My Bible Sharing with the member of Christian Community Church who live in TEXAS,USA (3)

Saturday, March 7, 2009 8:09:19 AM
Re: Someone has contacted you from your website
...
From:
Ron
...
View Contact
To: men mark tumandan

Hi Mike,

I don't know how much you know of the Phoenix area. Our church is a small church that borders new development and a trailer park where crime is a constant battle.
As a youth pastor/director who is on staff without pay I support youth ministries out of my pay check. I bought a van rather than a truck which would have suited me better simply to pick up youth or anyone else for that wished to come to church in order to assist in church growth. My personal needs are few so the majority of my finances support youth ministries in one fashion or another. You see I go beyond the norm in helping what could be termed as "at risk kids" and their families. With the economy failing in so many ways I've been feeding, clothing, and cleaning their properties after my normal work for the company I work for ends.

Tithing is part of doing what God calls us to do. It doesn't just mean handing out money each time we come to church, it includes our time as well. I speak about tithing often as it's something that tends to go by the wayside as people struggle to make ends meet. Many people in our church tithe however it's based on what they can afford to give out of their budgets. It's a sensitive subject as our enemy uses tithing to tell the un saved that "all the church wants is your money" when nothing could be further from the truth. There's a premise that has to be recognized first and above all both for the saved and unsaved. Do we agree that God gives us everything from life, health, food, shelter, and all the things we have in this world? If we agree on this can we also agree that the Bible is the inspired word of God?

I get allot of heads nodding and I hear the "amen's" coming from a few in the congregation however the transition to the next part is where we as humans fall short I'm afraid. Leviticus 27 verse 30 tells us, " ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD. This is where the many of the heads freeze in the congregation (it doesn't matter what church you're in it's all the same wherever you go) and the room goes silent as I go on. In Nehemiah 10 verse 37 God's word shows us an example, "Moreover, we will bring to the storerooms of the house of our God, to the priests, the first of our ground meal, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees and of our new wine and oil. And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns were we work." We know from reading on that the Levites were taking the tithing to the temple treasury and storerooms as their work was done for the Lord.

The word "first" has a way of being glossed over in today's world by believers as we see churches close their doors all over the world. In some cases churches have lost their direction however that's a different topic for a different time. Many churches however have closed their doors simply because they can't "afford" to stay open. The Lord says in Malachi 3 verse 10, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

I love "blessings". Too often people get confused in thinking that "blessings" means they'll gain more money in the process. To a spiritual person, when God opens up the floodgates of heaven and blesses believers finances is only a small part of what God will do for his people. What price could we put on good health, God's protection for loved ones, or that we are never hungry? There's so many things to be grateful for we just have to look around in order to see them. It doesn't mean there will not be trials and tribulations along the way in the physical sense of this world because the Bible says that we are to separate ourselves from this world however we will be blessed more than we will be able to understand if we choose to follow our Lord through word and deed. Our willingness to comply, to submit to our Lord through our tithing is something I think we miss as new generations of believers learn His word. I enjoy the story of Jesus setting in the temple watching the tithing as crowd were in the temple.

In Mark chapter 12 starting in verse 41-44 states, "Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

I noticed the Bible didn't say "worshipers" were in the temple, it said "crowd". The poor woman who gave all she had because she worshiped the Lord where others mentioned were in the temple to more of less socialize, make connections, and to be seen as people who were "doing what was expected" as members in the community; they gave a portion of their wealth. The poor woman gave willingly; she was poor yet there's no doubt in my mind she was blessed for what she did. She gave out of her poverty, everything and it was her choice to do so; she didn't grumble as she gave all that she had to give.

In Colossians 9 verses 6-8 the Bible says, "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."

I highlighted the word "cheerful" because when we love someone we give of ourselves cheerfully or I should say willingly. I got long winded here and I apologize however our church struggles to make ends meet for variety of reasons. The congregation as dwindled over the years as people move in and out of the area. We minister to those that are not wealthy by any means and we don't "put on a show" like the mega churches do. We minister the word of God as it's written in scripture so to answer your question, Christ did build this church as it's always struggling (persecuted I call it; lol) in his name and we are blessed for it and we continue to fight the good fight for our Lord and Savior.

We do communion every month at the beginning of the month. We minister out of the New Testament however we do not exclude teachings from the Old Testament. I think this is only right as the new makes it's foundations from the old. As a youth director/pastor all my events for youth are church invited. My feeling is that youth need to know how important Christ grounded adults are in their lives as they are examples for Christ and their experiences help youth cope through an ever changing world.

With that, we have no grounds keepers so part of what I do is help maintain the grounds with others who volunteer their time so ...

God bless you and yours,

Ron



“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

www.christiancommunitychurch.com

----- Original Message -----
From: men mark tumandan
To: Ron
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 7:07 PM
Subject: Re: Someone has contacted you from your website

Dear Ron,

Thank you for your quik respond,
All you write about Christ is true He was died and buried and after 3 days He rose again. Jesus Christ is the son of the living God.
Does the member of your church give a part of thier money to the church as givings, and how often? Does it teach tithes?
Does your church partake Lord Supper? if so, how often? And does your church the New Testament church? Did Christ established Christian community church?

Oh! my question are so many........

Thank you

yours,
mike






From: Ron
Subject: Re: Someone has contacted you from your website
To: "men mark tumandan"
Date: Friday, 6 March, 2009, 2:06 PM


Yes we read the Bible and believe in the Biblical doctrines taught in the Bible. We believe that Jesus is the only son of God and that he died only to rise again on the third day. We believe that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the Holy Trinity of God. If you would like more information I'd be happy to mail you more information about our church.

We believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and that's the book we learn and teach from. Tom Tomforde is our senior pastor. You may call the church and leave a message if he's not there. I'm sure he can tell you more about the teachings of our church which is grounded and founded in the Bible.

God bless,

Ron


“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

www.christiancommunitychurch.com

----- Original Message -----
From: men mark tumandan
To: Ron
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 8:43 PM
Subject: Re: Someone has contacted you from your website

Dear Ron,

Sorry if I write you again, my main point in my letter is that I want to know if your church is the church we read in the bible? The doctrines is scriptural, the organization is scriptural, and if it was built by Jesus Christ?
THANK YOU
yours,
mike

--- On Thu, 3/5/09, Ron wrote:


From: Ron
Subject: Re: Someone has contacted you from your website
To: marktumandan@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, 5 March, 2009, 9:57 PM

What would you like to know?

God bless,

Ron

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

www.christiancommunitychurch.com
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 10:47 PM
Subject: Someone has contacted you from your website

> NAME: men mark tumandan
> DATE/TIME SENT: 3/4/2009 11:47:21 PM
> MESSAGE:
> I want to know more about your church.
> can you give me what are your believe and your doctrines.
>
> thank you
>
> I would like to have more information.
>
> *****************************************************
> This is an automated response from CHRISTIANCOMMUNITYCHURCH.COM
> *****************************************************
>
>