Harvest in the Ranch Slideshow
August 31st 2008
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Archive for August, 2008
Ministry Spotlight – Mentoring Matters
August 26th 2008
A new Women’s Ministry offer at Harvest is Mentoring Matters. This Sunday, August 31, is the last Sunday you can sign-up to be part of the Fall session. The study is based on the principals laid out in Titus 2, where the older women are instructed to promote and encourage the younger women to honor God’s Word in their homes and lives. Each woman is placed into a small group where they’ll meet weekly in a local area home either at night or in the morning depending on need. This 8-week session will cover the following topics:
Week 1–Get Acquainted/Orientation
Week 2–Honoring God’s Word
Week 3–Loving your husband
Week 4–Loving your children
Week 5–Keepers of the home (cooking, house-cleaning, laundry, etc)
Week 6–Stewardship (resources, time, energy, own health)
Week 7–Inner person of the heart (attributes of godly woman)
Week 8–Koinonia-Celebrating What God Has Done
If you’re a woman who’s just completed the Summer session of Mentoring Matters, we would love to hear from you. For more information on the study or how to register, please call Diane Jackson through the Church office at 951-687-6902.
The Living Room Study
August 26th 2008
Every Tuesday night, The Living Room Study meets downtown with Steve Wiggins. Steve’s goal with the study is to encourage members to read one chapter of the Bible each day through the daily devotionals he sends out via e-mail. Reading just one chapter a day, participants in The Living Room Study will complete the New Testament in nine and a half months, and the entire Bible in just over three years.
The Living Room Study meets at the Coffee Depot in downtown Riverside at 3204 Mission Inn Avenue, starting at 7 p.m. with worship. For more information, be sure to visit the Web site here.
Men’s and Women’s Bible Fellowships
August 22nd 2008
Our Men’s and Women’s Bible Fellowships will start again in September. This year, the men will be studying “The Victories of God in the Life of Joshua,” meeting on Tuesdays, starting September 23 at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
The women are on track to study “Knowing Him–Lessons from Paul’s Life and Ministry,” beginning September 18. The women have two studies available on Thursdays at 9:15 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Children’s Ministry is available only at the morning studies and registration is required.
Sign-ups for both studies are available on the Patio this month and at the Eastvale and Orangecrest satellite locations.
Come join us for worship, a Bible study through the Word of God, and a small group time to discuss the lessons. If you’re a veteran of our Bible studies or a first-timer, we know you’ll be richly blessed in God’s word.
If you have further questions, you can contact us at the church or e-mail Pastor Brad Ormonde at brad@harvest.org for the men’s studies. For information on the Women’s study, call Kim or Cathie in the Women’s Ministry office or visit their Web site here.
Surf’s up!
August 19th 2008
What better way to beat the Inland Empire heat than to join a group of Christians and hang ten at the beach! Harvest’s Surf Fellowship is open to adults and children of all ages.
The next gathering is Saturday, August 23, at Tower 20 on Bolsa Chica State Beach (Pacific Coast Highway between Golden West and Warner Avenue). Devotions start at 9:30 a.m. Get there early to get a good parking spot. Parking is $10.
You don’t need to know how to surf – we’ll show you! We even have some boards available for you to practice on. Bring your own body boards if surfing’s not your thing.
Here’s some photos to get you in the mood for the most epic beach day ever! To visit the surf site click here.
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Not Thomas the Doubter – Thomas the Devoted
August 19th 2008
This week Pastor John Collins shares the real heart of Thomas. Not a heart of doubt, but of devotion.
“Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus’” (John 11:16 nlt).
We don’t know much about Thomas. His name reveals to us that he was “a twin.” That’s not much of an identity to go through life with. Perhaps he went through life in the shadow of another.
It was he who was also given the title of “doubter” when Jesus appeared to the disciples in the Upper Room, and Thomas, not being present to see it, questioned his friends. It was he who blurted out the honest reply as Jesus told them in John 14 that he was going away to “prepare a place for them,” and that he would come back for them. Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going and we don’t know the way.”
Much can be surmised in the brief statements of Thomas, but nothing quite as insightful as the words he utters here in this passage, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.”
Thomas may have been clueless in the Upper Room, and he may have misunderstood what Jesus meant as he talked about His pending death and resurrection, but there is no misunderstanding his loyalty. If death was the cost of discipleship, Thomas was declared he was “all in.”
There is something lovely and sweet in his innocent devotion. He may not have been the sharpest tool in the toolbox, but he knew Jesus—he walked with Him, he listened to Him teach, and he saw His love and care for those to whom he came to serve and to save.
The heart of Thomas was to die with Jesus. That he understood. That he could do.
And when he found himself face to face with Jesus in the Upper Room, and he was given the chance to touch the wounds of Jesus to dispel his unbelief, he didn’t need to. All he needed to do was look into the eyes of Jesus. Thomas simply said: “My Lord, and my God.”
Maybe he’d only known Jesus as His Lord, and at that moment it was becoming clear that Jesus was not only Lord, but God. His heart was to go and die with Jesus, and here Jesus had gone and died for him! How glorious. How awesome. How magnificent is the love of God toward his servant Thomas.
In the end, Thomas didn’t need to touch the wounds of Jesus; the wounds of Jesus touched him! May it always be so for us!
Coming up this week at Harvest…
August 12th 2008
Pray for the Harvest Crusade and bring an unsaved family member or friend! Gates open at 5:30 p.m. on Friday evening and at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
We will also be collecting non-perishable food items each night of the crusade for the Fred Jordan Mission in Los Angeles.
The event is free. Angel stadium charges $10 for parking.
Pray for the Crusade and Pastor Greg
August 6th 2008
All of our Harvest Crusades events are still on schedule, but this is definitely a time to keep Pastor Greg and the entire Harvest Crusades team in prayer.
You’re not too late to be involved with the Crusades. Be sure to visit the tables on the Patio this Sunday morning to see how you can help at this year’s Southern California Harvest or to get information on how to join us for the New York Harvest.