Making reproducing disciples of Jesus Christ

Church Blog (Page 16)

River Reach News 2/25

The winter olympics will soon be coming to a close.  It is always inspiring to see people who dedicate themselves to becoming the best in their sport.  Years of rigorous discipline are spent training to land the triple salchow or shave milliseconds off the luge. If you were to observe an olympic athlete’s life, you would quick conclude that something is driving the way they live.  A brief future event impacts almost every decision they make for years: what they eat, their sleep, how they spend their time, their priorities.  The imminent return of Jesus Christ should visibly impact almost every aspect of your life.  His return is infinitely more significant than a curling competition, a bobsled run, or even your plans for retirement.  The return of Jesus Christ so significantly impacted the lives of the Thessalonian believers that it left an indelible impression on the lives of those who came into contact with them!

River Reach News 2/16

Our culture is similar to water.  It automatically reverts to its own level of normalcy.  I love the peace and tranquility of water at ease but tragically the status quo of society is not peace.  Our world is broken by the curse of sin that brings with it the unavoidable sting of suffering and death.  Too often we become accustomed to the broken norm of our society.  Is there a solution to end school shootings, sexual abuse, broken homes, terrorist attacks, drug and alcohol abuse, and the endless list of societal scourges?  It breaks my heart to watch our society try to find a path forward through the pain of tragedy and always come up flailing!  There is only one solution to the doom of sin.  His name is Jesus Christ! 

River Reach News 2/9

Has fear of the unknown ever kept you from attempting something new?  Recently I’ve been reminded again of all the risks entrepreneurs face when they try to start a new business.  There are so many unknowns!  So many things could go wrong!  People could rip you off and steal from you, and the list could go on and on.  Sure business has its difficulties, but God has called each of us to attempt something that is far more complex and uncertain than attempting to start a new business.  Our Father commissions us to get involved in the lives of others to make disciples of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20).  I don’t know a single believer who isn’t intimidated by the magnitude of this task.  Due to the difficulty, many believers never try.  Others try and quit.  Take heart!  Our passage this week reminds us of a truth that turns our focus away from our own weaknesses and the complexity of the task and arms us with absolute confidence in our God given mission.  Success is not resting on our shoulders but on the unwavering sovereignty of God!

Refresh Conference 2018

I was recently watching an auto auction where a bidder purchased a car that he thought would make him money.  He failed to notice that the car frame was almost completely rusted out.  His only option was to sell it at a loss to the scrap yard.  Decay is a fundamental reality in our fallen world.  Decay affects every aspect of life.  Even parked cars can rust out.  I’m sure you’ve noticed how much work it takes just to keep things maintained!  Forward progress in both the physical and spiritual realms demands incredible effort and energy.  The Holy Spirit is keenly aware of our natural propensity to sin (Galatians 5:16-21).  Even after salvation we naturally revert to walking in the flesh and sin.  Cut off from the Word of God it wont’ be long before you are spiritually powerless and a slave to sin! Thankfully the power of the Spirit who lives in us is infinitely stronger than the flesh.  Spiritual renewal is required to grow in the Lord.

River Reach News 1/26

A few weeks ago I met a man who made a living building tiny electronic race cars that he sold over the internet for hundreds of dollars each.  He revealed to me a high stakes big bucks race world that I never knew existed.  He was also shocked at how much people would pay him to build these cars that fit in a 4″ square box.  In another instance I came across a world-traveling food critic YouTube star in Phuket, Thailand feasting on A5 – Kobe Beef worth over $3000.  Our affluent world is filled with seemingly endless “delights.”  While there is nothing wrong with electronic race cars or exotic cuts of beef, from the vantage point of eternity, these joys will seem trite.  What is it that delights your soul and consumes your thinking?  Lasting satisfaction is found only in God (Psalm 90:14), but great delight can be found in aligning our hearts with God’s kingdom and work in this world.

River Reach News 1/5

You thought about it today.  You used it.  You spent it.  You may have earned it.  Yes, I’m talking about that thing that is so critical in our lives that it touches almost every aspect of our lives: money.  Does God care about money?  Does He care what you and I do with our wealth?  Though God did not create the dollar, He understands that how we handle money directly reveals His greatest interest, our hearts.  Money reveals what we treasure.  What we treasure reveals the priorities of our hearts (Matthew 6:19-21).  This Sunday I will begin a 6-8 week series on the stewardship of money in our morning service.  Brian and Josh will continue that series the following weeks in our adult Sunday Class.  God’s Word has a lot to say about wealth and how we out to handle it.  I hope you will join us for this new series and learn how to honor the Lord from the heart!

Happy New Year! / River Reach New 12/29

It is shocking that I am shocked every year at how fast the year went by!  2018 is almost here and 2017 is almost in the books.  A new year is a God-given opportunity for personal reflection and evaluation.  What does it take to have a great year?  Does it come from the power of positive thinking?  Is a great year simply the result of random fate or luck?  Is it solely dependent on the shear determination of my will to do better or be better this next annum?  For the child of God, every year can be a great year because God’s offer of grace never changes!  Because of Jesus Christ’s redemption for us, our heavenly Father offers to us the components that make for a great year.  As we near the precipice of the new year we long for a year of success, satisfaction, joy, and a happy new year.  In Isaiah 55, the prophet invites us to turn from the emptiness of vain pursuits to the source of true satisfaction in Jesus Christ.  The best part about this offer is that the price has already been paid to purchase for us the sources of true satisfaction that will sustain us in 2018 and every year following.  Join us this Sunday as we rejoice in the goodness of God’s rich blessing offered to us in Isaiah 55.

Christmas Eve Service at 10:00am

For the believer there is a tension in everyday life between the promises of God and the reality of what we are experiencing.  That tension could be a health battle, time crunch, relationship tension, or any number of other issues.  At this time of year we catch glimpses of the nativity scene and the Christmas story as recounted in the Gospels.  Beyond the familiarity of these accounts, God reveals to us several important lessons concerning the unfolding of His sovereign plan.  Just as the birth of Christ is the fulfillment of God’s sovereign plan, the sovereignty of God also rules in the unfolding of God’s plan for our lives.  This Christmas Eve Sunday I would like to observe several truths from Christ’s birth and early years that will also encourage us in the unfolding of God’s plan in our lives.