June 1, 2024

Hello Grace Vineyard Family and Friends,

It’s June in Southern California!  And from the view outside my window, it is a beautiful Spring day.  Right now a bunch of you are preparing to bless the ladies of the FRC with a delicious dinner, roses, kindness and love.  I love how you love people!

I’ve been reading through Paul’s 1st letter to the church at Thessalonica this week, and some of his encouraging words there feel like they could have been written to you:

We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3)

…

Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10)

Thank you for loving the ladies at FRC with this special dinner today, thank you for loving our unsheltered neighbors the last Saturday of every month, thank you for caring for each other day after day, thank you for praying for each other with such fervent love…I could go on and on.  You guys are awesome!

Tomorrow I plan to start a study with you about the message of 1 Thessalonians.

It’s a really encouraging read.  Paul and Silas had had a very successful church planting experience in Thessalonica, but because of persecution, and for their safety, the new followers of Jesus sent Paul and Silas away to another city called Berea in the middle of the night.  Paul and Silas planted another successful church there in Berea and moved on to Athens to tell more people about Jesus. In the mean time, persecution had continued for the new Christians in Thessalonica and Paul was really worried about how they were doing.  Would they even still be following Jesus with all this difficult opposition? So when Paul was ministering in Athens, he sent Timothy to go check on them and encourage them.  Timothy has just come back from the trip and meets up with Paul and Silas, now doing church planting in Corinth.  Timothy has great news! Not only are the Thessalonian believers still following Jesus, in spite of the persecution, they are flourishing.  The three church planters are overjoyed and set out to write an encouraging letter to the church of Thessalonica.  And we have a copy of that letter, which is pretty amazing.  It’s called 1 Thessalonians in our Bibles. I hope you’ll all be able to join me tomorrow morning as we open up this great Bible book together, but if you are not able to be with us in person this Sunday, you can always join online via the Zoom app with this info:  Zoom Meeting ID  153 112 432, Passcode 684814. You may also join us on Facebook Live at facebook.com/gracevcf.

Last Sunday I did a follow-up to our Pentecost Sunday service, bringing a message called “Living in the Light of Pentecost”.   I was very encouraged by what I felt the Holy Spirit was highlighting for me and really enjoyed sharing those insights on Sunday.  If you’d like to hear that message, you can watch it right here on our YouTube channel:

Or you can listen to it on our Gracetalks.org podcast channel:

Here’s a few things coming up in the next couple of weeks…

Men’s Breakfast and Ladies Walk Next Saturday

For our Men, we are very excited to welcome Pastor Kevin Bruce from Calvary Chapel Oceanside.  We’ll be meeting at Ty’s Burgerhouse at 8am next Saturday, June 8th for a delicious breakfast that includes biscuits and gravy, eggs served country scramble style, potatoes, Orange Juice, and Coffee.  Did I mention it’s delicious?  We’ll worship together, and then we’ll hear an encouraging word from Kevin.

 

Ladies, you’ll be meeting at 9am in the grassy area at the corner of Pine and Carlsbad Blvd for some exhilarating outdoor fellowship at the Carlsbad Beach Walk.  If you are planning on going, please text or call Kathy Green at 760-583-1779 to let the ladies know to expect you.

Face To Face, Friday, June 14th

All ladies are invited for a time of worship, teaching, prayer and swimming at Sheri Winter’s home (4538 Coronado Dr., Oceanside).  We’ll gather at 6:30 for snacks and hang out.  Worship will begin at 7pm.  Bring your suit for an evening swim after the meeting.  Call Kim Ohst for more information 760.519.4558.

New Monday Night Women’s Bible Study

Our Women of Grace who went to our last retreat will certainly remember our amazing speaker, Dianne Leman.  Dianne has written a book called, “Hello Holy Spirit, God’s Gift of Live-in Help”, and there is a 7 session DVD study to go along with it.  Debby Gidley will be leading this study on Monday nights, beginning June 10th.  The study will take place at Lisa Rogers’ home, 1771 Round Tree Dr., Oceanside.  Please sign up in the lobby after church ASAP.  Signup deadline is June 5th, but these groups tend to fill up fast, so you’ll wanna jump on this right away.  If you have questions, call or text Debby at 760-637-9286.  You can also email her at debby@gracevcf.org.

Honoring our Graduates

There are a few of us who are graduating this month.  If you are a graduate, please come tomorrow!  We want to honor you, bless you, pray over you, and celebrate with you.  After church we’ll have a big graduation cake to share with everybody.

And I think that’s all I have for this week’s update.

Richest blessings and love to each of you,

Ron Ohst