A CALL TO INTIMACY

ALOHA:

Today I celebrate Gods sovereign gift of earthly life and eternal life in Jesus Christ. 29yrs ago, I was born in Honolulu, Hi and 29yrs later I'm preparing to head back to my home state to plant a church that plants many churches.

I walked into my office today and my staff overwhelmingly blessed me with gifts, and encouraging words. As I received their blessings, one thing stood out to me, my personal relationship with them because of Christ.

As a young Pastor one thing I struggle with is my performance to God. That ultimately over flows into the way I view how the people I Pastor should be as well. I struggled with basing spiritual growth on how we are committed to church stuff and activities. This is a easy temptation to get influenced by; however God has not called me to my performance for Him, he has called me to be with Him and let Him press His life in and through me. Christianity is not about doing good things for God and others, it's about a genuine love relationship with God through Christ.

I served as a youth and worship Pastor in Tennessee for a little over 2 1/2 years. I got caught in the temptation of legalism. I would constantly preach on commitments and base our youths and adults spiritual growth on weather or not they were committed to the Lords work by their involvement, and if they weren't, I would throw a self righteous act of affliction on them. No different from the Pharisees of the bible. FORGIVE ME LORD!

Thank God for His Grace!

If I could go back in time and redo my ministry all over again in TN, I would teach my congregation on how to walk intimately with God. The main goal in the life of a believer is to KNOW GOD! Our daily goal is to SPEND TIME WITH HIM!

John 17:3 says "this is eternal life, that you may KNOW HIM, Jesus Christ, whom God has sent"

John 15:5 says "apart from me you can not do anything".

GOD CALLS US TO BE INTIMATE WITH HIM! He then presses His life out of us in such away, that the overflow is being connected in what He is doing through his church globally. Hear me correctly, GOD DOES THE WORK, NOT ZEKE. Our participation in His kingdom work is us living out of the overflow of our intimate love relationship with Him.

To my Pastor friends, encourage your people to walk in intimacy with Christ. Beware of the lie of thinking that their personal commitments to the church is the goal. Let Christ press His life in and out of them.

To my friends, don't let ministry commitments be your focus. If so, you will fail. Focus on walking with Jesus, and let Him mold you into the masterpiece He plans to make you (Phil 1:6).

6 months from now my wife and I will jump on a plane and move our lives to Hilo, Hi to start Ohana Church. It is my goal not to try and make a big church with a packed out room in Hilo. It's my desire to teach people how to walk with God intimately, through His word, in the powerful name of Jesus!

To Gods Glory ALONE!!!

Pastor Zeke

WINS!

ALOHA,

One of the words I have been introduced to since being back at Hope Church is the word "WIN".  Our team constantly asks each other "what are the huge wins in your ministry?"  By doing this, we are reminded about God's promise to us in the great commission, that he would be with us in every part of the journey on making disciples.

Here are a few WINS for Layne and I...

• As of January 1, my father, Frank Tomaselli has accepted God's invitation to be a part of our launch team in Hilo as we prepare to plant Ohana Church.  My father led me to Christ as a young boy, and planted a church in the same area of Hilo 25yrs ago.  Praise God!
• We have connected with a person of peace on the Big Island who is in connection with new Christ Followers from Osaka, Japan.  This nation has been on our hearts and we have been praying for them and a possible connection to begin church plants and reaching the 99% lostness in Japan.
• Our sending church, Hope Church has already committed and planned out dates on when they will join us in Hilo to help us in mission work in 2014.  I love them!
• We have had a few churches verbalize their financial partnership with OC.  This is huge!
• We have had multiple small groups in our church adopt OC as a mission.  
• We have over 300 people all over the world praying for Hawai'i, the Pacific, and the World.  Our prayer strategy has been life changing for us.  We thank God for our Prayer coordinator Kandy Smith for being sensitive to God's call in this area.  Thank you Kandy.
• My wife and I were blessed to save enough money to travel to Hawai'i this April to do a vision tour.  We learned so much on stewardship through this few months of saving.  What a WIN!

PRAISE GOD FOR THESE WINS!!!

Lastly, we are looking forward to our vision trip to Hawai'i and we would like to invite people to partner with us on this journey.  Our trip will cost us an extra $2000-$3000.  Our resources in the Islands are limited, so we are asking our partners to prayerfully consider giving towards this trip.  This would cover travel while we are on the Big Island, and Oahu.  It will also cover meals, room and board, and other related ministry opportunities.  We plan to prayer walk the islands, and connect with as much of people as we can.  Part of that cost will also cover OC handouts that communicates our vision.

If God is leading you to give, you can do it in two ways...

1. Mail a check to Hope Church, Attn:  Pastor Zeke Tomaselli, Memo: Ohana Church, at 870 E. Cactus Rd. Las Vegas, NV. 89183
2. Give online at http://www.hopechurchonline.com/giving/give-now/

• Go to link
• Fill out your info
• In PAYMENT INFORMATION: Go to Fund, scroll/click on Ohana Church.
• Make payment

Just last May, God gave us a vision for church planting in Hilo and through out the world.  We are living it now.  God bless you all for your time, energy, and resources.  You all are a blessing to Layne and me.

Mahalo Nui Loa,

Pastor Zeke