCH 2012 Where lives are being changed 640 Grosvenor St. London Ont N5Y 3T4 519-858-4123 [email protected]Pastor Bill & Kathy Conversation Group Sunday Nights 6 Café 6:30 Group Sermon Series March 11-25
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Transcript
Welcome! Welcome to Abundant Life! We are glad you are here. We trust that wherever you are on your spiritual journey, that you will find something for you and your family here at ALCC.
It is our hope that as you join us in your our journey of seeking and finding God, your purpose and His plan for your life, that you will be changed.
Those who call ALCC their church, their home, are everyday people just like you. We are all wanting to follow Christ and bring the message of hope to a hurting world.
REAL PEOPLE, REAL LIVES, BEING TRANSFORMED
A Monthly Insight into the Abundant Life MARCH 2012
are between the ages of 12-17, join us on Tuesdays from
6:30-9:00 pm for intense games, intense clusters, in-
tense discovering and dis-cussing, intense friendships,
intense fun, intense making
fun of things, intense chillax-ing with an intense God,
IT’S JUST INTENSE EVERYTHING.
Doors open at 5:30pm.
HIS KIDZ Our children’s pro-
gram is growing in numbers and in faith. It’s just wonder-
ful to see how free and safe they feel in this place that we
call home. We now have split
our children into three age groups downstairs during
Sunday service to better serve them! Sunday School is from
10:45am to the end of the
service.
YOUNG ADULTS CALL TO ALL YOUNG ADULTS: Our
community goal is to coexist to showcase the
Grace of Christ, the Love of
God, and the Communion of the Spirit.
Don’t know what that means? Come out to the Crabby Joe’s
on Saturday March 3rd. Contact
either myself or my wife Beth-any for more details.
MUSIC: Andrew Thompson is
in the house of God leading and sharing his cultivated
heart of worship on Sunday
March 4th! Are you a member of ALCC? Play an instrument or
sing? Interested in joining the team? Contact either Johan
Laning or I.
MISSIONS “We are here and
we care.” was brought up in a meeting and that is the empha-
sis of the Mission’s Committee to be globally and locally aware
and active. Thank you all who
supported the (RED) cam-paign which raise over 1000
days worth of meds to prevent and treat HIV. There will be a
local campaign announced
shortly.
CHURCH “. . . encourage one another and build one an-
other up, just as you are doing” 1 Thessalonians 5:11. Thank
you for all the love and support.
In this together, Tony
give us a chance to investi-gate Andrew’s Soul Print
and discover how to culti-
vate a heart of worship. This is gonna to
be great….
Leadership Team!
Abundant Life
Community Church is unique.
We have been blessed with Eld-
ers, Board, Staff
and 9 Department heads. Over the next season of
ministry, we are going to “Train, Equip and Release”
people into their destiny. This will serve as a step-
ping stone to greater
things for ALCC and the community at large. Are
you ready?
Faith, Hope & Love! This is our new theme for all of
us as individuals. Faith comes
from the Word, Hope happens in prayer and Love means to
give oneself away. Over the course of Lent, consider how
you will grow deeper in Christ as we allow the Holy Spirit to
take us deeper into 1 Corin-
thians 13:13, “now these three remain, faith, hope and love,
but the greatest of these is
LOVE”…let’s share the wealth!
From the desk of Tony
Spring is Coming!
Soul Print!
The new series is called Soul Print. We are
going to look at David of
the Old Testa-ment and dis-
cover why the
writers of the New Testa-
ment called him, “a man
after God’s
own heart” It will be a longer series over the month of
March and April. Come and be blessed!
Andrew Thomspon! Andrew is no stranger to us.
On Sunday March 3rd, Andrew will be here to minister in
song and we will have an ex-tended INNER-view. It will
Thoughts from PB
Page 2 Abundant Life Community Church
...we are going to “Train,
Equip and Re-lease” people
into their destiny.
IT’S JUST INTENSE EVERYTHING.
Page 3 Abundant Life Community Church
GREY We all know grey is a
color, but there is another
meaning in my old Gage Dictionary: Being inter-
mediate or indeterminate in char-acter, condition, or
situation. It’s like be-ing luke- warm instead
of hot or cold! God says
He’d rather we were hot or cold so He wouldn’t
have to spew us out of His mouth.
It’s like we expect to live
life according to our fleshy lusts and still ex-
pect His blessings! There’s no in-between with Jesus. He
gave His life as a ransom for us and expects us to give our best. How can
we do our best when we’re stuck in
inappropriate behavior in our everyday life? No, I’m not referring to sexual
impurity, murder or stealing! We can be just as inappropriate when we mur-
mur, complain, or hold a grudge
against a person instead of forgiving them. Been there, done that, got the
T- shirt!
He came to give us life more abun-dantly; He also wants us to choose to
live our lives transformed to His will by renewing our mind in His
Word every day (Rom. 12:2) and not be conformed to this
world.
I think of grey as a shadow. Even though danger lurks in
shadows, there are good shadows:
When the Apostle Peter
walked through a
village people would line the streets
with sick people on beds and couches so
that his shadow
would heal them as he passed by. Imag-
ine that? (Read about Peter in Acts 5:15)
One of my favorite Psalms is 91. He
who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the
Shadow of the Almighty.
So are we for or anti Christ? Are we walking in the Light of His Love
or the darkness of the evil one? No grey possible!
He gives us a choice: “Choose Life or death.” That should be an easy
decision but we can’t waver.
Are we walking in the Spirit or in the flesh? Following His Spirit
there’s no condemnation, just gen-tle conviction. For the law of the
Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set
us free from the law of sin and death. (Rom.8:2)
Luke 11:23 states: “He that is not
with Me is against
Me; and he that
gathers not with
Me scatters.” Je-
sus warns us that
neutrality (grey
areas) between
Him and Satan is
not possible.
Let’s all get out of the grey!
From my Heart to Yours Annette
Wed March 14 LIFE Lunch
11:30 am
$10
A time of music, inspirational message and
fellowship
Sunday Mornings 10-10:25 am
Step 7: HUMILITY
We humbly ask Him to remove our
shortcomings. “If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9)
Step 7 is about walking in humility. After examining
our life closely (as we did in Steps Four, Five, and Six,) we
may feel cut off from God. Considering the scope of what we have done, we may feel unworthy to ask God for anything. Maybe our sinful behaviors are despised as the lowest kind of evil by those whom we consider re-spectable. We may struggle with self-hatred. Our genu-ine remorse may cause us to won-der if we even dare approach God to ask for His help.
God welcomes us, even when we feel this way, Jesus told this story: Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dis-honest tax collector. The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I
am a sin-ner. ‘ I tell you, this sinner, not the Phari-see, re-turned jus-tified be-fore God.
For the
proud will be hum-bled, but the humble
will be hon-ored” (Luke 18: 10-
14) NLT. When we put our life in God’s hands, He will re-shape us as He sees fit. It is our humility that allows us to accept the fact that he is the Crea-tor. Our new life may be similar to the one we left behind or entirely differ-ent. God is the Master Craftsman. Whatever He does, we can trust that he will recreate our life beauti-fully, one we get out of His way!
COME JOIN US ON Thursday ‘s @ 7 P.M
Page 4 Abundant Life Community Church
Marty & Blanche
Fisher CR Directors
2003– 2012
When we put
our life in
God’s hands,
He will
reshape us as
He sees fit
Join us
for our Monthly Dinner
Thursday March 29
6:15 pm
Page 5 Abundant Life Community Church
The Shack by William P. Young
Is there a place where bad memories lie? Perhaps it is a certain park in where bullies hurt you, or perhaps a restaurant where a blind date went bad. Or maybe it’s your child-hood home. For all of us, there is a place that warrants nothing but negative memories, for Mack, it is the shack. This novel is about an ordinary man who has had more than his share of sorrow in his life. Mack is a guy who goes to church on Sunday but has rarely engaged God on any other occasion. His biggest struggle is The Great Sadness, which comes upon him daily
regarding a personal tragedy that is so close to his heart. His youngest daughter, Missy, kidnapped and evi-dence in a dilapidated shack that she was brutally murdered. One day he receives a note that says:
It’s been a while. I’ve missed you. I’ll be at the shack next weekend if you’re interested in getting together.
-Papa
“Papa” is Mack’s wife’s name for God. So, out of curiosity, Mack goes to the shack: the place where there is nothing except his beautiful daughter’s blood. What happens there is beyond imagination; a real encounter
with God. Not an old man with a flowing white beard though, but Papa, a large Af-rican-American woman who is like fresh-baked bread, warm and inviting. Jesus, a plain Hebrew who is a master craftsman and has a great sense of humor. And Sarayu, a female Asian gardener who is music in motion, constantly moving but profound in her speech. All three are God, and Mack is about to embark on a spiri-tual journey like no other. This novel shows God in a way that is too easily overlooked. As a culture, we are obsessed with the Holy God or God of Wrath. Too often, we forget that He is a re-lational God. In The Shack we encounter a God who is not only profound and lovely, but fun and full of laughter. It is an interesting look at what the Trinity could actually be: a three-way relationship. Although Mack is confused at first, he slowly begins to enjoy himself and begins to ask questions. Such as: “If You couldn’t take care of Missy, how can I trust for You
to take care of me?” and “If Jesus is fully human, how can He be inside me?” or “Didn’t Missy have a right to be protected?” Each of these hard questions is met with astoundingly profound answers. It makes you wonder if this event really did happen. There are many layers to this book, not unlike the Bible itself. I believe anyone who has ever though that
God has let them down somehow, needs to read this book. Because it just may answer some questions that
you may have. This novel is pretty heavy at times, it is not a light read. However, it may show you a differ-
ent side of God that is not often depicted in churches. This book will challenge you
to change the typical way of seeing our Lord. If you’re willing to take a risk, visit
The Shack and I guarantee you will be changed. But, you must take the first step,
for God is a gentleman, and you must choose to let Him.
Teletha Giffin is a faithful member of ALCC since 2004. She is homemaker and is raising
two lively little boys with her husband Dustin. She is a avid reader, loves to paint, write, enjoys Italian cooking and hopes to visit Italy one day...soon!
The Shack website: http://theshackbook.com/index.html