In America today, we are inundated with books that focus on our personal happiness, personal fulfillment, self-improvement, self-help, and every other self-therapy and self-healing strategy we can think of. Unfortunately, this so-called happiness is far from the reality that the psalmists portray for us in many of the psalms. The psalms are filled with deep, dark, persona...

The OBC Elders met for their regular monthly meeting at 7:00 p.m. on June 16, 2026. The meeting began with Pastor Pat leading the elders in a time of prayer. He prayed for the Lord to help us in our ministry to further the gospel, not only in our individual lives as Christians, but as leaders of a local church. He prayed for the Lord's grace, wisdom, patience, kindness, an...

Why do we do what we do as a church? Over the next few months, we will take some time to consider together the marks of a healthy church. We will do this by laying out a philosophy of church ministry to underscore what or who the church is as the bride of Christ. A church's mission will only be on target to the degree that her philosophy of ministry is consistent with her ...

The deacons met on Tuesday, April 28, at 7:00 p.m. at Martin Bast's house. Martin opened in prayer for different needs within the body and for opportunities to serve and glorify God. Vimal George reviewed previous minutes and provided an OBC financial update. Vimal and Keith provided an update on the new Strive project. It was encouraging to hear what the leaders at OBC ha...

As I wrote the article on beholding the beauty of God, the aspect of the beauty of God's holiness especially stood out. Psalm 96:9 calls us to "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (KJV), although the ESV translates it as the "splendor" of holiness. God's holiness is a deep and difficult subject to grasp, and R. C. Sproul's classic book, The Holiness of God, is a g...

The elders met for the monthly meeting on Wednesday morning, May 27. Pastor Pat opened the meeting with prayer, and we thanked God for the opportunity to minister to the body of believers at OBC. Dallas Focht read Article 12 of the London Baptist Confession of 1689, titled "Of Adoption." This chapter of the LBC is an amazing reminder of God's grace extended to us as we are...

On a recent vacation, I visited an art museum in Sacramento with my brothers and sister. We had a wonderful time wandering through the rooms, briefly glancing at one painting after another. But in front of one sizable piece, we noticed a family sitting together, speaking quietly and gazing at the canvas for a long time. As we passed by, we could overhear them discussing th...