Though known by several names; The LORD’S SUPPER, The EUCHARIST, HOLY COMMUNION, is the one way JESUS instructed HIS disciples to remember HIS sacrifice for them. This Sunday we will bring our REFLECT series to a close and share in the Life of our LORD by coming to His Table together. -Pastor Joe Still
Are you currently walking through a challenge or facing a great struggle? Is there something you’re wrestling through and you don’t see a way out, unable to see a way around or over the obstacle in your life? Do you feel you’ve come to a dead end where your back is against the wall and you see absolutely no way out? In Exodus Chapter 14, GOD’s chosen people, the entire nation of them, find themselves in just such a moment. GOD then gives them HIS plan to deliver them. Their part in that plan was...
In this message, Pastor Joe Still shares from his Sabbatical Journey into Psalm 46:10. Psalm 46:10 “BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD” In our previous message, we began a new series entitled REFLECT. We began the series reflecting on the Heart of God. In this message I want to take us on the other half of that journey and explore what can happen, when in that stillness of Knowing God, we come to know more about ourselves and our Father’s Heart specifically for us. -Pastor Joe
What makes you tick? What’s at the core of who you are? What drives you to do the things you do? What is your heart? These are great questions to ask ourselves to help us rightly calibrate our lives. Socrates said: To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom! If you’ve ever seen a counselor, you know that it can be difficult to describe yourself to someone else. At times, knowing the truth about ourselves can be challenging. Though HE has many attributes, GOD has no difficulty knowing and describ...
On July 4th, our country celebrates 245 years of Independence as a sovereign nation. That freedom was declared in a document crafted by the hands of men and we know it as our Declaration of Independence. That document is considered to be one of our nation's great treasures. For those of us living in America who follow Jesus, we have an Independence that merits greater celebration than our national sovereignty. We have an Independence, declared not by mere men, but by the GOD of all creation. It ...
In this message, Pastor Curt Bradford to open God’s Word. He teaches on Jeremiah 17:5-8 and share two ways God has made grace available to all of humanity.
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? In this message, Pastor Dave Hardin explains the message of the Gospel and what its ultimate purpose is (to transform lives for the glory of God). He also shares the relationship between the gospel, our gospel identity, and our obedience.
Pastor Curt Bradford leads us in this message, as he shares how we must REMEMBER the spiritual realities that impact our present realities.
The Way of the Harvest Laborer In this message guest speaker Craig Tuck teaches from Matthew 9:35-38. You will hear practical way we can proclaim the gospel right where we live, work, and play.
How do we KNOW JESUS? In this message Pastor Guy Smith teaches from Hebrews 1:1-4. You'll be encouraged to listen to Jesus because of who He is and to follow Him in all we do.
While GOD’s Word has much to say about prayer, it speaks with much greater frequency about praise. For some, praise is thought to be primarily a component of prayer, while to others it is mostly connected to music or singing. While praise can flow in prayer or through singing, the picture the Bible paints of praise is far more immense. One of the great images of praise is described in Psalm 22. There we discover that GOD is “enthroned on the praises” of HIS People. The old King James versions tr...
One of my favorite passages of scripture to meditate on about JESUS, is not found in one of the four Gospels, but in the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It is a beautiful six verse summary of the Gospel of GOD that reveals JESUS, the “King of Kings”, as the most humble servant. (Philippians 2:5-10) JESUS’ life, teaching, ministry, and sacrificial-death flowed from HIS Heart to serve all of humanity. While living as mankind’s greatest servant, HIS Life simultaneously defined w...
Not long ago I read an article that sought to offer some solutions to the problem of over-crowded prisons. It provided the readers with lots of comparative statistics and some of the numbers were quite staggering. That same week I had been reading in Matthew chapter 18, and the thought came, “as staggering as the numbers of people incarcerated might be, it doesn’t come close to the numbers of people whose hearts are locked in a prison of unforgiveness! Far too often, that condition of unforgiven...
Dr. Karl Menninger, who in the 1920’s founded the Menninger Clinics that designed many breakthrough treatments for those who battle mental illness, once stated: “Money giving is a very good criterion, in a way, of a person’s mental health. Generous people are rarely mentally ill.” Millennia before Dr. Menninger made his famous quote, King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 11:25 “The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” God’s plan for HIS People to Flourish, is u...
FLOURISH part 10 - How the Holy Spirit Helps You Flourish - April 25, 2021 When our children were very young, somewhere between two and three, they both went through the “I do it” phase. Most kids go through it. It is a normal part of development where they assert some independence. In those moments, they did not want our help! Though some of us never seem to break out of that “I do it” phase, help is something we all need in this life. That is ultimately true in our spiritual lives. GOD never i...
Psalm 92 is known as a Psalm for the Sabbath. It is a Psalm about God’s people worshipping, overcoming, and flourishing. Verses 12-15 focus on how the LORD’s Righteous Ones flourish. “The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.” Psalm 92:12-13 (ESV) The first and last images given in scripture are of God’s People flourishing in the LORD’s presence in a garden of beauty and plenty. T...
A phrase that was common in our home when our kids were young was “don’t assume”! While our son Taylor was very little, (he’s now 28 and a Tech Sergeant in the USAF), when intending to use the word “assume”, he would instead say “exhume”. Truthfully, when we “assume”, we often dig up things that invite death! Making assumptions without having all the facts has often been the source of much human misery. Rich friendships and even marriages, have been destroyed by assumptions that were made before...
The Friday before Easter Sunday is often called “Good Friday”. It is “good” because it is the day, over 2,000 years ago, when GOD demonstrated how truly Good and unconditionally loving HE is toward humanity. HE demonstrated this by sacrificing HIS one and only begotten SON on the Cross of Calvary. Though you and I were not there physically, the Bible says that our sin was. The Apostle Peter writes that Jesus personally carried our sin in His Body on the cross so that we might die to sin and be m...
Our country’s ongoing obsession with the “Royal Family” of England fascinates me, especially since we fought a war over two-hundred years ago to get them off our backs! Being over two-hundred years removed from those experiences, we in America have no real life experience with Kings and Kingdom rule. I believe that lack of real-life experience, has made it difficult for us to embrace Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God. Without a strong point of reference for Kings and Kingdoms, I think we ...
Like many of you, I grew up hearing the phrase “practice makes perfect”! Over the course of my life, I’ve invested much time “practicing” several different pursuits, and as of yet, I’ve not become “perfect” at any of them. Have I gotten better at many of them? Sure I have! Along the way I’ve learned that pursuing perfection is not the best use of our time, because according to the Word of GOD, only in JESUS can we be made perfect. This means we no longer need to pursue what JESUS has already don...
FLOURISH part 4 - FROM FAILURE TO FLOURISHING Have you ever done something or said something that greatly disappointed someone you loved? Perhaps promising to be somewhere at a certain time and you weren’t. Or said, “You can count on me” and they did, but you failed to do your part. Or, said “I’ll never tell”, but you did. Failure, and the disappointment that comes with it, are part of what it means to live in a fallen world. All of us have failed others and had others fail us. The deeper the lo...
One of the many spaces in our lives that has changed significantly in this Pandemic, has been where and how we work. Many began working from home for the very first time. Some businesses and organizations have actually reported increased productivity from employees in these environments. Some cultural scientists who focus their attention on workplace environments are telling us that those environments, are now, forever changed. That they will never go completely back to normal, but will instead ...
FLOURISH - part 2 - How a Masterpiece Flourishes ______________ Recently, one of the big stories in the news, was an unexpected scientific discovery of life flourishing beneath Antarctica’s floating ice shelf. NBC news reports that finding life thriving in such a harsh environment “has biologists baffled”. Jesus told those who followed Him that they would find themselves living in “harsh environments”. Jesus also promised that in Him, His followers could flourish in such hostile circumstances. I...
Flourish - part 1 - Our Father's Hand in our Flourishing ___ FLOURISH! That is such a great word that is filled with hope. Everyone that I know, in some way, longs for a life that flourishes. If we have children and grandchildren, we have great hope that life for them will flourish. At Riverbluff we often pray for human flourishing in our city. No one takes greater delight in our flourishing than GOD our FATHER! In fact, HIS plan for our lives has flourishing as its great aim. HE has a great gro...
JESUS MISUNDERSTOOD – Part 6: HOW JESUS BRINGS “ORGANIC” CHANGE Vegetable gardening can be hard work; but some fresh slices of a vined ripened tomato, between white bread with some Dukes mayo, on a warm summer day, is a great reward for the labor. Though we haven’t had a vegetable garden in years, I’m still amazed at the beauty and wonder of “organic growth”! It is a process that defies the natural order of decay. When Jesus clarified for His disciples who He was and how life in Him could overco...
JESUS MISUNDERSTOOD – Part 5: HOW JESUS BRINGS LIFE TO WHAT’S DEAD IN YOU When you hear the word “Resurrection”, what first comes to mind? Is it Easter? Or, maybe the 2nd coming of Christ? While those must be the greatest of earthly events; when we think “Resurrection” our first thought should not be of an event, but of a Person, the Person of Christ. In trying to clarify the truth about Himself and about the Resurrection, Jesus said, “I Am The Resurrection”! If we only see Resurrection as an “a...
JESUS MISUNDERSTOOD – Part 4: How Jesus Becomes the Good Shepherd for Our Souls ROBBED! If you’ve ever been robbed, you know the feelings of personal violation and the concerns for personal security. Kathy and I have been robbed twice in our nearly thirty-eight years of marriage. Though the circumstances were very different each time, the aftermath of feelings were very similar. Jesus knows how this world, in all its brokenness, seeks to rob life from us, “to steal and kill and destroy”; not onl...
JESUS MISUNDERSTOOD - Part 3: How Jesus Overcomes Your Darkness “DARKNESS”! That word can often bring fear to our hearts. As children, we’d need a night light to give us peace so we could rest. As adults, though the “darkness” of night can still stir fear; other kinds of “darkness” bring us greater concerns. In our broken world, we see the “darkness” increasing at alarming rates and we fear for our children. As we age, we fear the “darkness” of disease that might attack our minds. This battle wi...
JESUS MISUNDERSTOOD part 2: How Jesus Heals Your Harried Heart January 17, 2021 As I have had opportunity to visit in many homes over my nearly 40 years in ministry there’s a phrase that I’ve seen time and time again. Sometimes it is on a refrigerator magnet, or embroidered on a pillow, or cross stitched in a picture frame. The phrase is “GOD BLESS THIS MESS”! That’s a prayer I find myself quickly whispering often in these last days. Interestingly, that’s one of the great desires of our LORD Jes...
JESUS MISUNDERSTOOD - Part 1: Bread of Life, John 6 Have you ever felt misunderstood, felt like a person or a group of people really didn’t "get" where you were coming from? 2,000 years ago, a man walked among us named Jesus. Ever since, people have debated, “who this Jesus really is”. In His day, Jesus was often misunderstood; even by those who followed Him. 2,000 years later Jesus is still very often misunderstood; sometimes even by those who seek to follow Him. So who is He? Most everyone see...
