{"id":14240,"date":"2025-09-17T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/?p=14240"},"modified":"2025-09-17T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:00:09","slug":"midweek-message-9-17-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/2025\/09\/midweek-message-9-17-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Message 9-17-2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MIDWEEK MESSAGE #263<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Hello everyone! Welcome to Midweek Message #263. I hope your week is going well and you are enjoying an extra measure of God\u2019s blessings.<\/p>\n<p>Remember to pray for Gabrielle Corder, our educator of the week. This is her third year teaching Kindergarten at Gosport Elementary School (GES). Gabby has been married to Caleb for 3 years and they have a 15 month-old daughter, Charlotte. Caleb and Gabby have gotten involved in the Gosport community since moving there and were both involved in the recent Lazy Days Festival. Both have been baptized since coming to OVCF 3 years ago.\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<h4>A COUPLE OF DATES FOR THE CALENDAR:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Teen Worship Night at the East\u2019s Friday, September 19 from 6:30-9 PM. Dinner followed by worship. All MS and HS students are welcome.<\/li>\n<li>Next OVCF family pitch-in is Wednesday, September 24 at 6 PM.<\/li>\n<li>Btown Worship Night at Switchyard Park- 9\/28 at 6 PM. NO ROOTS. All invited to the worship night event.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>OVCF\u2019s 21st anniversary celebration will be October 26th<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Two services- 9:00 and 10:45<\/li>\n<li>Pitch-in meal to follow<\/li>\n<li>Walk throughs are planned for the new addition. You will have the opportunity to see where different rooms will be located.<\/li>\n<li>We invite you to write Scripture or prayers on the unfinished walls in the auditorium.<\/li>\n<li>All giving that day, unless designated, will go to our Building Fund to help complete the addition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>YOUTH NEWS:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Congrats to Tad Nicholson. He ran in a cross country meet this past Wednesday and placed 6th for the team and 9th overall. His time was a personal best.<\/li>\n<li>I went to a MS volleyball match last Thursday. They girls played hard but lost the first two games. They were without several of their starters. One was Rusti O\u2019Neal, who was thought to have a concussion. (She did). Get better, Rusti! Amelia Biggs is a manager on the team.<\/li>\n<li>Saturday the OVHS girls ran in a cross country meet in Brown County. Alli Anderson ran well for OV and had a personal best. Aubrey Mangia ran well until a fall interrupted her on the course.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>I purposely held my thoughts to a minimum in order to include the remarks I made Sunday about the events of the past week. I was asked to say something and because I never want to talk politics from the pulpit, I wanted to make sure my remarks were just that: non-political. I appreciate all the positive feedback I received, but since some of you were not able to hear or to watch, I thought I would include them here:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This past week our country has faced some horrific events. On September 11th we commemorated the most devastating attack on American soil when two planes hit the Twin Towers, one hit the Pentagon and one was taken down early in a field in PA. 2977 precious souls lost their lives in the attacks. This past Thursday was the 24th anniversary of that attack. (I hope you took some time to remember). Bookending that remembrance was a brutal attack of Ukrainian refugee, Iryna Zarutska by a man who should never have been on the streets, and the assassination of conservative commentator and Christ-follower, Charlie Kirk. Sadly, the use of video has brought both the stabbing death and the assassination to our eyes and to be forever burned in our memories.<\/p>\n<p>For various reasons very little was said about the stabbing death, possibly due to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I don\u2019t care what political persuasion you are and how you feel about him. What I do care about is the response to his death. From celebration to extreme sadness and tears, I am glad that except for some rogue people, people across the aisle are appalled at the senseless killing of another human being.<\/p>\n<p>What has me disconcerted is the hatred and vitriol spewed out about his death, both locally and nationally. What is even more appalling to me is that some of this is coming from those who call themselves Christians. You may not have agreed with his views, but no one should rejoice in the death of another, especially one who follows Christ. Two weeks ago in a sermon on pride I said, \u201cPride rejoices in an evil person\u2019s death.\u201d I mentioned how some were not sad that Ozzy Osbourne had died. It saddens me (as well as maddens me) that those who call themselves Christians can rejoice over the death of another. The hatred and mean words must stop with each one of us. Ironically, while all this was going on, there was a revival taking place on the campus of Ohio State University, where our grandson attends, with hundreds of students coming to Christ and being publicly baptized. THAT is the solution right there: giving our hearts and lives to Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of hatred I suggest we pray. We need to pray for a move of God in our country. We need to pray for the family of Iryna Zarutska. We need to pray for Charlie\u2019s widow and 2 young children who will now grow up without a dad. We need to pray for our own hearts, and ask God to help us get rid of any hate we carry toward anyone, to learn to forgive and live as Christ would have us live. If you have spewed out some of that hate, you need to repent because that is not the way of Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>I can remember after 9\/11 the politicians who could not see eye to eye on what was the best thing to eat for breakfast, standing on the steps of the Capitol and singing together, \u201cGod Bless America.\u201d Was it for show? Possibly. But it told us that we need God\u2019s blessing on our country. I would also add that we need to start saying, \u201cAmerica, bless God.\u201d We need to turn our hearts to Him and pray for Him to work in the hearts and lives of each of us, especially His people. I still believe in a God who can change this country around and bring peace and healing.<\/p>\n<p>This Sunday\u2019s sermon is <em>God\u2019s Unfailing Love<\/em> from Hosea 1-Nahum 3. I look forward to spending time with you. Until then, just know you are loved.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Bill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MIDWEEK MESSAGE #263 \u00a0 Hello everyone! Welcome to Midweek Message #263. I hope your week is going well and you are enjoying an extra measure of God\u2019s blessings. Remember to pray for Gabrielle Corder, our educator of the week. This is her third year teaching Kindergarten at Gosport Elementary School (GES). Gabby has been married &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/2025\/09\/midweek-message-9-17-2025\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-midweekmessage","category-ovcf-news","nodate","item-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14241,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14240\/revisions\/14241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}