Help One Another

From the pastor's desk,

I am delighted that we are helping a fellow group of Christian brothers and sisters who lost their place of worship.  We have invited them to use our church at 1:00 on Sunday's and they happily accepted.  I'm sure that some of you will have the opportunity to meet them for many of you stay and fellowship long after worship is over and some of them will arrive early.  I know you will give them a WARM welcome.  They will be helping St. Mark's with the utility bills each Sunday, which we appreciate, but our greatest joy is being able to help our fellow Christians and provide a place for them to worship in our beautiful church.

Helping one another, that's what life is all about.  I have never forgotten an encounter with a stranger who came to church back in 1998.  When service was over he asked if he could meet with me the next day.  After getting acquainted he told me he had not been able to find work in his area of expertise for nearly two years.  He then said, "I was recently blessed by finding a job that fits my skills.  I had made a vow to the Lord that when I would get a job that I would give my first two weeks pay to some church to use to help some needy folks.  Yesterday I was pleased with the way you related to the 24 kids at worship (I counted them and the majority obviously came from very poor families) and I decided that you could put my first pay check to good use."  He then handed me an envelope from the bank and said, "here's my first two weeks pay.  Thank you".  He turned and began to leave and I walked him to the door.  I invited him to worship with us, but I never saw him again.  I went back to my desk, opened the envelope and was astounded to find $1,965 and change.  He was truly grateful to the Lord for his new job and he wanted to show it.

Jesus said that we are to love one another and help them in their need. It is in helping others in need that we find real pleasure and purpose in life.  We do acts of kindness, not to receive thanks and praise, but we do them because we know it pleases the Lord to see us put our faith and gratitude into action.  Churches can do this and so can individuals

HEY, I will see you this Sunday, Sept. 30 when we come to thanks and praise to the Lord who gave much, much more than we can ever give when He gave His life on the cross to atone for our sins.

Pastor John