Give Thanks

By Pastor Jim | November 27, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I wanted to take a few minutes to share a few things that I am thankful for and celebrating and I encourage you to do the same during this holiday season. It’s important for us to capture things in our lives that we are thankful for. Sometimes our lives get so busy and full that we don’t take time to recharge and we become worn out, burned out and run on empty. A great way to start to reverse that is slow down and take a fews mins every day to meditate on the things that you are grateful for.

1 Chronicles 16:34 says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His mercies endure forever.” A good starting point is recognizing and knowing that He is good all of the time. Last Sunday, my message was on this topic. It is important for us to have this as our foundational understanding in knowing that God is good. He is good even when we are not. He is good even when someone else is not. He is good even when tragedies happen. The verse starts by saying, “Oh, give thanks…”. Sometimes we need get our own attention and remind ourselves. Oh, remember when this happened…thank you God for your provision.

Therefore, I want to recount some things that I am thankful for:

That is God all of the time. Even when I am not and even things don’t always look like they are.
My wife who is my best friend, partner in life, and oh so beautiful!
My kids (Blaise, Lexi, AJ, Triumph, Benjamin and Karis), my family (mom, father, brothers and sisters – that includes in-laws because they more than in-laws)
My church families! Wow, I am blown away when I think about the people God has placed in my life presently and over the years. There are so many that are such a blessing: Center City Church family, Rock City Church, KeyChurch, Warriors Mark UM and others that have been like second homes.
My Forum group: a group of business leaders that work in the community that are friends full of wisdom.
Relationships throughout the community to around the world.

This year I Celebrate:

Launching Center City Church. It has been a tremendous joy and honor along with a lot of hard work. So far this year, we’ve baptized 20 people, seen over 30 new commitments to Christ and over 200 visitors.
Joshua House’s 19th Anniversary (Nov 22nd). It has been an amazing adventure over the last 19 years and I am grateful for the many people and opportunities over that time.
Launching my own business, Pinnacle Professional Services providing commercial cleaning services and coaching services.
Traveling to Madagascar and Tanzania on a ministry missions trip.
Selling our house and moving to the Altoona area. It been exciting to keep moving forward and follow God’s direction for our lives but it has also been bittersweet to close out a chapter of our lives that has been so precious.
Selling the Joshua House firehall building and moving fully into the Armory! There are many renovations that have taken place and much more to do but it is so cool. Two days ago, we hosting the Tyrone Community Thanksgiving Dinner and served 458 people. HoopsFest Tyrone hosted around 1000 players and 5000 people and then we expanded to Mansion Park Altoona and hosted another 56 teams for the inaugural HoopsFest Altoona.
My wife, Jessica. She has been such a steady rock during a year that has taken so many twists and turns. She really is amazing. She’s my favorite worship leader, tremendous administrator helping coordinate worship, children’s ministry, etc. We can accomplish so much because of my beautify wife.

I am looking forward to the upcoming Christmas season and a tremendous 2018. I actually have so much more that I am thankful but I’ll spare you all and keep that for my personal journal.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pastor Jim Kilmartin