River City Vineyard - Teachings

Shalom. Peace...”The essential characteristic of the Messianic KIngdom.” How much of that peace did Jesus give to those who follow him?

In these challenges days while we gather for holidays, we have the opportunity to listen to one another’s woes and offer to pray for one another. God has amazing ways of answering our prayers with divine surprises.

What does it look like to follow Jesus after such a contentious Presidential election and at the same time a year of pandemic, economic downturn, police brutality and racial injustice. Let’s have a conversation.  We have lots to talk about. 

Who we are, our identity, in relationship with Jesus, our King and his Kingdom can not be lost in our practice of temporal, national politics. We will never enter the Kingdom if we cannot let go of our political partisanship

Part Two of our encouragement toward regathering for in-person services.

We are waiting for the Positivity Rate in our county to drop to 5% and remain there or lower before we gather in-person. Until then we can begin to take steps forward toward regathering. This week and next week are an encouragement toward our first step.

More on disciple making. We can do this!

By and large the church is not in the building. That is a blessing. We can get back to doing what Jesus asked us to do. 

Paul returns to Antioch certain that he is on the right track in announcing the Kingdom of God to the Gentiles and asking them to simply believe in Jesus with nothing else added. Peter helps assure Paul of his ministry. All is good until Peter comes for a visit. Sadly Peter is followed by others who disagree with the decision reached in Jerusalem. For this Judaizer group Faith in Jesus for the Gen...

For fourteen years Paul announced the Good News of the Kingdom to Gentiles in Syria and Cilicia. Throughout that time he had a lingering uncertainty. He expressed that uncertainty in this question: “Am I running or have I run this race in vain?” What did he do with this uncertainty? How can we learn from Paul as we face our uncertain time?

Throughout Christian history and into modern times, church leaders have demonstrated a strong tendency to insist new followers of Jesus conform to prevailing religious, social, and political customs.  Two familiar and important stories from the ministry of Jesus remind us that making distinctions based on these customs is contrary to the Good News of the Kingdom. 

We are more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. But until we as a nation are willing to take an honest look at our legacy of racism and truly listen to the stories of those affected by it to this day, we won’t move forward into healing and freedom in Christ. 

We are not the first lovers of God to face difficult circumstances. Those who love God have quite the history of facing slavery, forced labor, pompous emperors, fiery furnaces, global famine, and even execution by the state. How did our ancestors face their trials? What can we learn from them?

Who is going to step up to the work of reconciliation in our generation? Reconciliation is long overdue making the challenges even harder. But, who regardless of the difficulty is going to do the heavy lifting? 

We all need reconciliation with God and with one another. The need for reconciliation continues in our nation. It is hard work to reconcile. It takes a lot of time. Yet,  there is nothing like being reconciled. Who are the servants of reconciliation in our generation?

Stereotypes get in the way of reconciliation. Paul confesses to formerly judging Jesus, the Messiah, wrongly because of a stereotype. Setting stereotypes aside and seeing through new eyes is a big step toward reconciliation.

For those who follow Jesus, the cross and resurrection are the focused center for reconciliation. We are all regardless of our diversity on level ground. As one translation reads, “We are all in the same boat.” Because of the work of Jesus reconciliation can and must happen.

In these challenging days I feel somewhat helpless in the pandemic. I can continue to pass along safety measures from our Public Health department, but I cannot do much more. I also think the same about our economic downturn and the record unemployment. Apart from encouraging our community to contribute so our mercy ministries are fully funded to help when help is requested, I can’t do much. The t...

How do we keep our focus when our circumstances include a pandemic, record unemployment, heartless brutality toward Black Americans by some police, all at the same time, and in just four months?

Throughout human history God has been interacting with us, trying to bring us out of oppressive upside down systems and ways of life. He wants to rescue us from Egypt and bring us into the promised land, but to do that we often have to begin the hard work of unlearning the culture of Egypt that we have always grown up in. To enter the Kingdom of God we must leave our old kingdoms behind.

It is Pentecost Sunday. We wait for the Holy Spirit to fill us so we can be an effective witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Thousands in our generation need to hear an empowered witness like Peter on the first Pentecost. Is there anything about the Church today that would cause the Holy Spirit to delay our empowerment? 

In our culture of anger and disappointment, people are always looking for enemies. Are you for or against me and my beliefs? Jesus never looked for enemies. Let’s look at the way of Jesus and learn how to relate to people in today’s environment.