April 28, 2023
Hello Grace Vineyard and Friends of Grace,
Welcome to the last week of April! We are deep into Spring now, and it sure is lovely in San Diego. I hope you are enjoying the beauty of creation. If you’ve been stuck inside this week, or if your eyes have mostly been glued to a digital screen, I hope you’ll try to go outside on Saturday and just enjoy the Spring beauty that is all around; it’s good for the soul.
Speaking of getting outside…
Ladies Monthly Walk is This Saturday
This is the weekend for our monthly Ladies Walk. This month we’ll be meeting at the Hosp Grove playground off Jeferson at 9am. We’d love to have you join us. Please call Kathy Green at 760-583-1779 and confirm if you plan to attend!
Empowered – Pentecost 2023 – episode 3
This Sunday we’ll continue in our Empowered series with the 3rd in our 6 part teaching series leading up to Pentecost Sunday on May 28. This week we’ll take a look at one of the works of the Kingdom that Jesus calls all His followers to engage in, the ministry of healing. I think many of us view healing as a somewhat unique ministry reserved for a small minority of us, but actually Jesus commanded first the 12, then the 70 disciples, and then all disciples for all time in the Great Commission, to bring His healing touch to people in need. Interestingly, in the original Greek language one of that words that gets translated into English as healing also refers to deliverance from evil spirits and salvation; that’s the word “sozo”. We understand healing to be the ministry of bringing wholeness to the whole person, body, soul, and spirit, so it’s a very comprehensive kind of healing that Jesus calls us to participate in. As we look toward the day of Pentecost, we are thinking of all that the Holy Spirit’s infilling accomplishes in us, including empowering us for joining Jesus’ healing ministry. That’s what we’ll be talking about this Sunday. I hope you’ll be able to join us for this time of equipping. It’s usually the case that when we teach on healing in a church setting the Lord will show up with healing power, so please begin praying that His Grace for Healing will be amongst us as we gather together this weekend.
Last weekend we talked about preparing our hearts for Pentecost by repenting of any parts of our lives where we have not enthroned Jesus as Lord over that area. The title was “The Throne in My Heart – How the Lordship of Jesus is Key to Spirit-filled Living”. If you’d like to hear or see that teaching again, we’ve put it up on our YouTube channel and you can watch it right here:
Or you can listen to it on the go on our GraceTalks.org podcast right here:
National Day of Prayer – 2 Events
This coming Thursday, May 4th, is the National Day of Prayer, and I have been invited to be one of the prayer leaders at 2 local prayer events – one at The River Gardens (390 Mimosa Ave, Vista) at 8AM, and one at Oceanside Heritage Park (220 Peyri Drive, Oceanside) at 6PM. Our nation is in serious need of the Lord’s help, and it’s quite a great opportunity we have to join in prayer with followers of Jesus from all over our nation to call on the Lord. I hope you’ll join me at one or both of these prayer events.
SoCal Vineyard Youth Conference June 21-23
Our high school students are going to join with other youth from Vineyard churches in Southern California for a youth conference called Ignite, June 21-23.
IGNITE 2023 is a SoCal Vineyard gathering for teens where we’ll step together into passionate worship, powerful Ministry and a deeper burn in our lives for the Kingdom of God!
The message of Jesus was and is simple: the Kingdom of God is near. What, though, does that mean? Why is it, as Jesus called it, “good news”? What does it mean for our real, daily lives? At IGNITE 2023 we’ll lean into that question together. What if your life could go from checking the box to consuming passion? From surviving to thriving? From trying to find your story, to knowing your story? Join us for IGNITE 2023 as we worship, engage in ministry, learn, play and together see the embers of our faith swell into consuming flame!
You can learn more at their event registration page by clicking here.
Here’s a video of our regional leader and our regional youth leader talking about the conference:
We want all our youth to be able to attend, so we will be seeing some fundraisers to soon to help them get there. For now, if you are connected with a high school student, please tell them about this conference, and connect them with our youth pastor, Lisa Rogers, srogers@gracevcf.org or 760-696-1994.
And I have one more event to tell you about coming up a week from this Sunday…
FLAG-MAKING WORKSHOP May 7th 12 pm (after service)
Have you wanted to learn more about flagging, how it applies in worship and its history?
Join Tommy Mok after church on May 7th and learn about this beautiful and creative expression of worship. We as a church have been blessed by Tommy and his expressions in worship with the use of flags and now you have the opportunity to learn about flagging and make your own.
Please bring materials: (silk, and light fabrics work best) and a pole (bamboo gardening stick, fishing rods, something small and flexible but still strong). No need for experience, all are welcome.
Tommy will also be offering a simple martial arts lessons and stretching for anyone wants to learn flagging in that style.
RSVP to Tommy at kaikwanmok@gmail.com By May 5th.
May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. —Psalm 20:5
And that’s it for this week’s update. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Sunday morning.
With love and blessings,
Ron Ohst
Tithes and Offerings Online
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