You don’t have to look far to see that we are right in the middle of the Christmas season. Around our house, Christmas is obvious, with the kids off from school and wrapping paper lying around the living room. Accompany that with lights up on the house (sounds impressive, but I only did one strand in front of the garage), and the Christmas tree lit and decorated – we are in full swing with the holiday.

This weekend Crystal Lewis will be leading worship and I made her promise that she would sing Oh Holy Night, so needless to say, it will be a fun Sunday to experience and a great opportunity to invite someone. My message will be focused around the idea that Christmas is Love and God’s great way of showing us how much He loves us came in the form of a baby. Amazing.

You won’t want to miss our Christmas Eve services at 3:30 and 5:30p. It will be a great way to continue pointing your heart toward what Christmas is all about. I love the Christmas Eve service – there is nothing better than closing with a candlelight moment and singing silent night together. It will be a wonderful celebration. Please remember if you can, we need volunteers, especially for the 5:30p service.

What an amazing season we are in at Mariners Ocean Hills! We encouraged you to Celebrate Differently this holiday season and you did by providing over 200 Christmas gifts for children who might not get one. Also, you gave just over 6 tons of food to stock the cupboards of families in need. This is who we are – a church that celebrates joyfully and gives generously. God is at work. When we reflect on the past year it is powerful to see how His gracious love worked through all of you.

As always I remind you that this is an important month for the life of our church financially. As you consider giving and receiving this month, we encourage you to ask God to reveal places where you can join Him in His work. We give back to His Kingdom in response to the greatest gift: Jesus Christ. There are great things ahead and we hope you will join us as we share God’s hope with the world this season.

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” Acts 20:35

Thank you for all you have done and will continue to do at Mariners Ocean Hills.  You are fun and you are incredibly generous, I love doing life and ministry with you.

Blessings,

Jeff