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Pastor Mike has started a blog! Follow along as he covers books he's currently reading as well as other topics along the way. Don't miss a single one by setting up an account and subscribing at the link below.

Pastor Mike Allen

Apr 4
5 min

Book Recommendation: Read This First

I write these recommendations to encourage others to read. I do not intend to provide a critical review, but to provide insights to what God has taught me through the authors I read. When I look at books on my shelf, I want to recall at least one thing that I learned in the book. If I can do this, I consider the reading of the book a success. My desire is to get you interested enough to read the book so that you can learn and grow along with me. Don’t take my word for it, rea

Matthew 11: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Pastor Mike Allen

Oct 26, 2021
4 min

Matthew 11: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

"An Easy Yoke" Matthew 11:28-30 are easily some of my favorite verses in the gospels. The invitation to cast off burdens and find true soul rest from Christ whose heart is gentle and lowly is one that I will RSVP to time and time again. The labor and burdens of life are exhausting, but they were never intended to be borne on our shoulders. I love Christ’s call to Himself and that it is open to us whether we create our own burden (labor), or the burden is foisted upon us by so

Pastor Mike Allen

Oct 4, 2021
3 min

Book Recommendation: Made for More

I write these recommendations to encourage others to read. I do not intend to provide a critical review, but to provide insights to what God has taught me through the authors I read. When I look at books on my shelf, I want to recall at least one thing that I learned in the book. If I can do this, I consider the reading of the book a success. My desire is to get you interested to read the book so that you can learn and grow along with me. Don’t take my word for it, read the b

Book Recommendation: Parenting with Words of Grace

Pastor Mike Allen

Sep 27, 2021
3 min

Book Recommendation: Parenting with Words of Grace

Matthew 8: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Pastor Mike Allen

Sep 20, 2021
3 min

Matthew 8: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Great Faith and Little Faith. In full disclosure, I am writing about faith, but not because of my own faith. I write about faith because of Jesus, the object of my faith. I am faithless. I stumble in faith. I am one of little faith or no faith more often than possessing any semblance of great faith. Yet, because of Jesus and His Father, we, the righteous, are called to live by faith. This is not a belief in God because we know and see what He is doing but is this very trust i

Matthew 7: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Pastor Mike Allen

Sep 13, 2021
3 min

Matthew 7: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Obedience. Jesus wraps up His famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 and it is the conclusion that catches me by surprise more than anything else that Jesus has spoken up to this point. I think the religious in the audience had to be shocked as well. Jesus declared that their behavior was opposed to the kingdom of the Father, He revealed that their self-righteousness was not enough to impress the Father, He exposed their religious practices as shallow attempts to impress oth

Matthew 6: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Pastor Mike Allen

Aug 27, 2021
5 min

Matthew 6: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Dependence. This morning I read an excerpt from Paul David Tripp’s book, A Quest for More. The excerpt indicated that Satan tempted Adam and Eve with autonomy from God and transcendence over the life God graciously gave them. In believing and acting upon Satan’s deception, Adam and Eve’s existence shrunk. They became less than what God created them to be. Their desire for independence did not make them capable of independence. Their passion for transcendence did not result in

Matthew 5: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Pastor Mike Allen

Jul 27, 2021
4 min

Matthew 5: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Blessing: A common theme for all mankind is the endless pursuit of joy and satisfaction. We might succinctly state it as a search for what we were made for. In the sermon on the mount Jesus uses the term “blessed” to summarize this endless pursuit of joy and satisfaction. This pursuit began in the Garden, but the surprising thing is that Adam sought for blessing outside of the blessing (true joy and satisfaction) that God had already made available to Him. He chose to pursue

Matthew 4: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Pastor Mike Allen

Jul 15, 2021
4 min

Matthew 4: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Temptation. The temptation of Jesus recorded in Matthew 4 provides one of the clearest indicators of His humanity. He took on flesh at birth. He did not cease being God, but at the same time He became fully man. Philippians 2:5-7 indicates that He willingly set aside what was rightfully His. He chose not to act in the capacity of God, but rather He took on the likeness of humanity and became man. He endured all that man goes through. It is difficult for us to comprehend God,

Matthew 3: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Pastor Mike Allen

Jul 14, 2021
3 min

Matthew 3: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Preparation. One of my favorite Christmas passages is found in Galatians 4:4. The Amplified Bible says, “But when (in God’s plan) the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son…” The arrival of Christ was no last-minute response to a time of desperation or an act of exasperation. The world truly was and is desperate, but Christ’s coming is something that had been prepared for in eternity past. The entire Old Testament is a movement to the arrival of our redeemer. Not one mo

Matthew 2: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Pastor Mike Allen

Jul 8, 2021
4 min

Matthew 2: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Refugee: A refugee is one who has been forced to flee their country of origin or place of birth due to persecution or threat. In Matthew 2, Herod viewed the birth of Jesus, the king of the Jews, as a threat to his own kingdom. Upon hearing from the wisemen of Jesus’ birth, Herod immediately begins to plot the death of Jesus. The wisemen do find Jesus but are warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they return to their own country another way. The angel of the Lord appear

Matthew 1: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Pastor Mike Allen

Jul 7, 2021
3 min

Matthew 1: Walking with Jesus in the Gospels

Unexpected: Jesus’ coming was anticipated and prophesied, but at the same time how and when He would come was unexpected. Most were caught off guard. Most were not expecting His arrival. Most did not anticipate the circumstances of His coming. This was unexpected. Matthew 1 begins with the genealogy of Jesus going back to Abraham. In one sense, the very fact that God would design the sending of His Son, our Savior, through a physical birth is unexpected. Every one of Jesus’ r

Day 50: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Pastor Mike Allen

Jun 29, 2021
2 min

Day 50: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

The Bigger View. Anger is about the immediate gratification of our own desires. Anger says, "I am the biggest thing that matters at this moment." Anger focuses on the moment that we are in. Anger does not think of others, eternity, or God. Anger fails to see the big picture, but rather it focuses on the temporary. Anger seeks to make ourselves the central focal point of the picture. Anger deceives, destroys, and disappoints. In Romans 13:11-14 Paul shouts into our self-center

Day 49: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Pastor Mike Allen

Jun 29, 2021
2 min

Day 49: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Be Aware. As we discover the reality, the depth, and the breadth of the anger of our hearts, we must be cautious. Knowledge is not power when it comes to anger. The more knowledge we have about anger does not translate to more control over anger. In fact, Paul warns us that knowledge alone leads to pride (1 Cor. 8:1). This does not mean that ignorance is the key to victory over anger either. Anger is rooted in pride, so the antithesis is humility to begin to root our anger. I

Day 48: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Pastor Mike Allen

Jun 29, 2021
2 min

Day 48: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Signs of Growth. We can rejoice that God is at work in us and that He will continue His work in His children until it is complete at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). Change seems slow and sometimes hopeless. We must trust what God says rather than what we feel or see. Keep our eyes on Him and know that He is at work in us. Often we look for monumental shifts over short periods of time, but this is not the typical work that God does. Abraham is a great example. God w

Day 47: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Pastor Mike Allen

Jun 29, 2021
2 min

Day 47: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Neighbors. Growing up, our neighbors were our friends. We fished, hunted, played baseball and football, argued, fought, and did a few things that we hoped that none of our parents ever discovered. Neighbors look out for each other. We share fences and concerns for our community safety. We borrow sugar, flour, or butter. We heartily great one another and occasionally have deeper conversations. Our neighbors in our city do not look like us or even think like us, but there is a

Day 46: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Pastor Mike Allen

Jun 29, 2021
2 min

Day 46: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

What are we Aiming for? In Romans 1:21-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:5-9; and Titus 3:3 Paul lists numerous sins. He seems to classify both sexual sins and sins of anger. It is no surprise that where we find one classification of these sins, we typically find the other classification (sexual sins and anger sins tend to go hand-in-hand). The desire, "I WANT" is the adhesive joining these sins. The flesh is bent towards sexual immorality. What God sa

Day 45: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Pastor Mike Allen

Jun 29, 2021
2 min

Day 45: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Blame Sharing. We are all aware of blame-shifting. We have done it by blaming our spouses, bosses, co-workers, etc. We have all had it done to us by the same people. It is most evident as we watch children interact with one another and listen to them blame each other for the fights, disagreements, stinginess, etc. However, there is another take on blame-shifting that Welch calls blame-sharing. Blame-sharing feels more sophisticated, but it is simply a repackaging of blaming o

Day 44: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

Pastor Mike Allen

Jun 29, 2021
2 min

Day 44: Meditations in Anger, Patience, and Peace

God is the Judge. We will be treated unjustly. Our anger is usually a response to an actual wrong, but what is more important is how we react to that wrong. We may lodge a complaint, have a personal conversation with an individual, or deal with the desires or sins of our own heart. Regardless of our course of action, God, the Judge, will handle all offenses and He will act rightly and justly. 1 Peter 2:21-23 records the unjust suffering that Jesus endured. It also records tha

Day 43: Mediations in Anger, Patience, Peace

Pastor Mike Allen

Jun 29, 2021
2 min

Day 43: Mediations in Anger, Patience, Peace

Why can't everyone be like me? Underlying our anger is pride. It is pride that our way of doing things, our expectations, our responses, our standards, etc. are the best. In order to be patient with others and not respond in anger we must acknowledge two things to be true: 1) We desire an easy and problem-free life. When this desire is thwarted, we likely will pounce in anger on those who we believe are keeping us from experiencing our desire. 2) People are not the same as we

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