1. Jesus said He would rise from the dead.

Jesus spoke openly about what would happen to him: crucifixion and then resurrec-tion from the dead. Mark 8:31, “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Matthew 17:22-23, “As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be deliv-ered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.” Luke 9:21-22,

2. People alive at the time believed He rose from the dead.

Matthew 28:7-8, “Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the

dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” John 20:20, When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

3. The tomb was empty on Easter.

The earliest documents claim this: “When they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus” (Luke 24:3). And the enemies of Jesus con-firmed it by claiming that the disciples had stolen the body (Matthew 28:13). The dead body of Jesus could not be found.

There are four possible ways to account for this:

● His foes stole the body. If they did, they never claimed to have done it and they surely would have produced the body to stop the success-ful spread of the Christian faith. But that never hap-pened.

● His friends stole the body. This was an early rumor (Matthew 28:11-15). If so would they have begun to preach that Jesus was raised, knowing that He was not?

Would they have risked their lives and accepted beatings for something they knew was a fraud?

● Jesus was not dead, but only unconscious when they laid him in the tomb. He awoke, removed the stone, overcame the soldiers, and vanished from history after a few meetings with his disci-ples in which he convinced them he was risen from the dead. He was obviously dead. The Romans saw to that. The stone could not be moved by a man who had just been stabbed in the side by a spear and spent six hours nailed to a cross.

● God raised Jesus from the dead. This is what He said would happen. It is what the disciples said did happen. We don’t want to be gullible, but neither do we want to reject the truth just because it’s strange. Matthew 19:26, “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.””

4. The resurrection increased the confidence of the disci-ples

After Jesus died the disciples were afraid. John 20:19, “… the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews ….” After the resur-rection they were confident, Acts 4:13 “Now when they

Reasons I Believe Jesus Rose from the Dead

Irondale Church News

Pray Always:

Pastor David and

Colleen

Community Soup

Irondale Bible Insti-

tute

Our outreach and

witness to our com-

munity

Busy Hands

People struggling

with illness

Young families and

single parent fami-

lies

Those struggling

with addictions

Schools: students,

staff, administrators

Missionaries

Homeless, helpless,

hopeless and hungry

Salvation for the lost

Law enforcement

professionals

The military serving

at home and abroad

Irondale Church is a place of promise to grow and belong

April 2015

Continued page 2

saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”

5. The number of people who saw Jesus resurrected from the dead

1 Corinthians 15:3-8, “For I de-livered to you as of first impor-tance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accor-dance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accor-dance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

6. The testimony of the disci-ples was true

How do we decide whether to believe a person’s testimony? Monsanto lobbyist Dr. Patrick Moore claimed that the chemi-cal in the company's Roundup weed killer is safe for humans to consume and "won't hurt you." He then refused to drink it when offered a glass by the interviewing journalist. Public opinion quickly dismissed Moore’s statement as true. But concerning Christ, His disciples put their life on the line. Acts 12:1-2, “About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword.” Also, Acts 16:19-23, “But when her owners saw that

their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to ac-cept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the gar-ments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.” This people really believed.

7. Believing in the resurrection of Jesus changes people

Of course not everyone who says they believe changes, but enough do so that when cou-pled with the other evidence it moves me to belief. There is something about receiving Christ that clarifies how we think. Like new spectacles can clarify what we see, believing in Christ can clarify what we think.

Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. ... He will glo-rify me” (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit does not do this by telling us that Jesus rose from the dead. He does it by opening our eyes to life and death and life after death. 2 Corinthians 4:4, 6 states, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ... For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of

God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

8. It changed me

I don’t expect that to move you, but receiving Christ changed everything in my life. Did it make me perfect? I wish. What it did was give me reason and hope; reasons to face adversity and hope for a better day. Do I get it right all the time? I wish. But no matter how bad it is when I pause and recall, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing (Psalm 34:8, 10). Life just fits together neatly. I hope you believe too!

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, be-coming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8-11 ESV)

-Pastor David

Reasons I Believe, continued

“Blessed be the God and

Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ! According to his

great mercy, he has

caused us to be born

again to a living hope

through the resurrection

of Jesus Christ from the

dead to an inheritance

that is imperishable,

undefiled and unfading,

kept in heaven for you”

1Peter 1:3-4 ESV

Page 2 Newsletter Title

Life is about decisions. Right now the sun is trying to push through the fog which is lying in thick blankets on the valley floor. By perception it is an easy process, the earth warms, the fog dissipates and water molecules become miniscule. A + B = C. But life itself is seldom that simple. We have so many variable factors. It’s why the, “free gift of salvation” is so hard to grasp.

All through our lives we have lived with the principle of cause and effect, i.e. A+ B= C. We have trained ourselves to oper-ate from this perspective. A constant give and take cause and effect, type of reasoning and watched it on a daily basis be proven to be true.

For some of us the grasp of the gift of unearned approval and love is mountainous to over-come. With every breath we take, expectations are in place that we or others place on our intrinsic value as an individual human being. Our very worth is metered out by our looks our behaviors and or the lack of them.

Reaching across the immense gulf of God’s unconditional love and grace given to us before we ever knew of Him, before we ever even came to exist, is al-most incomprehensible. Before

we could ever ask Him to for-give us of our sins, He already had provided the most priceless provision to restore us to Him-self even though we may never acknowledge Him ever.

As the fogs separates and the sun’s rays pierce through to our perception A+ B=C happens. All the contributing factors are in place.

On my kitchen counter is a little plant given to my husband. It’s a “thank you” for a kindness shown. It has pushed through the soil and its tiny fragile leaves and stem arch towards the window needing the sunlight to complete its growth process. It just knows it needs to do this. There is plenty of light in our home and well placed, so if lighting were its needs, it would just project upward, but, that’s not what it needs. It needs what God pro-grammed it for, sunlight and intrinsically it does exactly that, reaches for the type of provi-sion only the sun can provide.

Yes, I know, now you can pro-vide false light for plants but, if God had not provided “His” energy resources; we could not manipulate plants to accept this form of light for photosynthe-sis. Without God, simply we could and would not exist nor would plants….

I see a tomb with a great stone rolled away from its door, in-side the provision of God’s love in the form of Himself, Jesus the Son, had lain … having al-ready given up His perfect life and blood on the cross, to cover our sin, He willingly gave up His

life for all who would believe He is the Son of God. “A” is all of humanity sins, each of us even for those who would never be-lieve (love given without restric-tion looking for no reciproca-tion). “+B” is when we recog-nize our sinful state and ac-knowledge He alone can pro-vide the unspeakable gift to cover our sins and we “ask” for His forgiveness of sin, it brings us to a sinless state, we have then become children of God because we have been cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. “=C” means we can be the re-deemed children of the living God known by the name of Christians. The one and only risen Savior and only perfect sacrifice who opened the door to heaven for all who have be-lieved, He is that gift of limitless unconditional love. He is the only true “cause and effect” for the forgiveness of our sin pro-viding eternal life in heaven.

Why do we wrestle and make it so hard? Why do we willingly place ourselves in the role of being our own savior, whom we can never hope to be? Could any of us ever hope to live a completely sinless life?

In the bible, Romans 3:23NKJV, For all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. It tells us every one of us has sinned and do sin. What about our un-known sin or omitted sin or the imputed sin (born from imper-fect parents, not from God)? 1Corinthians 15:22KJV, For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive. We were born within this bro-ken and fallen world. What makes us think we could ever be that gift of perfect limitless

Cutting through the Fog

“...that I may know him

and the power of his

resurrection, and may

share his sufferings,

becoming like him in his

death, that by any means

possible I may attain the

resurrection from the

dead. Not that I have

already obtained this or

am already perfect, but I

press on to make it my

own, because Christ Jesus

has made me his own.”

Philippians 3:10-12 ESV

Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 1

unconditional love that would cover all our sins just by our behaviors? Romans 6:23KJV, The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God’s word never says we can be the covering or the payment for our own sins or the sins of anyone else. Only Jesus has that power.

Satan’s condemning lie as in the Garden of Eden has always been we could somehow be our own saviors. Genesis 3:2-4KJV, And the woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the

tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die.” Our own spirit tells us we cannot and will not ever be good enough on our own merits to become perfectly free from sin and able to enter the holy presence of God when we leave this earth.

The tomb was empty because God’s perfect plan of redemp-tion for our sins is complete.

A+B=C. Love rules and reigns from Heaven. Some might

think this an irreverent repre-sentation of this priceless gift. But God meant for it to be that simple. Let the fog that would distract you be pierced by the perfect blood and overflowing love of Christ and receive His free gift to you bought at so great a price in Him. Happy Easter!

-Colleen

We have begun to see more families coming, more young adults, and, now that the win-ter shelter has closed, more homeless people. Some are returning for a season, some are new to us.

With the loss of our senior cen-ter group, donations in the do-nation box are down, but still the Lord provides all the money we need from month to month. Thank you to all of you who contribute!

Please pray for our volunteers. It takes at least 20 people to put this on every week. Usually we need one or two more than that. People get tired. They have health issues. They have lives and need to take time off to enjoy their lives. We are looking at shortages of help for the month of May and the sum-mer months. It’s a great time for new volunteers to step up

We are halfway through our fourth year of Community Soup now, and I have been increas-ingly amazed at the way God provides all we need when we need it, all the time! Hopefully we will never begin to take that for granted.

When the Tri Area Community Center began serving dinners on Tuesdays again this past year, we had a concern that our numbers would go down. How-ever we began to serve from 100-134 meals per week for five months in a row, give or take a week here or there.

and step in. Serving at soup on Tuesdays is a humbling and rewarding experience, and one which will surely bless you.

Jesus said, in Mark 14:7, “For you will always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them…” I hope we can keep these words in mind; remem-bering that we are choosing to help in obedience to the call He has placed on our church.

Places where you can plug in to help:

Cook Soup

Prep Cook

Bake Cookies

Bake Bread

Serve Soup, Bread or Cookies

Set up with Roger, Don &Curtis

Wash Dishes

Clean up

-Kim

Inside Story Headline

Community Soup

“Now if we have died with

Christ, we believe that we

will also live with him. We

know that Christ, being

raised from the dead , will

never die again; death no

longer has dominion over

him. For the death he died

he died to sin, once for all,

but the live he lives he lives

to God. So you also must

consider yourselves dead

to sin and alive to God in

Christ Jesus.”

Romans 6:8-11 ESV

Page 4 Newsletter Title

Irondale youth group, The An-chor Youth, is doing well! The Lord is moving in wonderful ways. It is hard to explain the progress, as it would be were you to ask a farmer, “How about those newly planted seeds?” Perhaps the answer would be the same. The Lord is the one that will bring growth and I will joyously continue my labor in this great garden of his here in Irondale.

Just recently we went through a study on Christ, where He came from, who He is, what He has done as well as what He is do-ing now.

Our group has grown into a group of about twelve spanning from 6th grade to 10th grade, each facing issues of their own that are new to this generation. There has never been such a generation as fatherless and unwanted as this one would seem. Coming into the age of maturity, most are yet to learn what it means to be a man or woman, much less a man or woman who fears God. There

are scales of atheism and care-lessness which are blinding the eyes. My prayer is that their eyes be opened and their hearts be softened to the gos-pel. As a farmer would, I am to the best of my ability working the soil in faith that a great har-vest is coming.

Surely the farmer must look with eyes of faith over the newly purchased ground that has not been tamed or kept for years that his hard work will pay off. It will take time, pa-tience, prayers, hard work, per-sistence, and most of all a move of God to bring forth the har-vest but the Lord knows it is worth it!

Some prayer requests:

For the eyes and hearts of the youth to opened to the gospel of Christ.

For an assistant to help out with the youth as their numbers are growing.

That the Lord would strengthen me and fill me with His Spirit that I would labor well.

For a breaking of addic-tions in the lives of the young.

-Cheyanne

The Anchor Youth Group

May 3: Sunday, May 3, after our normal church service, we will hold our annual business meeting. At this meeting we will review the fiscal year which ended on March 31, 2015, present and vote on a budget for the new year, and vote for officers for the new year. As per our by-laws, only members of the church may vote, however anyone who chooses to attend the meeting is more than welcome.

There is a growing library in the church office of Chris-tian reading material, both non fiction and fiction. The library works on the honor system: you see a book you’d like to read, borrow it and return it when you are finished. Gail Eddie can answer any questions you may have.

April 12: On Sunday April 12, Dan and Carrie Ritz-man, missionaries to Bel-gium, will be visiting. Sun-day School classes will meet in the Fellowship Hall that morning to hear from them, and Dan will deliver a message during the wor-ship service as well.

Also on Sunday, April 12, Dave Eddie will give a pres-entation for the Gideons.

Things to Remember

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am

the resurrection and the

life. Whoever b believes in

me, though he die, yet

shall he live, and

everyone who lives and

believes in me shall never

die. Do you believe this?’”

John 11:25-26 ESV

Page 5 Volume 1, Issue 1

Financial Report

March 31, 2015

General Operations:

Income: $171,571.41

Expense: $153,524.33

Annual Budget: $153.048.00

Budget YTD: -$ 476.33

681 Irondale Road PO Box 959 Port Hadlock, WA 98339

Irondale Church

Phone: 360-385-1720 E-mail: irondalechurch@gmail.com www.irondalechurch.org

Irondale Church is a place of

promise to belong and grow.

Find us on the web at irondalechurch.org

«First Name» «Last Name»

«Address Line 1»

«City» «State» «ZIP Code»

Pastor & Wife: David & Colleen Hodgin

Associate Pastor: Troy Norman

Visitation Pastor: Chuck Gadbaw

Elders: Dave Noble, John Jamison, Fritz Gordon, LeRoy Glessing, Dave Eddie

Council: Sue Hay-Missions, Colleen Hodgin-Fellowship, Mary Noble-Finance, Troy Norman-Worship, Jim Wilcox-Interior Property, Kim Wilcox-Treasurer

Weekly Schedule:

Sunday: 9:30 Sunday School, 10:30 Worship, Children’s Church & Nursery;

Coffee Hour; 6:30 Evening Bible Study

Tuesday: 4-6:30 Community Soup

Wednesday: 3-5:30 Kids Club and Youth Group

Thursday: 11:00 Prayer Hour

2nd Saturday Men’s breakfast at Chimacum Cafe

3rd Saturday: Busy Hands Quilts for Foster Kids

4th Saturday: Men’s Breakfast at IHOP (Irondale House of Praise)

“...And he said to them, ‘Do not be

alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth,

who was crucified. He has risen; he is

not here. ‘” Mark 16:6 ESV

Irondale Church

PO Box 959

Port Hadlock, WA 98339