River Oaks Christian Church

Feel like a nobody? Have no idea where you're going? Feel like a rat in cage? Are you under appreciated, under paid, feel unnecessary?

When you get priorities straight, you have enough time to do whatever you want in life.

David brings calm, peace & confidence into our chaotic lives.

Life's raw deal. Doing right...get the back of the hand. Been gossiped about? Did you in financially? Been betrayed? Something unfair to you at work? Got the screws put to you?

We're embarking on a new year, and our minds are drawn to new commitments, or even fresh versions of previous commitments. Whether your hope for 2008 includes a better way of balancing your budget, or simply finding less of you to balance on your bathroom scales, almost everyone is in a mood to consider change as the New Year approaches.

As we draw near to Christmas, it seems to me that it is exactly this experience that we are in danger of missing. In our day, when technological advances have explained huge mysteries and scientists are peering into our DNA and movie-makers can render on screen spectacles of such magnitude that it boggles the mind, I fear we are in danger of losing something--something powerful, something needed, something that can reawaken our souls. It is wonder that is endangered in our day.

Many songs we sing at Christmas are reminders that Christmas time is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. Songs like "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas," "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire," "Jingle Bells," and "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" all communicate loud and clear that Christmas time is to be a joyous, trouble-free season. But let me ask you honestly, is that what you are experiencing this season? Probably not.

We all look to the Christmas season to be a time of perfect peace, harmony, and joy-a time without turmoil. But the first Christmas was not that way. It was an interruption.

What exactly was the 'work' of a bishop in the New Testament church? How did the required 'qualifications' prepare them for this work?

If God is really God and if He

At times we all struggle with doing the right thing. I guess it

Expectations are on all of us; and women feel the burden of expectations from all angles: husbands or boyfriends, society, work, girlfriends, kids, and even church. As we've seen, sometimes the sheer weight of expectations can be overwhelming.

Our society sends a clear message of what it thinks a "real man" should be.

Some people will tell you that the magic formula for getting your prayers answered is being good enough. Others think belonging to a certain church or lighting enough candles or saying enough prayers is the key. All these teachings make God into a sort of cosmic Santa Clause.

Sins are a funny thing aren

Throughout biblical history, God-focused prayer marked extraordinary spiritual breakthroughs for God's people.

So why is something so foundational for Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church so frail today? Why is it these days that praying together is so often the spare tire rather than the steering wheel for our churches? Why do so few who teach our Sunday School classes or serve as elder/deacons attend Prayer Meetings or join a Prayer Team?

J. Edwin Orr, whose research on revivals forms an authoritative study, concluded this, “No great spiritual awakening has begun anywhere in the world apart from united prayer.” (J. Edwin Orr, Prayer, Its Deeper Dimensions, p. 21.)

I bring the issue of praying together up for three reasons: 1) Corporate prayer is on par with preaching and teaching as a priority in a healthy church. 2) Praying together is a vital key to opening God's presence and work among His people in unique ways. And 3) The tendency among believers, even among those who occupy leadership positions in the church, to think of prayer gatherings as the extra-curricular activity in the life of the church.

The Declaration of Independence gives one of it's best statements ...