The elders met on February 21 for our monthly meeting. We opened in prayer and read article 20 of the London Baptist Confession of 1689 on The Gospel and its Influence. We find great encouragement in being reminded of what has been confessed and affirmed by believers over the ages. God has been and continues to build His church and we are thankful to be part of His work at...

All our heroes have clay feet. The older I get the more I realize that is true. We tend to look up to those people who have great influence in our lives. When we are very young, it's our parents. A bit older, and our primary grade school teachers were important people that we respected and looked up to. Eventually it might be a politician or business leader, or maybe the ...

Marriage for many, becomes the dream of a lifetime. Does your marriage presently fulfill your former dreams? Marriage can be a beautiful dream or a monstrous nightmare. So much hate, so much bitterness, so much disappointment, so much anger flows when the dream is shattered and the marriage is viewed as a failure. R C Sproul wrote this book as a practical guide for marr...

The elders at Omaha Bible Church met for their monthly meeting on June 21. Let me pause for a moment. What does that mean? OBC is an elder-led church, with a plurality of elders, one of whom is the Senior Pastor. Why does this matter? It matters because scripture shows that elders (plural) were appointed to the churches, as the apostles established the first churches. OBC...

The elders at Omaha Bible Church met for their monthly meeting on June 21. Let me pause for a moment. What does that mean? OBC is an elder-led church, with a plurality of elders, one of whom is the Senior Pastor. Why does this matter? It matters because scripture shows that elders (plural) were appointed to the churches, as the apostles established the first churches. OBC...

The elders at Omaha Bible Church met for their monthly meeting on June 21. Let me pause for a moment. What does that mean? OBC is an elder-led church, with a plurality of elders, one of whom is the Senior Pastor. Why does this matter? It matters because scripture shows that elders (plural) were appointed to the churches, as the apostles established the first churches. OBC...

The Elders of Omaha Bible Church met on Tuesday, April 19 and opened the evening in prayer with thanksgiving for what the Lord is doing at OBC, and in the people who faithfully serve and worship at church. We are blessed with the sweet fellowship of like-minded believers who want to promote the gospel to both believers and unbelievers. I'm the church treasurer and I prese...

We are coming up on the two-year anniversary of the biggest pandemic in over 100 years. No one predicted the impact that this would have on the world. Never in my life would I have thought it possible that the entire planet would be in lockdown. We have seen the effects of the pandemic on how we work, how we educate our children, and in the restrictions on how we move abo...

I highly recommend the book Where Wisdom Is Found by J. V. Fesko. John Fesko has preached at Omaha Bible Church and we have attended conferences where he has spoken. I've benefited from his teaching and in this book he continues to bless believers as he helps us to better understand the Book of Ecclesiastes. This book is written at an approachable level. It is appropria...

The October 2021 elders meeting opened in prayer and with Thanksgiving for God's provision of grace and mercy to the members of Omaha Bible Church. Todd Swift led us through Chapter 24 of the London Baptist Confession of 1689 covering Civil Magistrate. It reads, "God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under him, over the ...

Can we talk for a moment? Pull up a chair and let's spend this time to get to the heart of the matter. Are you content with your current circumstances? Are you happy and satisfied with your life right now? Have you found yourself being anxious and sometimes fearful? The last 12 months has been a challenge for most and a struggle for many of us. COVID has kept us from fami...

Our monthly elders meeting was held virtually on Wednesday, February 17. We opened in prayer with thanksgiving for the gathered saints at OBC. Pastor Pat lead us in reading and discussing Chapter 17 of the London Baptist Confession of 1689, titled Perseverance of the Saints. I'm always impressed with how the Holy Spirit works in the church throughout history and the impac...

Jeremiah Burroughs was a Puritan pastor who lived from 1599-1646. In his later years he was called the Prince of Preachers. His sermon series from Philippians 4:11 "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, to be content" became the foundation for his book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. The follow up to these sermons were a call to be content in times of prosp...

The elders gathered via Zoom for our monthly meeting. We opened in prayer and with thanksgiving for God's working at OBC. Frank Barber is the church treasurer and he led us in a review of the finances for the month of July. Offerings were $63,997 for the month and slightly above budget. Expenses were well below budget for the month at $44,952. We have one more month to f...

What does it mean to preach the gospel to yourself? You may have heard someone say that before. Preach the gospel to myself? Why? I'm already a Christian! Isn't the gospel only for evangelism? The gospelis the good news of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and perfectly obeyed the Father so that by faith in the work of Jesus we might have a righteous standing before God...

If you've ever been garage sale bargain hunting, you've seen the large box of neglected Legos. Lots of colored shapes and sizes that belong to several different sets. Just a box of mismatched and random Lego pieces. You have no idea what the original design was for these pieces. You're sure they go together but not sure what is the big picture or design. For some peo...

The elders met on Tuesday evening July 9. The meeting opened in prayer and with thanksgiving for all the good things happening at Omaha Bible Church. Pastor Pat was on a well-deserved vacation and Vice Chairman Dallas Focht led the meeting. This was the first meeting back for Pastor Mike Grimes after his three-month sabbatical. Mike updated the elders on his project to st...

The elders met on Tuesday, March 12 and after spending some time in prayer, participated in a discussion led by Mike Grimes of Chapter 26 of the London Baptist Confession of 1689 on "The Church." This section states that Christ is the head of the church and works through the gathered saints in churches that (paragraph 14), "in exercise of their gifts and graces, so the ch...

My wife Renee and I recently returned from a week in sunny, warm Arizona. Winter this year seems very long and unusually cold and snowy. I can begin to understand why some people spend their winters in warmer climates. While visiting family and friends we enjoyed the green grass, beautiful Palm trees and the different types of cactus. The absence of ice and snowy blizzard...

This past quarter I taught an Adult Sunday School class on Marriage. We used the book by Paul Tripp titled What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage. I highly recommend this book for anyone that is married. Whether you are newly married or approaching 40+ years of being married, you will find this book to be a great resource for a godly marriage. Paul op...

The Elders of Omaha Bible Church met on January 30 for our monthly board meeting. We opened in prayer and with Thanksgiving for what the Lord is doing at OBC. Frank Barber led us in review of Chapter 24 of the London Baptist Confession of 1689, which discusses the Civil Magistrate. Citing Romans 13:1, God has ordained government (civil magistrates) to be under him, over t...

The Elders of Omaha Bible Church met on Tuesday evening, November 13. Our meeting was opened in prayer and with thanksgiving for what the Lord is doing at OBC. Mike Holloway read and reviewed with us Chapter 22 in the 1689 London Baptist Confession on Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day. It is a good reminder that the spiritual battles contended for over time are not a ...

The Elders of Omaha Bible Church met on Tuesday evening July 10. Our meeting was opened in prayer and with thanksgiving for what the Lord is doing at OBC. Frank Barber read and reviewed with us Chapter 18 in the London Baptist Confession of 1689 on Assurance of Salvation. It reminds us in paragraph 2 in regards to our Assurance, "this certainty is not a bare conjectural a...

The Elders of Omaha Bible Church met on Tuesday evening, April 10. Our meeting was opened in prayer and with thanksgiving for what the Lord is doing at OBC. Pastor Chris Peterson read and reviewed with us Chapter 15 in the 1689 London Baptist Confession on repentance and salvation. It reminds us in paragraph four, "as repentance is to be continued through the whole course...

Union in Christ is not a single specific blessing we receive in our salvation. Rather it is the best phrase to describe all the blessings of salvation, whether in eternity past (election), in history (redemption), in the present (effectual calling, justification and sanctification) or in the future (glorification). Every blessing is received in Christ (Eph 1:3,4). No aspe...

I encourage you to read the book The Hole in our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung. In this book, he examines the gap between our love for the gospel and our love for godliness. The gospel is the ground of our justification and sanctification. DeYoung reminds us of the many exhortations in Scripture to pursue godliness as the fruit of our union with Christ in the power of the S...

What do you do when life does not happen as you plan? What is your first response when you are surprised by events in your life? Where do you go for answers when you have none? I'm a planner and an organized person who likes to "be in control." Not so much because I need to be in charge, but because I need to make sure I know what happens. When I go to my favorite restaur...

Over the past several months, I have been teaching the adult Sunday school class, Christ In All Of Scripture, alongside fellow elder, Frank Barber. In the class you hear a lot about the "big picture" of Scripture. How does it all relate or tie together? In my head, I hear all the kids answering and yelling "Jesus!" We smile and agree that, yes that's true, but how do we co...

On Tuesday, October 11th, the elders held their monthly meeting to review and consider a short list of items, including discussions about financial results from the previous month and a ministry opportunity in Malawi....