Thoughts on Sunday and on The River Church

Every time I try to find you
Every road comes back around
Just another hoop to jump through
Another mile of covered ground

I am weary of the answers
More theory and cliché
They raise the letter of the law like a banner'
Til you're small and far away

All the questions in my head
Are from my heart instead

Be real to me now
That's all I'm asking
Be real to me now

Every scribe and every scholar
No winners in this debate
Everybody seems to stand up taller
When you're easy to explain

I don't need to know what I don't know
Just got to let it go

Be real to me now
That's all I'm asking
Be real somehow
More than anything
More than anything

So lay down the sword
And put away the doctrine
Love a little more, love a little more
'Cause everybody's broken
-Nichole Nordeman

He who has ears to hear and eyes to see: listen. Jesus Christ has purchased healing and redemption for His Bride and is eagerly waiting for His children to join Him and to taste and see that the LORD is good.

The past two days have brought up a lot of thoughts. Primarily, the topic of healing and needing healing has been coming up in my spirit. Not just in myself, but for all people; especially people in the Church. I say this not in the sense that "the Church" is the problem, but that many people need the touch of a Healer. Broken marriages, divorces, fear over everything imaginable, hopelessness over family situations, the list is endless.

This series that the River Church is doing now is a very prophetic series for our Church. Perhaps in ways that are much larger than any of us know. Just knowing a lot of the situations going on in the world and mostly in our small corner of the world with the people who are coming, the Holy Spirit was breathing through Joey in a powerful way today. I felt God speaking to me about how to pray for people in our congregation and could sense the strong hand of the Lord going forth to deliver His Word.

The elders and their families have shown a real sense of obedience to Christ in the time I have gotten to know them. I remember Joey many moons ago (when he still had hair) from a church camp when he was my counselor and remember that his presence had a big impact on me. I can't remember too much about that week but I just remember that God had stirred me through him. Our elders have by no means "arrived" but they lead in a humble spirit that is unified. I think it bothers me sometimes that our understand of the Gospel is probably a lot different on many levels from each other, but God has used them to speak the message of truth wrapped in grace in a way that is clear so that people can understand. There has been huge sacrifice from them to do a lot of the things that they do. Their wives have been amazing examples of what it means to be godly wives and what it means to serve and be the Church.

My spirit is really speaking to the LORD Spirit to Spirit in prayer on behalf of our congregation today. I am believing the LORD for a miraculous working through all that is going on and am praying for continued grace and favor that He may sustain us and use us as messengers of the Gospel of Christ.

River Church, God is beckoning you to His side. You are hurt and wounded in many ways. I feel it in my soul and see it on our faces every week. You have yet to experience the fullness that Christ will bring to you both on this earth and in the life to come. You are a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and God has done much work in your lives. I praise God that He has brought us together as broken vessels and jars of clay and is teaching us about Him through each other. I don't know that anything but Christ would have brought us together in the way that we are sharing life together. We all are different in so many ways. Yet we have the only thing that matters in common: our need for Christ. I am praying for all of you and cannot wait to see what the LORD will bring to pass in our gatherings. We have the most amazing Church and the most amazing people in leadership. Through all of my time with you all, I am learning what it means to live as the Church and to feel again. For whatever reason, I got to a place where I kind of cut off any sense of real emotion and "human-ness" over the years growing up to protect myself from pain and hurt. The LORD has done a tremendous work in my heart and is restoring to me the years that the locusts have eaten. The past two years have been AMAZING. I have had many rough patches in this time and things finally began to come together when I joined you guys. I am learning what it means to love, to feel, to be honest with myself, with others and with God in ways that are much bigger than I would have ever guessed I would be. I praise God for you all. May God give us eyes to see each other and ourselves as He desires for us to. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear His Word to us and may he sustain us for all the rest of our days however long or short that may be.

g + p,

Brad