Christmas Service

Our first Christmas service will be this Friday night, December 23, at 7:00. We will be meeting at our usual place, Blue Moon Events Center; however, we will be in a different meeting room, just look for the signs to find the right entrance. This will be our only service this week-end, enjoy Christmas Day with your family.

Please bring a friend! We are expecting great things, it will be an exciting night! It's gonna be a Party!

Fight For Joy!

Depression is a very serious issue, more and more people suffer from it today than ever before. It can be caused my numerous amounts of things, more things than I could probably think of. The one thing I know about depression is this, it's one of the worst feelings you can possibly have, EVER. I went through a deep depression for years as a teenager and partially after that. I would say from the time I hit 7th or 8th grade until my early 20s, (I'm 25 now) I constantly struggled through depression. Everything from feeling completely alone, hated by everyone to not wanting to live anymore. Serious thoughts of suicide occurred twice my freshman year of high school. If you struggle with depression, these are all too familiar for you. It's an awful feeling. The emotional pain and negative thoughts can be unbearable at times.

Don't feel alone in this. The good news is, you can be victorious over it. It may take telling someone that you struggle with it, which is a very difficult step, but believe me when I say that you are a strong person in doing so, and worth it in the future. I didn't overcome my depression overnight. It was years of counceling. Want to know the one thing that defeated my struggle with depression? Jesus Christ. God wants nothing more for His children than to be joyful. To be honest, it's a fight for me still at times. And He did that when He died on the cross for you and me. I mentioned earlier to not feel alone, did you know that Jesus knows every pain and hurt that we go through? He experienced that on the cross. Romans 10:9 says, If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Making that decision changed my life, forever. And personally, for me, that's the way I fight for joy every single day. Understand that Christ died on a cross for us, to pay for our sins, so that we didn't have to pay for it ourselves. That's love, man (John 3:16). Allow Christ to come into your life, and take over. You'll be overwhelmed with the love that we see on the cross and what Jesus did for us (1 John 4:10).

There are many ways to fight depression, surrounding yourself with people that love Jesus, is a great way. The love and support from people that care about you, (And believe me, if you feel like no one does, there ARE people that care about you) is an incredible way to build you up. Love is a trump card, it dominates everything. Why? Because God is love (1 John 4:16). So for maybe the person that is struggling with depression, your question is maybe where do I find those people? Church is a great start. Try OneSpring Church. If not ours, a church is great place to go. We want everyone to feel comfortable coming to a place where it's OK TO BE JACKED UP! We need Jesus just as much as the next person, we are not better than anyone. And for the person that may know a person dealing with depression and for followers of Christ, we need to love our brothers and sisters (1 John 4:19-21).

Fight for joy, even if it's not depression, maybe it's just a bad day or another struggle, you cling to Jesus. Maybe you've lost a loved one, cling to Jesus. God is faithful (Psalm 91:4), let that be a motivation for you. His love endures forever (Psalm 100:5). Through Christ Jesus, we have victory over anything. My prayer for the person reading this is that you've found hope, or that you've been motivated to help a person in need. A few weeks ago, I talked about taking your next step, what's yours? Maybe it's accepting Jesus Christ into your life. Come talk to us, we'd love to help out and hear your story. Much love! Have a great week!!

Sex Sells Pt. 2

So last week we talked about the dangers of sexual impurity and how it leads to consequences and the joy it can bring by fighting for purity and following Christ. What I want you to know is that last week was not meant to make you feel like a piece of crap if you have struggled in this area of your life, it was meant to give you hope and be challenged to fight to live a life that will not lead to emptiness and pain. Let's face it, no one is perfect, we all have messed up in some way or another, now let's work on standing up, facing those struggles and being victorious over them, in Christ, and ONLY in Christ, can we be victorious. This week I'm going to be transparent with you, yup, you get to know about my past and the pain I've gone through and others when I was not fighting for purity.

It all started in middle school, now most of you can agree, that's when we started noticing the opposite sex right? Well, it certainly was for me, and I was introduced to the infamous porn industry from a fellow student. You guessed correctly, I liked it. Being so young, I didn't know the damage that was going to cause. Eventually I realized I was addicted to it, bondage. Years later in high school, junior year, while still being highly addicted to pornography, I got myself a girlfriend. At age 18, I lost my virginity to her. Oh the nightmare that caused. I'm going to say this with no apologies, sex outside of marriage will screw with your head and your heart. It causes jealousy, insecurities, selfishness, trust issues and a lot more. She always accused me of cheating on her, which caused me to wonder about her too, whether or not she was cheating. I wanted all of my time to be with her (selfish). Leaving out family and friends, which I needed time with them as well. What was the outcome of that relationship? I broke up with her. Right after that, I accepted Jesus into my life and to be my Lord and Savior. But I eventually walked away, partially due to alcohol and drugs, but the thing that hindered my relationship with Jesus? My second girlfriend and I became sexually active as well. Yup, I gave God the middle finger. That's what we do when we disobey His word and commands. We say our way is better and we don't need You. That relationship ended years later, after an incident of us breaking up, then talked about how we wanted to work things out, she still loved me and wanted to be with me, but then come to find she slept with someone else later that week. Talk about having some major trust issues after that.

One girl I was "talking too" for a couple months had told me all of these really sweet things, she wanted to be with me, I was such an amazing guy, blah blah blah. Well needless to say she had gotten me to sleep with her that evening. What happened the next day? She tells me she's moving away to be with her ex boyfriend. I was used. I was tricked. I was devastated. You don't hear guys give that story too much, about how they were used by a female in that manner, but it happened to me. The pain fealt unbearable.

Another lady came along and we went from 0-120mph in about 3 seconds. Translate that into we met, liked each other and hit the throttle on the relationship. Oh, just so you know, I still struggled with pornography at this point, this was late 2010. I was basically living with her a month into the relationship. If that's you, you should probably get out now, and don't tell me that you aren't sleeping together, which there really isn't a whole lot of sleeping going on. Don't lie, no two attractive people can lay next to each other every night and nothing happen. I gave that ridiculous lie too. What a fool I was to think people would believe that crap. Anyways, since we went full throttle into the relationship, it wasnt' long before that relationship ended. See the trend here? There are occasions where people will sleep together and still get married, but why risk the pain and all of the emotional and mental confusion? Pornography, I had to tell someone about that, you CANNOT pray that away, get help, someone who you can trust, a Christian mentor is the best. Pornography destroys the image of females, they have hearts and souls and you look at them as a piece of meat at best. It's wrong and it's lustful. Get help, that means leave your pride in the trash can, take a hit on your reputation and let someone help you break the bondage. I can't tell you the amount of blessings God will give you on top of what you already have by fighting for purity (1 Cor 6:13-15). Put Christ at the center of your life, and everything else falls into place. The reason for me telling you about my past is so that you can see that my ways, didn't work. Pleasing myself was the ultimate goal before I followed Christ, pretty obvious isn't? The emotional and mental damage it caused and the physical consequences it could've caused is too great. I've been hurt greatly in the past because of those decisions I made. I was transparent with you to encourage YOU to do the same, get help, confess and change. It IS worth it, I'm experiencing the rewards as I type this. Fight for the joyful life that Jesus Christ wants us to have THROUGH HIM!!! My prayer is that you understand that what I went through was not the best, it's NOT God's best for us.

I hope you enjoyed the mini series on "Sex Sells", let's get some feedback shall we? Next week is a new topic, it will be on depression. Have a blessed week!!!

Sex Sells Pt. 1

In this day and age, the world screams sex at us. Sex is as normal as eating food through out the day. We see it on TV shows, movies, magazines, hear it in music, even from a lot of our friends. The porn industry is one of the top money making businesses in the world. People have turned sex into something it shouldn't be. In Genesis 2:18-25 we see the first relationship that God created between Adam and Eve. They both had a relationship with God first then God brought Eve to Adam, then they got married, anything out of that order, the relationship gets jacked up, BIG TIME. But in todays world, people claim having sex outside of marriage is ok, it's no longer a big deal. The problem with this is that it IS a big deal. Sex outside of marriage will damage your relationship with Christ (1 Cor 6:8-10), and with the person you're having sex with. Take it from someone who's experienced it. On top of that, God commands us to FLEE from sexual immorality, that means run from it! (1 Cor 6:18). Listen, don't be a fool and ask, "what's sexual immorality?" You know what it is, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to pursue Jesus and be having sex with someone you're not married to (1 Thes 4:2-4). It's not worth it. There are consequences that follow sexual impurity, physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual. You may not believe me when I say that, but trust me, if you're having problems with your boyfriend or girlfriend and you're having sex or sleeping together, whatever the case may be, that's probably the root of the problem. Yes, the world wants us to give in to what "feels good" and to do what we want to do. But when in the heck has that ever lead to great decision? Drinking five whiskey sours will make you feel great for about 10 minutes and then you're more than likely puking and insanely drunk, waking up the next morning feeling like someone swatted you across the face with a bat. Now how do you feel? Oh, can you remember what happened as well? Probably not. Listen, fight the good fight of the faith (1 Tim 6:11-13). Jesus doesn't command us to flee from sexual immorality AND any situation where the temptation might arise for no reason. When you pursue Jesus, you pursue purity, doing both leads to a joyful life. In the latter part of Acts 15:29, we are told we will do well avoiding sexual immorality. When the Bible repeats itself over and over again...it's probably really important to listen and do what it says, why put yourself in bondage? Sexual impurity will leave you empty inside, Jesus is the only thing that can fill us with everything we need. Challenge yourselves by following Christ daily, He never said it was going to be easy. Stay tuned for next weeks blog, I'll be opening up my heart with you and sharing my past, the things that I've done wrong dealing with sexual impurities, how following Jesus Christ has changed my heart, mind and soul. Fight the good fight of the faith!!!

Religious People Vs. Christians

There may have been a time when someone has asked you, or you've asked, "Are you a Christian?" And you, or that person, may have had a cringing response. Why? People look at Christianity as rules: you can't do this, can't do that. It has the "I'm better than you", "I'm God's greatest gift" attitude. To tell you the truth, there are people that are Christians that have this mindset and attitude. They may not even realize they are acting a certain way that Jesus would bust you over the dome piece (your head) for. That's why by the grace of our loving God, He's after our heart, not our behavior. But that doesn't pardon our behavior either. In Revelation 3:1-3 Jesus is rebuking the Church of Sardis for their "good deeds". They were so focused on doing what every other Christian thinks is righteous: reading your Bible, praying, attending church, doing a food drive or whatever. They quit walking with the Lord! Just going through all the motions, whistling to themselves I'm sure, and trying to make people think they're insanely spiritual and godly. And for the love, don't boast about your deeds either (1 Cor 5:6-8, Eph 2:8-9). A part-time attender of church is usually a part-time follower of Christ, but a full-time attender of church can also not follow Christ at all (Matt 7:21-23). You can't follow Christ and stay the same. Seriously, it's impossible. See some people think that Christianity is like a, "Get out of jail free card". In other words, go out and do whatever you want, and you can be forgiven. The problem with that is when you focus on exactly what Jesus did for you and me, you become overwhelmed with His love and then you have the desire to do whatever He wants you to, not what we want to do (Rom 5:8). God's one and only Son, died on a cross, naked and bleeding, so that you and I could live an eternal life and be reconciled with God. Jesus doesn't make bad people good, he makes dead people alive! There's nothing extra that comes along with Christianity, it's Jesus Christ, and only Him, follow Him, everything else means nothing (Phil 3:8). A religious person seems to get that part backwards, they think it's works based. You don't gain your green card to heaven by sticking your nose high in the air and thinking to yourself, "Look how good I am because I do all of these wonderful things for God." How empty a person must be when they think of themselves higher than others (Phil 2:3-5). But how easy it is for anyone, including myself, for us to get into that mindset that it's all about us. Maybe that's how people become "religious" rather than sold out for Jesus. Believe it or not, God wants us to have a joyful, fulfilling life (John 15:9-11). Fully sell yourself out for our Lord Jesus, and your mind will be blown. I can't even begin to explain what I've seen happen in other peoples' lives, as well as mine, when they become true disciples of Christ. The overwhelming joy and love you gain is incredible, and ALL of it, is from Jesus, nothing I have done entitles me to take credit for anything. Now go young padawans, be challenged!!! I DARE YOU!!

Taking Your Next Step

So the last couple weeks at house church we've been discussing our next steps as a church. We've been challenged to dream big and become prepared for our official launch of OneSpring Church.

We watched two sermons from Craig Groeschel discussing the book Nehemiah, taking steps and facing opposition and what to do with both of them. The exciting thing, personally for me, is that the past few weeks has challenged me with my personal walk with Christ. Figuring out what my next steps are and how I need to handle the opposition that comes along with it. In order to make an impact in our church, I need to be taking steps in my own time with Jesus. That means prayer, reading God's Word, applying God's Word and what He tells me I need to do, as well as, talking with people about the things going on in my life. Yes, I'm talking about an accountability partner.

It is ESSENTIAL to have someone to talk to who is a believer about the personal and difficult things in your life. And you need to be honest and open with them as well, we need help from other believers in order to grow in our faith and continue our walk with Christ. God calls us to have those close friends. (Proverbs 11:14, Proverbs 19:27)

Swallow this one...you can't follow Christ and continue to be complacent. What if we became so overwhelmed with God's love that we became desperate to know Christ more and more every day? What if we stopped worrying about impressing people, our own ridiculous reputation, and lets face it, our reputation can't stand up with Christ's, so give it up. We should be more concerned about repentance than reputation. Stop pleasing others and lets just do what God wants us to do.

So, what's your next step? Is it to find an accountability partner? Maybe pick up your Bible and dig into some Scripture? Don't forget you need to apply what you read as well. What is it that you need to do to build your relationship with Christ? I can't stress it enough that your own personal walk with Christ will affect everything you do and everyone you interact with. Get pumped about Jesus saving you!!!

Life in Perspective

This past weekend a friend of mine, while mowing his yard, had a heart attack and suddenly went to be with the Lord. He didn’t know it was coming nor did his family, his friends or people he worked with. We seem to think we are invincible, that something like that will not happen to you or me.

God’s word tells us in James 4:14, You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. Francis Chan in his book, Crazy Love, likens our lives to one fifth of a second in a movie seen. What are we going to do to make a difference for the Kingdom in that amount of time? Psalm 39:5 says this, Look, you make my days short-lived, and my life span is nothing from your perspective. Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor.

Since January 2 of this year, I have been wondering if starting OneSpring Church was a good idea. Satan has a way of making you question the decisions that God clearly instructed. Well after the events this weekend, I know without a doubt, it was the right decision, it has reaffirmed and stamped a big exclamation point on that decision. I’m ready more than ever to make the most of my speck of a life and tell people about Jesus. We need to change the way we think and the only way to change is knowing Jesus more. The more you know Jesus the more you will mirror Him. The only way to get to know Him is to open His word daily and pray. Yes, daily! It is our responsibility, we don’t need a program or to wait on someone else to start a bible study to read God’s Word. This one is on you and me. Life is way to short to wait on someone or something else to feed us when the food is right in front of us. Let’s stop making excuses and start doing something for the Kingdom. We need to pick up the cross and carry it, not someone else. Yes, I am fired up, and no I am not going to apologize. This is what God has laid on my heart.

Easter Sunday - Special Time

We would love for you to join us for our Easter service. For Easter only--we will be changing our service time to 9:15. Please plan to join us as we remember and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Take the 21 Day Challenge

Sunday, as we continued in our series Upgrade, Pastor Perry challenged us to read our Bible. You can find that message here. Get a copy of the 21 day reading here.

Let's see what God has for us when we open His Word and do what it says! He will change our lives!

Big News--We are Moving!

We are very excited to announce that we will be meeting at a new facility starting this week! God has grown our group in such a way that we no longer fit into our living room! He has provided a place for us to meet that is just right for us as this stage of our journey!

Starting this Sunday, March 20, we will be meeting at The Blue Moon Event Center in Grove City. The address is 1604 Gateway Circle. Our service will begin at 11:00.

Please join us and be a part of the excitement of growing and see what God has in store for us in the weeks ahead! This week we will continue our series Upgrade: Taking Your Life to the Next Level. See you there!

The Barone Family

We had the privilege of having missionaries join us after our service for lunch. Daniele and Adriana Barone, along with sweet Federico, shared with us their heart for the country of Italy. They met at Word of Life in Argentina, and God has given them a heart for the country of Italy. God has ordered their steps to work with Word of Life in Italy. They have learned to follow God's leading and that God can work through anyone, anywhere.

Please pray with us for the Barone family, as they continue to raise support and for their ministry to reach the country of Italy for Christ.

Sunday Reminder

Just a quick reminder to turn your clocks forward Saturday night before you go to bed. Don't be late for church!!!

We will also have the honor of having some missionaries come and share their heart with us. We will be having lunch after the service.

And we have a very exciting announcement on Sunday so be sure to be here!

Go and Tell or Sit and Shut Up!

Which of those two choices describes you best? Now consider, which describes you when it comes to telling someone about Jesus? Are you waiting (sitting) for someone else to do the job that Jesus instructed you, a follower of Christ, to do? Or are you actively pursuing the lost?

Evangelism may not be your Spiritual gift but we are all instructed to it according to Matthew 28:18-20. OneSpring wants to make telling someone about Jesus less intimidating. Please join us Thursday, March 10 at 7:00 as we start an easy to understand teaching on Evangelism. Pastor Perry will share with us the basics of this vital calling.

Food and Fellowship

This past Sunday we took the opportunity to sit back and fellowship with each other. We chatted a bit about where we are going as a church and the possibility of finding a new location to meet--conversation is always good over lunch! We have welcomed some new friends to worship with us which is very exciting to meet and get to know others stories. We are looking forward to see where God is taking us!

Join us this Sunday as we start a new series called Upgrade. We will be talking about taking our walk with Christ to the next level! This is a must for anyone wanting to grow in their relationship with Jesus! Hope to see you there!

Pick Up Your Rocks

Just wanted to share one of the main points from this past Sunday that really hit me. Pastor Perry said, "The I AM is bigger than the what ifs". This was the week 6 in the Make War series and it was about taking the next step that God has for you. He used the example of a 47 year old playing in the kiddie pool with floaties on. At some point, you need to learn how to swim and because, well...it's just creepy! We can't stay where we are and become what God has intended us to be.

If you haven't listened to the message from Sunday, "Pick Up Your Rocks," yet you can find it here.

Join us this week at 11:00 as we wrap up this incredible Make War series!

This Sunday

Join us this Sunday as we continue with the Make War series. This week we will talk about, “What is the ONE THING I need to do to take my relationship with Jesus to a level I’ve NEVER experienced before in my life?” It will be a time of blessing, as well as, a time of challenge!

Hope you can join us! Looking forward to it!

Focus

About a year ago, I was listening to Pastor Perry. As he spoke, he posed two questions: Are you tired of the program? Are you caught up in the process? Those questions really stuck with me then and even now.

Many times, we put the program and process of doing church ahead of Jesus. We start to think that it is the program and process that changes lives, and our focus turns to details. The only way for lives to truly be changed is for them to meet Jesus. If the process gets in the way of people meeting Jesus, then there is something wrong with the process. When people meet Jesus--that's when real life change happens.

So I ask you this question: What are you focused on--the program, the process or introducing people to Jesus.

Time Change This Week Only!

Wanted to let you know of a change this week-end! We will be meeting this Saturday, February 5th at 6:00 for our regular service. We will be joining Journey Church for their service on Sunday morning.

Hope to see you then! Let us know if you have any questions!

Life is Short

I just wanted to share something that God has been stirring in me this week.

Life is short!

Psalm 39:4-5; James 4:14

You and I have one shot at it. What are you and I going to make of it. Francis Chan, in his book Crazy Love, likens our lives to being an extra in a movie and we get only 2/5 of a second on screen. Our way of thinking should not be, "God can you please help me with my messed up life," but rather, "God, what do you have for me today?"

Weekly Update

Hey there, just wanted to update everyone on what God has been doing here the past two weeks.

First off, the series we going through in 1 Samuel entitled, Make War, has been a real eye opener. You may have heard the story of David and Goliath before but not the way it is being presented by Pastor P. Week One--we were asked which mountain we are on. The one with the Israelites (children of God) or the one with the Philistines (enemies of God). In the end, you are either on one mountain or the other, there is no middle ground.

This week, we talked about snapshots of our past and how those are the giants we continually face in our lives until we totally surrender them to God. If we don’t, they will continue show their ugly heads and come between us and God. That one really

hit home for me.

Lastly, I am so amazed by the people God continues to bring across our path. It is truly amazing when you are totally open to whatever God has how He will bless beyond all understanding. That’s all for now see you next time.

God Bless,

Tom

Vision Sunday

If nobody is laughing at your vision, you are nor dreaming big enough! ~Steven Furtick

Join us this Sunday for our service at 11:00 and then stay for a pizza lunch as we share our vision for OneSpring! Come laugh with us as we dream together of what God wants to do in our community!

God of This City

Have you ever really looked at the city in which you live? We have been doing some "looking", and what we have found is staggering. We have looked at the data page for Grove City and found that only 37.62% of the population is affiliated with a church. Of that number, they counted anyone going to any kind of church, even churches that aren't preaching the Gospel.

There is no doubt why God has called us back to our city, Grove City, to start a ministry. There are many here who are searching, searching for truth, and we are praying that God might use us to show them He is the Truth.

God has great things for this city and the people here, we can't wait to see what they are! Hold on, greater things are coming!

First Sunday Recap

Our first Sunday seemed a little weird. We felt like we were "playing hooky" from church just staying home and watching TV, but we know that that is not what we are doing at all. We had no idea if anyone would show up to join us or if it would just be our family. Right as the service started a couple walked in, very cool! After the service, we had a lengthy discussion in regards to the service, I love those types of conversations.

The service was a recap of the past year. They showed all the series they did, excerpts from some; they showed all the out reach ministries they are involved in. It was a great way to start out our year. You can watch the sermon here.

Can't wait to see where we go from here!

Our First Sunday

We are excited to be meeting as a new church! Our first Sunday will be January 2, 2011 at 11:15a.m.

We will be joining NewSpring Church on-line for their morning service.