The God of Grace

February 7, 2016 from River Run Church on Vimeo.

Our Mission

For 2000 years, we have had the exact same mission. It's high time we got real about our own mission field right next door, on our own street, and within our neighborhoods.



December 27, 2015 from River Run Church on Vimeo.

Advent Reading: Love

Advent reading from the fourth Advent week at River Run Church. This week is the last Sunday before Christmas, the wreath is all lit, awaiting the most important piece. We have all been on a journey over the last four weeks and have been preparing for Jesus. This week He is here.

FIRST READER:
Advent is a word that means “coming” or “visit”. In the Christian season of Advent, we prepare for the “Coming” of Christ at Christmas while longing for His Return. This morning, we continue to light the advent candles as we move towards Christmas and the birth of Christ.

The lights of Hope, Peace, and Joy flicker over this Advent wreath. They flicker over our lives. As we move closer and closer to Christmas with each passing day we realize that throughout history these lights have penetrated the gloom of this world. Yet, darkness is still present. As we meditate on Jesus however, we become conscious that there is a horizon of light approaching us… The love of “God With Us”.

Advent Reading: JOY

Advent reading from "Gaudete Sunday" (Gow-Day-Tay) at River Run Church. This week is the turning point in Advent for Christians, in the glow of the lights of Hope and Peace, this is the week we celebrate the Joy of Christ's coming...






FIRST READER:

“Joy to the World the Lord is come. Let Earth receive her king!”
It is a familiar tune around the Christmas season, but this advent hymn is as much about Jesus’ second coming as it is his first. On this third Sunday of Advent, we light the Joy candle. It is a different color because it symbolizes our mood switching away from waiting and longing and instead into a state of preparing. We know Jesus is coming, and He is coming very soon. As we think about what it meant to the people when Christ came the first time, it helps us prepare for His return. He will not come as an infant again, but as a reigning King.
“Joy to the World, the Savior Reigns. Let men their songs employ!”

Do you Hear What I Hear?

Do you hear what I hear?

Christmas music playing on every radio station.

"Its the most wonderful time of the year!"

Sermons every week on the coming birth of Jesus.

"The birth of Jesus is the answer God gives to a world locked in fear and darkness!"

The crazy thing is that, though we are submerged in music declaring that Peace has come, Love is here. That even the song for which I have titled this post declares these lyrics, "Pray for peace, people everywhere!"...

...I am instead surrounded with just the opposite.

Advent Reading: PEACE

Continuing our series on Advet readings, this is what we used today at River Run Church for the PEACE candle lighting.

First Reader:

Peace. It is hard to even contemplate what the word means anymore. We no longer live in a world where we experience the meaning of peace. But did we ever live in such a world?

The people of the Old Testament had recognized the promise of God in sending a savior. They were rooted in that hope. But Peace is what they needed.

Second Reader:

Psalm 85:6-13 says-

Won’t you revive us again,

    so your people can rejoice in you?

Show us your unfailing love, O Lord,

    and grant us your salvation.

I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying,

    for he speaks peace to his faithful people.

    But let them not return to their foolish ways.

Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,

    so our land will be filled with his glory.

Unfailing love and truth have met together.

    Righteousness and peace have kissed!

Truth springs up from the earth,

    and righteousness smiles down from heaven.

Yes, the Lord pours down his blessings.

    Our land will yield its bountiful harvest.

Righteousness goes as a herald before him,

    preparing the way for his steps.

Advent Reading: HOPE

This is the Advent reading we used at River Run Church this past week as we began the season with the traditional lighting of the HOPE candle on the wreath.

WEEK 1- HOPE
                   
READING:

Many of us grew up with the story of Advent beginning in a stable. But, the story begins in a Garden.                   
When God created the world, all things were just as they should be. Creation functioned in perfect order and moved in seamless harmony. Humanity walked in unbroken relationship with God, fully known and unafraid. But in an instant, all that changed as Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s good instruction. They took of the fruit, ate, and sin entered the world. Fellowship broken. Peace shattered. Creation thrown into chaos. Darkness, depravity, fear, shame and selfishness flooded the human heart, separating man from God. The situation was dire.

Longing for Meaning

“Do you WANT to be delivered? That is the one great question Advent puts to us. Does even a vestige of longing burn in us? If not, what do we want from Advent, what do we want from Christmas?” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Advent: the season which begins the New Year in the church liturgical calendar. It beckons us, no, requires us to pause and look. Look at what it is that we really want.

As a child, what we really desire is presents under the tree. Maybe like young Ralphie, all we wanted was that Red Ryder BB gun.

But then in a blink we look down at our aged hands and realize the passing shadow that is life has left us wrinkled, calloused, and dry. Too weary to look up, a tree full of ornaments and memories but empty of purpose. We look through picture albums and old journals in our attempt to experience *something* this Christmas season.

Maybe you are there this Christmas season, because you realize this is the first Christmas without Mom.
The first Christmas without children under your roof.
The first Christmas alone.
The first Christmas in a new place, away from family, away from friends.

Maybe, this is the first Christmas at church that you don't feel at home on Sunday mornings anymore.
Change has removed the traditions you held most dear.

All we want this Christmas is purpose. We want to experience...something meaningful.

Advent 2015

For a lot of people, Christmas is not always the “most wonderful time of the year.” Between visiting family, buying presents, sending out Christmas cards and everything else, what is supposed to be a special time can turn into a hectic and stressful few weeks.
But the tradition of Advent calls Christians to slow down and think more about what the season truly means.

So what is Advent?

Advent is a strange word to us. It sounds incomplete, like someone was trying to say “adventure” or “Adventist” but didn’t finish the word out. What’s up with the strange word and the strange candle lighting thing anyway?

Advent, which is the Latin word for “Coming”, is perhaps one of the oldest Christian traditions. Some suggest it was founded even by the Apostles, that once a year Christians would set aside a time and remember the first coming of Christ, the darkness that surrounded the world so tightly until light came. We do this so we might better prepare our minds and hearts for his second coming… a promise that Christmas gives us. There are three meanings of 'coming' that Christians describe in Advent. The first, and most thought of, happened about 2000 years ago when Jesus came into the world as a baby to live as a man and die for us. The second can happen now as Jesus comes into our lives to live and reign through His Spirit. And the third will happen in the future when Jesus comes back to the world as King and Judge.

Why Advent?

The spirit of Advent is the spirit of humanity fully alive.

A Palatable God?

This started as a facebook post for some of my friends and followers and then I quickly decided it was better suited to be placed here.

I am asked a lot by people, "How do you know that you know the REAL Jesus?"

What they are usually really asking is how I could possibly believe that my understanding of Jesus is correct, and why I think so many have gotten Him wrong.

In many ways my well is poisoned when I try to answer that question, they have already basically made the assumption that I am an arrogant pseudo-scholar who thinks I understand Jesus perfectly and if anyone disagrees with me they are inherently wrong.

I hope to never come across as that guy.

But at the same time I do believe that the Jesus I have come to know, love, and worship is the same Jesus that walked this earth 2000 years ago. You cannot separate the Jesus of history from the Christ of faith. They are the same person.

My response is usually that I side with the people who knew Jesus best while he was on earth, that is, the Gospel writers and the Apostles.

I believe that the tradition handed down from them through the pages of the Bible has been kept in tact and is as reliable, if not more reliable than any other ancient documents we have about any historical event or person, ever. (A fact that I would encourage everyone to do deeper study on.)

Why? Because I have no reason not to. The Greek manuscripts we have proved that the words were left unchanged. Jewish studies have proven to us that Scribes and priests made their top priority in their lives to accurately translate and record the Scriptures handed down since the days of Moses.

Many tell me that the Jesus in the Bible, or rather the 'God' of the Bible (as if they are somehow separate) is too primitive, too outdated, too ridiculous to actually believe in. If I ask who they believe in, I usually already know the answer. It is an image of a god who looks a lot like them, or who they want to be.

George Tyrrell once used an analogy to answer why that is the most ridiculous claim one can make,

When one looks into the deep well of history in search of Jesus, there is always the real hazard of seeing one's own reflection gazing back, and mistaking that for Jesus.

A god who is palatable to our own ideas and boxed in on what our idea of morality, love, and even sovereignty is, is no god, but a fantasy. A desire to know Jesus outside of the Scriptures is just as bizarre as wanting to know Jesus outside of community with His people.

Another scholar puts it this way, "God created us in His image, and then we returned the favor."

How arrogant of us to think that the Creator is out of touch with us today?Or that we would make better gods than YHWH ever could?

I'm sorry people think the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is out of touch with the 21st Century, I really am, because all that tells me is that there are millions and millions and millions of people who are out of touch with reality themselves.

The mission is still binding, brothers and sisters, and I stand on my firm belief that the Gospel and the Gospel alone is what can and will save this world. The old, old story that has been the Power of God unto salvation for 2000 years is still just as alive and powerful today... and still just as needed today.



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Nathan Bryant

is a pastor at River Run Church in East Orlando, FL. As a student at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri he majored in Biblical Leadership, New Testament Studies, and Missiology.  In 2014 he attended the Leadership Institute in Phoenix, AZ where he continued his education from other pastors and educators at one of the fastest growing churches in the United States. He loves the outdoors, whether it is camping in the mountains or jumping through the waves at the beach, nothing is better than enjoying God’s creation. Nathan longs for unity and commitment to Jesus to be a defining element in the global church of his generation.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our causes.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our boundaries.

Follow him on Twitter: Follow @nathanpbryant

Nathan's Website