December 20, 2025
Hello Grace Vineyard Family and Friends. Merry Christmas!
I feel a lot of joy in the air right now, as the Christmas parties and festivities are all around us. It’s Saturday afternoon as I’m writing right now, and I’m looking forward to a great Sunday with you all. We’ve been talking for the last 3 Sundays about how we can cultivate the blessings of Advent — Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love — for an entire lifetime of Abundant Living, and I hope these blessings have been overflowing for you this season. We’ve been dropping the Sunday sermons into a YouTube playlist week by week, so if you want to go back to any particular theme, they are all right here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4qHtDaFxzS8-TXCErFlSUvUmL9bBO_VK
Here’s the GraceTalks Podcast for last week’s talk on Joy as well:
This Week: Cultivating Love
This week will be the culmination with the theme Cultivating Love. Each of the 4 blessings of Advent – Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love – are descriptive of God Himself in addition to describing the nature of abundant life. But Love is unique among these themes: the Bible teaches us that “God is Love”. What a statement. It doesn’t ever say, “God is Hope”, or “God is Joy”, but love is so foundational to everything about God that instead of simply saying, “God is loving”, the Bible lets us know emphatically, “God is Love”. This week I’ve had a couple conversations with a couple guys about how they became born-again followers of Jesus. In both cases they were looking for truth, and actually found a decent amount of “truth” and great principles in some non-Christian philosophies and religions, but when they finally encountered Jesus, they experienced God’s profound love, and that changed everything. Love Broke Through. If you’re familiar with the famous song with that title (“Love Broke Through”) by Keith Green you’ll know what I’m talking about. I think I’ll read the lyrics of that song in the message tomorrow to help us get thinking about how God’s love breaks into our lives and changes everything. I hope to see you Sunday morning, but if you can’t be with us in person for worship tomorrow morning you can join us online on Zoom with this link Zoom Meeting ID 153 112 432, Passcode 684814 and you can also find our livestream on Facebook Live at facebook.com/gracevcf.
Christmas Party Potluck This Sunday Night
It’s finally here — our Christmas Party Potluck is this Sunday night, December 21, at 5pm. If you haven’t already signed up with what you are planning on bringing, Susan Franke will be in the lobby this Sunday morning to help to help you take care of that little detail! I can’t wait to share a meal with you tomorrow night.
Christmas Eve – The New Star
Join us on Christmas Eve, December 24th, at 5pm for “The New Star – The story of the first Christmas”, a traditional telling of the nativity story through the “not-so-traditional” eyes of two stars. We’ll end the program singing “Silent Night” by candle light, and then we’ll share some delicious hot apple cidar and home baked Christmas cookies. That reminds me — Cookies Needed!! — the Christmas cookies we serve on Christmas Eve come from none other than US, so watch for a clipboard going around the congregation on Sunday morning, and please sign up to bring a couple dozen cookies to share.
Starting on Sunday, January 11th, Chaplain Jason DiPinto is going to lead a financial study called “Navigating Your Finances God’s Way” from Compass Finances (A Financial Discipleship Ministry). It’s a six chapter, video-driven study and we’ll be meeting on Sundays at 11:30 after church. Space is limited – there is a 15 person maximum, so the first 15 people to sign up we’ll get to come to this one. Look for Jason in the lobby after church on Sundays in December for more info. The fee for the materials for this class is $20.
You can click here to register.
Click on this button to pay the Materials Fee:
Coat, Sweater and Shoe Collection for Mom 2 Mom kids and moms
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. If you’re giving to a specific fund (like benevolence or missions), just be sure to say that when you are given an option to add a note with your donation.