River’s Edge Church

Life in the Spirit is central to effective witness, and so are the gifts and manifestations of the Spirit. Our dream is to be a church both grounded in the Word and flooded with the Spirit, for the glory of God in the world. 

The odds of the disciples winning the ancient world were slim to none. All the odds were stacked against them. They were stifled by doubt and fear, but the risen Jesus told "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses." What's the relationship between the Holy Spirit and witnessing? And how should the Spirit factor into our witness today? 

Our culture is entering a growing truth crisis. We aren't sure what is true and what is false, who to trust and who not to trust, and it's in this context that we are called to stand on the truth God has revealed to us, and speak truth to power. This is the very definition of a witness.

The early church was full of the Spirit and on fire for God, but they reached, touched, and transformed the Roman Empire through one of God's most radical ideas: community. In order to reach, touch, and transform our own culture, which is being powerfully shaped by individualism, we need to recapture the biblical vision for community. 

There is a cultural myth that says that Christianity is in inevitable decline and has been for 500 years. In reality, history speaks of boom and bust cycles, or waves that rise and fall. As the tide rolls out on faith in the Western world, the remnant that's left is intended to cry God for another wave; nothing short of the revival and renewal of the Western world. 

Jesus was a non-anxious presence in a world gone mad, and He calls us to do the same. In the midst of unprecedented anxiety and national angst, He calls us to be a people rooted in a deeper reality. 

All of us have felt various forms of loss or grief in the last few months, but in the absence of biblical lament we tend to suppress these emotions, only to reach for unhealthy coping mechanisms instead. Our anxiety, our fits of anger and rage, and our rampant self-medication are all symptoms of our failure to lament: to take what is internal and make it external before God and others. The path to...

As Paul concludes his letter his reminds the Galatians of this powerful truth: what matters isn't religious law or religious performance, what counts is the new creation, which is already bursting forth in redeemed human hearts. 

The grace of God is so radical that we are often left wondering: why not live in sin? If we really have the righteousness of Christ then why not do whatever we want? One of Paul's many answers is this: God will not be mocked, a man reaps what he sows.

Some of Jesus final words to his disciples are known as the "Great Commission" - in which he directs every follower of Jesus to go into the world and make disciples who will go into the world and make more disciples. But what does this look like and how do we go about it?

A community that breathes in the grace of God is transformed by it, and one of the things that the Kingdom community experiences is freedom from comparison. What does it look like to "test our actions," to live free from comparison, and embrace a richer expression of Kingdom community? 

Grace and the Spirit transform every aspect of our lives with God, including how we deal with sin in our lives and the lives of others. As Paul teaches about living under grace, he speaks into a difficult topic: dealing with sin in community.

Paul maintains that we are radically free in God's grace; free from sin, even free from the Law. But this makes many people nervous. If we really walk in such radical freedom, what's to keep us from sinning? How should we use the incredible freedom that Jesus has given us? Paul's answer is to walk in step with the Spirit. 

As Paul continues to speak into grace and the Law, he tackles an important issue in the earliest worshipping communities: circumcision. "Don't be circumcised!" Paul says, "be on your guard!" A little legalism works its way through the whole batch of dough, and those who place themselves under some of the Law are obligated to follow the entire Law. They have fallen from grace, and become alienated...

The early church is being thrown into confusion about their relationship to the Law, but Paul makes it clear by analogy: we are like Isaac, children of divine promise given life by the power of the Spirit, while those who labor under the law are in slavery. 

Cameron Oliver joins us for our first Sunday in the park as we continue in our series through the book of Galatians. 

As we begin meeting face to face the mid-week podcasts will become less and less frequent. But one question that each of us should be contemplating is: how has COVID-19 affected the world? Economically? Socially? Spiritually? And what should we pray for and anticipate moving forward? 

What role does the Law play in the grand story of God and humanity? How does it relate to Abraham and the promises given? And how did our relationship with the Law change in Christ? 

As COVID-19 restrictions begin to lift, we find ourselves at a unique and important crossroads in terms of how we structure our lives in discipleship to Jesus. Will we stay focused on what matters most? Or bury our relationship with Jesus under mountains of possessions, busyness, and distraction? 

Paul insists that the Law is holy, righteous, and good. And yet somehow we find ourselves laboring under the "curse" of the Law. What accounts for this phenomenon and how has God rescued us from it? 

Into the drama of COVID-19 comes another explosive layer of tension as George Floyd is murdered by police officers in Minneapolis. What happened was evil, but it still leaves us wondering, how do we navigate the tension and move forward as followers of Jesus? 

Paul continues to call the Galatians back to the only true Gospel, reminding them that the law and its requirements add nothing to what Christ has done. 

Over the last few months we've presented with all sorts of theories on who caused COVID-19 and what God is up to in all that we are experiencing. But how do we sort through it all? Did God bring this to call the world to repentance? Is it part of the end times? How should we navigate all the theories we are presented with? 

Paul insists that the Law plays no role in our salvation or our standing before God, and that righteousness cannot come through the Law. But that leaves us wondering, what is our relationship to the Law?

As we reach two months of shelter in place, Paul reminds us that when we are weak, God's power brings about strength within us. God makes us adequate and gives us the endurance we need to run the race set before us.