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...

Preaching to ourselves? That is the question our author Joe Thorn asks of his readers and, in fact, serves as the theme around which he frames this book. Thorn writes, "the idea of preaching the gospel to ourselves is getting more press these days, but the actual work of preaching to ourselves seems to be slow in coming" (23). Of course, it has been trendy in reformed cir...

The Deacons of Omaha Bible Church met on Tuesday, March 24, at 7:00 p.m. Keith Walter opened us in prayer, giving thanks for the blessings we have in Christ and the honor we have to serve the body at OBC. Pastor Mike Grimes led us through news and financial updates. Giving was down in February, but expenses were as well, helping us stay on target with finances. Martin Bast...

The elders met on Tuesday evening, April 21,for our monthly elders meeting. We began our evening with prayer for gospel faithfulness and endurance in the various ministries of OBC. We are continuing to pray for OBC ministry that God would see fit to raise up future leaders to serve as elders, deacons, ministry leaders, and home group leaders. Regarding our finances, income...