November 25, 2021
Happy Thanksgiving!
One of our men sends out a daily text with an inspirational meditation. I thought today’s message was really good and especially apropos, so I’m going to share it with you here (thank you, Michael Aplikwosky!)
Thank Me frequently as you journey through today. This practice makes it possible to pray without ceasing, as the apostle Paul taught. If you are serious about learning to pray continually, the best approach is to thank Me in every situation. These thankful prayers provide a solid foundation on which you can build all your other prayers. Moreover, a grateful attitude makes it easier for you to communicate with Me. When your mind is occupied with thanking Me, you have no time for worrying or complaining. If you practice thankfulness consistently, negative thought patterns will gradually grow weaker and weaker. Draw near to Me with a grateful heart, and My Presence will fill you with Joy and Peace.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (New Living Translation)
16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
I pray each of you today are reveling in God’s goodness toward you, overflowing with Thanksgiving, and experiencing the joy that inevitably comes when our hearts are filled with thanks.
I’m going to use this opportunity to also share with you my weekly update.
Last week we began talking about “The Christian DNA” – using the metaphor of DNA to symbolize the inherited traits that become part of our lives when we put our faith in Jesus, are “born again”, as Jesus described it in John 3, and continue to grow in Him. We started talking about “The Missions Gene” and will continue exploring this topic more on Sunday. It was an especially great morning because we started out the sermon with Steve Rogers telling us about his recent missions trip to Honduras. If you missed last Sunday (or would like to see it again), you can watch it right here:
Join us In-Person or Online
We continue to offer an online experience for those who cannot join us in person on Sunday morning. Here’s the online info: Zoom Meeting ID 153 112 432, Passcode 684814. We’ll also be broadcasting the service on Facebook Live at http://facebook.com/gracevcf.
The Challenges of Tech
Starting last Sunday morning, and continuing on and off for the next couple of days, our web server was down, which made it impossible for you to respond electronically to the invitations we gave. Thankfully it’s all up and running again, so if you tried to click on the missions response or tried to give an offering and were thwarted, you can do it now (shout out to Caleb Evans for using his Jedi webmaster skills to help us get up and running again). For our Grace Vineyard missions program, it’s time to renew our commitments in terms of time, energy, and money. We support our missionaries with a faith pledge program – every year we let the missions team know how much we think we can commit to give on a monthly basis. To renew your annual commitment, or to start fresh, please fill out the form at this link: 2021-2022 Missions Pledge. Our goal for 2021-2022 is to have $2,000 per month in commitments. If you tried to give your tithes and offerings but couldn’t because of those website problems, you should now be able to use the donate button at the bottom of this email.
Ladies Christmas Party
Ladies, it’s time to mark your calendars for the Women’s Christmas Party. We’ll meet at the Church on December 18th from 2-5pm. There will be Christmas Carols led by Ammee Huzil, a Christmas Devotional led by Treina Nash, finger foods, a $5 White Elephant gift exchange, a Christmas Craft… and just tons of joyful fellowship. Contact Kim Ohst for more info at 760-519-4558 or kimohst@gmail.com.
Spring Men’s Retreat Registration is Live
Men, we are excited to be back at Palomar Christian Conference Center on Palomar Mountain for our annual men’s retreat in the Spring. The theme of this retreat is “Authentic Men on Fire: What it means to be a Man”. If you’ve never been to this conference center, you are in for a real treat. First of all, the food is awesome – and we know that’s important to us guys! There are also lots of great activities available up there, including: paintball, shotguns, hiking, horseback riding, zip line, and more. The prices have remained the same as previous years, so that’s pretty cool — Dorm style room is $175 and a Hotel style room is $225. We arrive on Friday, March 18th in the evening, and will leave the mountain at noon on Sunday, March 20th. We’ll have a table on Sunday in the back of the church where you can register and reserve your spot. For your convenience we’ll have a credit card reader available on Sunday morning for your registration fee (we’ll even hold your money for you if you’d like to start giving a weekly or monthly payment). Call or text Snake at 760-622-4572, or email him at snake@gracevcf.org. If you’d like to pay for your registration in full, or in part, click on this button:
(NOTE: paying the registration fee here doesn’t complete your registration – contact Snake to register)
That’s all for now, folks. Again, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving, and I look forward to worshiping Jesus with you this Sunday morning.
Blessings and love,
Ron Ohst
Tithes and Offerings Online
THANKS for taking ownership in the life and ministry of Grace Vineyard – it takes all of us! If you’d like to give your tithe or offering online, click the donate button below. Please remember we are “getting our house ready for guests” and have several thousand dollars worth of important improvements waiting on our offerings. If your offering is for a specific purpose such as building or benevolence, please note that where it will prompt you with “what’s this donation for?” Thanks!