Posted on Aug 29, 2016 in General |
Our hope at River City is that you grow daily in your walk with God! One way to do that is to spend time with God every day. This Grow, Pray and Study Guide (GPS) is just one easy way to connect with God on a daily basis.
Everyday Heroes
Week 3
A couple weeks ago Pastor Derek mentioned the importance of prayer in his sermon and challenged River City to be a people of prayer. We need to be reminded of this. In Luke
9:28 the disciples have a powerful experience praying with Jesus. Here is a River City Challenge. Set an alarm on Your phone for 9:28 AM and PM. When your alarm goes off let this be a call to prayer. Pray for your church, family and someone who needs Gods love in their life. Also pray for anything else that comes to mind. The activities below will guide you in prayer throughout the week.
Monday
The ACTS Prayer
One structure for prayer is given by the acronym A.C.T.S., representing adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication (or intercession.) We start off focusing on who God is, and praising him for that. Others find a C.A.T.S. pattern helpful, beginning by clearing out of the way the things that sadden God in our lives, before we can go onto praise him. Let’s look briefly at each in turn :
Posted on Aug 22, 2016 in General |
Our hope at River City is that you grow daily in your walk with God! One way to do that is to spend time with God every day. This Grow, Pray and Study Guide (GPS) is just one easy way to connect with God on a daily basis.
Everyday Heroes
Week 2
The Book of Esther
ON Sunday we discussed developing “heroic habits” that will shape how we respond in times of crisis. Check out the sermon here. This week’s GPS Guide will give you some practical ways to develop heroic habits.
Monday
- Heroic Habit: Prayer
- Matthew 6:5-15
- Prayer is the foundation for being used by God to do great things. By coming to God regularly in prayer we include God in our lives, center our heart and mind on God’s will and join the body of Christ in the most powerful tool that we have in our toolbox. But so many times we skip this step. Below is a story about how prayer has worked wonders in a man’s life. Take the time to read the story and if you feel led, I challenge you to “pray like Bob.” http://mhccfamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Bob-Prayer-Challenge.pdf Read more…
Posted on Aug 15, 2016 in General |
Our hope at River City is that you grow daily in your walk with God! One way to do that is to spend time with God every day. This Grow, Pray and Study Guide (GPS) is just one easy way to connect with God on a daily basis.
Everyday Heroes
Week 1
This week we focused on Everyday Heroes and specifically Moses and Jethro. In this week’s GPS we will look at other Everyday Heroes who did small things with great love that God used in mighty ways! There will be scripture for each day. If you don’t have a Bible (we will get you one), but in the meantime check out www.biblegateway.com to look up the scriptures.
Monday: Moses and Jethro
Read Exodus 18
There are two heroes in this story. Moses is well known and Jethro is “kind of known.” You would think Moses is a hero because he has led the people out of Egypt and is a great leader. He is a hero for other reasons in this story. Jethro is also a hero. He doesn’t have the clout of Moses or the resume, but he does have a powerful position in Moses’ life. Moses trusts Jethro so he is able to challenge him, correct him and give him advice, but it took great courage for Jethro to correct Moses. It also took great courage and humility for Moses to accept Jethro’s constructive criticism. In this story Moses is a hero because he listened. Jethro is a hero because he had the courage to speak.
In your life this week where do you need to be an Everyday Hero by speaking? Is there a tough conversation that needs to take place? Where do you just need to simply listen and humble yourself to make some changes? Read more…
Posted on Jul 18, 2016 in General |
Written By: Rev. Derek Robinnette
In times of trouble it is important to take time to Lament and to process as we also decide how we should respond. Listed below is a post I made about the need for Lament followed by The Psalms of Lament. My challenge to us in these days is to work through these Psalms as a guide. Christians have used these for centuries as guides in hard times of how to bring our true feelings towards God. God’s power is renewed in you as you sit in the desert and the ashes that is caused by heartache. Throughout Biblical history God’s people have always returned stronger and with a clearer purpose after spending times lamenting in the desert.
I think one of the saddest things is we’ve lost the ability to lament without our laments immediately being turned into political or other motives. We need to lament the loss of lives and find a safe place to do so. Facebook isn’t it bc it turns into debates. Conversations turn into trying to win people over. At church so many times we just say “everything is ok” or move on to the hope in Christ (which is important) but it is also important to sit in the desert. To sit in the ashes. To walk through the valley of the shadow of death. God is there and I don’t think God wants to rush us through those times so we can just put on a smile and move on. The last two weeks. The last year. We need to lament.
Psalms of Lament—read these Psalms. Pray these Psalms. Rewrite these Psalms. Maybe even write your own Psalms of Lament.
Psalm 44
Psalm 60
Psalm 74
Psalm 79
Psalm 80
Psalm 85
Psalm 90
Posted on Feb 18, 2016 in General |
My first 34 years of life have been filled with fads. It ain’t no lie that NSYNC (besides Justin Timberlake) has gone bye, bye, bye, but so have other things, such as Oregon Trail, The Real World, Pumps, and Starter Jackets have all been Trumped (is that a fad?). Even things my kids have enjoyed such as High School Musical and Justin Bieber have either gone out or are on their way out. Hopefully skinny jeans will follow suit. (This paragraph might sum up why I watched so much of The Real World on Friday nights instead of being out and about growing up.)
In all of these fads some things have remained. Justin Timberlake is doing well, as is Zack Efron and I’m still a Philadelphia Eagles fan simply because I bought an Eagles Starter Jacket in fifth grade. But what ever happened to John Brennan (TRUE STORY) and my supposed ability to be good at basketball with just a few pumps?
Sadly Lent can be a fad as well. Originally it was designed to be a time of self-discipline and sacrifice as we try to become more like the one that paid the ultimate sacrifice for us. Instead we have turned it into ‘what can I give up that might give me a leg up’? Chocolate, alcohol, fast food, Facebook, too much phone time and other vises are things we can all limit in our lives, but does this sacrifice draw us closer to God? Does it help us truly take up our cross DAILY and follow after Christ? Read more…
