Elevate Fundraiser

I am also excited that we now have a fund raiser for the Elevate Trip. We will be having a work day on Saturday November 17th to decorate the church with Christmas Lights and other festivities and if you come and work that day you will get paid for your hours and have it applied to the trip. I don't have details as of exact numbers but will have them shortly.

Harvest Festival

We had the Harvest Festival last night at Ocean Hills! It was loads of fun! There were all sorts of bounce houses to have in, carnival games, live music, FOOD FOOD FOOD, CANDY CANDY CANDY, a dunk tank, and the infamous High School Sheriff. They ran around arresting anyone who has a bounty on their head. Want an example? Some KID went to the high schooler gang and gave them a dollar to arrest me. After a good 7 minutes of wrestling 10 high schoolers, I was taken to jail :(. Oh, did I mention that I am extremely beat up and sore right now? Here is a nice picture of yours truly about to get dunked in the tank!

Blessed are the Meek

So, today we covered the third beatitude in our series through the beatitudes. The verse reads: blessed are the meek, for they will inherent the earth. I love how beautifully Christ put together the beatitudes. Truly, as we have been studying through them we have seen how each beatitude relates to the other.

What exactly does the word "Meek" mean? You can relate a meek person to a humble person. And to put it plainly, meek means: power under control. As Christians we have been given the power of God through his son Jesus Christ. We have salvation. We have the Holy Spirit. So how do we get this power? Well, to get an understanding of this, let's go ahead and examine the first three beatitudes all at once.

A person cannot be meek, which is to have the power of God with them, until they are in spiritual mourning. This same person cannot be in spiritual mourning, until they realize their pitiful and poor spiritual condition. And so, once someone becomes poor in spirit (1st beatitude) then they will mourn over their sins (2nd beatitude) which in turn humbles them and gives them the ability to submit to God's will for their lives (3rd beatitude).

Hey what's up kids, Ryan here, for my very first blog on the website. Pretty stoked! Well, as you guys all know we are currently studying the book of Daniel. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Daniel is such rad book, for so many different reasons. First and most importantly, Daniel gives a look of how great God is. Communicated through vivid dreams, God shows us that he truly is in control of everything and he gives us a brief view of what is to come in the near future.

Second, Daniel is book that gives us stories of extreme faith, courage, and perseverance. Daniel himself was blessed with the ability to interpret dreams, but Daniel was not a random pick by God. Instead, Daniel was a faithful servant of God and God knew that he would be able to withstand the constant tests of faith while serving in the Babylonian kingdom. Daniel hung out with some pretty cool guys as well. His friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; also known as shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego, were also very faithful to our God in heaven and they showed their faith even when threatened with death, as we will see this coming Sunday in chapter 3.

Well kids, have a great week, be safe, and remember to pray for wisdom like Daniel and remain in God's word daily. See you wednesday homies!

Blessed are those who Mourn

This last sunday we continued our study through the Beatitudes. We took a look at the second beatitude which is "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Amazing enough, there is a Bible story that completely illustrates this Beatitude for us.

It's the story of Peter denying Christ three times. Peter follows the steps of the beatitudes, in that, first he sinned against God and realized it (Christ literally looked at him when Peter denied Christ for the third time!). After he realized that he sinned against God, he wept. He mourned over his sin. However, three days after Christ was crucified, Peter was comforted by Jesus himself!

Following the flow of the beatitudes: the first beatitude (blessed are the pour in spirit) is all about having the "head knowledge" of the existence of your sin; then in the second beatitude, once you have that "head knowledge," then comes the emotional response of mourning over it. But, in the end of it all, you will be comforted by Christ, knowing that he paid the price for your sins!

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

So, today was a big day! We kicked off two brand new series! First service Ryan took us through the first chapter of the book of Daniel, and then during second service I (matthew) went through the first beatitude.

Now, one thing that I have noticed about the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) is that at a first glance, they seem to be quite superficial. As it turns out however, the Beatitudes contain extremely heavy content!

So, the first Beatitude we covered was: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit...



The above picture depicts a homeless person: someone who is poor. However, one thing we need to realize is that all of mankind is poor, in spirit. All of mankind is poor with regards to their relationship with God. He is perfect, while we are pitiful. The best part is, however, that the story doesn't end there! Christ died for our sins, in order to bring us back into that right standing with God. Christ died for us and rose again because we are poor in spirit.

The reason why the poor in spirit are blessed is because once someone realizes that they are poor in spirit, only at that point can they be saved. Once you come to the realization of your own sin you will see the need to have a savior! Who is your savior? Christ!

The Send Off

So, this last Sunday our very own got an official missionary send off during Ocean Hill's main service. If you didn't know, Nathan and his friend Matt (Dont worry i'm not his only friend named matt!!) are going off to Ohio! Now, why would these two young guys go to a place like Ohio? Well, God has placed on Nathan's heart the need for the people in Ohio to hear the gospel! There aren't very many churches out there and Nathan feels he has a calling to go out there and start preaching the Word of God!

I am very excited to see what God is going to do to and through Nathan during this missions trip to Ohio. It will be a very crazy time for Nathan, so keep him in your prayers! So, we are for sure going to stay in communication with Nathan and he will keep us updated on his trip to Ohio.

One question you should ask yourself at this point is: What will become of Agent 47?