October 26, 2024
Happy Saturday to all my Grace Vineyard Family and Friends!
Right now I’m preparing for our Sunday morning time together. For our time in the Word I’m planning on taking the next step in the series we recently started called “Doing Life From Heaven’s Resources – life lessons from the writings of Peter”, and I was reflecting on how our last 2 Sundays together flowed surprisingly well with what we’ve been learning in this series, even though we’ve had guest speakers the last 2 Sundays. See if you agree…on our 1st week in the series, the big idea was that doing life from Heaven’s resources is like a double edged sword. On one side is humility that eliminates self-sufficiency. We can be humbled by trying to be self-reliant and failing, or we can humble ourselves. But be sure of this: we will not do life from heaven’s resources until we are emptied of ourselves. The other side is knowing and living from our identity in Christ (especially that we are loved in the same way Peter experienced the love and grace of Jesus even after his huge failure of denying Jesus). When Duke and Marie Lancaster came, their message was “Jesus Loves Me!” which has everything to do with living from our identity in Christ. On the 2nd week of our series, we talked about why and how we can rejoice in the midst of painful trials. When I interviewed David and Heidi Coombs last week to glean wisdom from their 100+ combined years of experience in missions, a big theme was how joyful the journey really has been, in spite of David thinking he would have to say goodbye to his love of being a rock-n-roll musician, and the many difficulties they encountered living in Peru, and the terrible loss of their own son 5 years ago. It was really a moving experience talking with them on the stage, by the way, and I hope you’ll watch the Youtube link below if you weren’t able to be with us.
I think there was also an inherent call to action that came out of our time with Dave and Heidi, and that flows nicely into the theme we will encounter this Sunday. Do you know the phrase, “Get your head in the game”? I almost used that for the title for tomorrow. The idea comes from the next sentence we will encounter in Peter’s writings: 1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, prepare your mind for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given when Jesus Christ is revealed.” I opted for “A Call To Action” for this week’s title, but I think you can hear Peter’s message as “get your head in the game!” as well. In the following paragraphs Peter gives a bunch of imperatives about how we should live in light of the great salvation we have been given.
To prepare your hearts for our time in the I would recommend you read 1 Peter 1-2. It’s just 2 pages, so it wouldn’t take long. You could also review the handouts that came with weeks 1 and 2: Doing Life From Heaven’s Resources wk1 Online Handout, and Doing Life From Heaven’s Resources wk2 Online Handout.
There are few happenings coming up in the next weeks that I’ll mention.
The first thing to note is the wonderful news that we all get an extra hour of sleep next weekend! That’s right, Daylight Savings Time officially ends at 2am on Sunday November 3rd, so next Saturday we’ll all set our clocks back one hour before we go to bed. Of course most of us have smart phones that will do the work for us, so we don’t even have to remember!
The second thing is to remember that the Women of Grace will be at their Retreat next Friday night through Sunday morning.
Let’s be praying this week for our women to have life changing encounters with the Lord and with each other next weekend! There have been a lot of ladies at my house the last 2 Saturdays prepping for a very beautiful experience.
Encounter Night 2024
Next Sunday Night (not tomorrow, but the following weekend), November 3 at the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater, is Encounter Night. Encounter Night is a night of worship and prayer put on by the churches of San Diego at the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater. It starts at 6pm on Sunday night, and it sounds like it’s going to be awesome. There will be a combined worship band with singers and instrumentalists from a bunch of different churches in San Diego. There will also be worship led by Chris Quilala. This will be a great time of unity among the churches of San Diego, gathering with just one purpose – to exalt the name of Jesus!
Convicted For Christ Golf For Hope Tournament
Our friends at Convicted For Christ are having their 2nd annual Golf For Hope Tournament/Fundraiser on November 9th. I hope as many of us as possible can also join the Golf For Hope Tournament. Check it out by clicking here: https://www.convicted4christ.org/2nd-annual-golf-for-hope-fundraiser.
Operation Christmas Child
If you’ve been in our lobby the last few weeks, you’ve seen our Operation Christmas Child table. It’s that time of year again, when we box up Christmas presents in shoeboxes to be sent around the world. Many of you already know about this program, but if you don’t, check out all the info at samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child. They have a very complete website with everything you would want to know about the mission and history of this great ministry as well as instructions for how to pack a shoebox. Also, stop by the booth in the lobby and pickup a shoebox and get more info.
Financial Update This Sunday
You probably know we have a “Leadership Council” that meets regularly in our role of oversight and shepherding of our church. One of the things we do each time we meet is to review our church’s finances – all the income and expenses that we use to fulfill the mission of our church. And from time to time we think it’s a good idea to give a financial update to all of you. Matt Evans is our church treasurer, and he’s going to being giving a short update this Sunday at the end of our preaching/teaching time. So, for those of you who call Grace Vineyard your church community, you’ll probably want to be sure to come. When we get to that part of the service tomorrow, we will end the Facebook Live Stream, so if you need to join us online rather than in-person you’ll want to make sure to join us via Zoom instead of Facebook Live. Here’s the link for the Zoom channel: Zoom Meeting ID 153 112 432, Passcode 684814, and here’s where you would go for the Facebook Live channel: facebook.com/gracevcf.
Speaking of finances, I have an embarrassing confession. I was going through the income data and compiling a report for the last year to help Matt prepare for the Financial Update (I’m a bit of a geek with numbers and spreadsheets and databases, so sometimes my skills in that area are called upon), and I reviewed my personal tithing records for the last year as well. I think you know I strongly believe in, and practice, the principle of tithing –believing that all of our income comes from the Lord, and that He has asked us to give 10 percent of that income to our local church, with a promise that He will “open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that we cannot contain” (Malachi 3:10) when we practice tithing. Well, much to my chagrin, I discovered that I had missed a few tithing opportunities during the year. Oops. I quickly hopped on the website giving page and got caught up on my tithing for the year. If you’re one who also believes in the principle of tithing, you might do the same thing I did and do a quick review of your giving for the last year to see if you’ve doing what you intend to do with your finances. I love the Lord, I love His church, I love our church in particular, and I really consider myself blessed to invest my time, talent, and treasure with you at Grace Vineyard. The more I give of my life to the Lord, the more I gain. Like people often say, “you can’t outgive God!”
Well, that’s all I mention for this week’s “Weekly Update”. Remember, “Get your head in the game!” We’ve been given an incredible salvation, and it’s going to culminate in the return of Jesus, when he will bring heaven to earth and make all things new! Therefore, we need to prepare our minds for action as we join Jesus in His mission of bringing His Kingdom and His Will to earth even as it already is in heaven.
God bless you, everyone, and I’ll see you this Sunday morning.
Ron Ohst
Tithes and Offerings Online
THANKS for taking ownership in the life and ministry of Grace Vineyard! And thanks to all of you who are stepping into a lifestyle of generosity with your tithes and offerings. It really does take all of us doing our part with the income God has entrusted to us for His church. If you’d like to give your tithe or offering online, click the donate button below.