River of Hope Church

Restless Heart

2011-02-22T13:35:00.003-06:00

by Hanna Baker
My Pandora station played "Your Grace Is Enough" by Matt Maher (we sing the song frequently during Sunday morning worship, too) this morning, and one of the lines stood out to me in a way it hadn't before.

Great is Your faithfulness, oh God, You wrestle with the sinners restless hearts...

It suddenly reverberated in my heart, connecting with some things I've been mulling over the last couple of days.

When I gave my life to Christ 25 years ago I made a commitment to serve God through my actions. As I've gotten older and developed my relationship with Him more, becoming more aware of the risks, struggles & blessings of that decision, there have been days and seasons I had to reaffirm that commitment. Those "big moment" decisions are critical to have a moment to look back to when things get rough; I made a choice, and refuse to look back.

What is harder, however, is the day-to-day decisions and moments.

I've realized lately that my focus & thought life has drifted from what I would like, and from the commitments that I have made. It's a continual pattern & cycle in my life - I start having regular quiet times, good prayer times, get more attuned to hearing His voice, and watch my attitude, energy, joy and peace increase. Then I get distracted & tired, things come up, I choose an extra 30 minutes of sleep or a movie or book instead of taking time to spend with Him, and before I know it my habits and thought patterns are shifting.

The shorter explanation: I have a restless heart. God is constantly wrestling with my it, and the battle goes round and round.

At Bible Study lately we were looking at Jacob wrestling with the "Angel of the Lord" (Jesus), and discussing how the concept of literally fighting with God seems so foreign and scary. In a physical sense, it still is... but I'm realizing that it's also an image of our hearts struggling to accept His Sovereignty and leadership over our lives. I wrestle constantly, daily with God.

1 Timothy 4 says to, "Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come... For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe."

I want to refocus on training for myself in godliness. Anyone else ready for a new start?

Christmas

2010-12-13T18:41:00.000-06:00

It's December, the month that the modern day church & world celebrates the birth of Jesus. David has begun going through the Christmas story in the flannel-graph children's sermon for church, and we are making plans for our Christmas Service this coming Sunday morning (12/19/10).

As I was listening to Christmas music on the radio this morning, "Breath of Heaven/Mary's Song" (Amy Grant) started playing. I've always loved the song, but it started registering in a new level as I thought about the lyrics.

I have traveled
Many moonless night
Cold and Weary
With a babe inside

I, as have many other believers, have been through seasons in my life that have felt dark and weary, cold and confusing. These days often feel very distant from God, and the promise that Christ is still there, living inside of me, and that He will never leave us can be hard to hold onto.

And I wonder
What I've done
Holy Father
You have come
Chosen me now
To carry your son

I've been through days where I have wondered and been amazed that the God of the Universe would choose ME to carry His presence to the world around me. Why me, with all my mistakes and failings? He must have been able to have some other plan, instead of using messed up fallen people to change the world. Yet He didn't - He chose me.

I am waiting
in a silent prayer
I am frightened
by the load i bear
In a world as cold as stone
Must I walk this path alone
Be with me now
Be with me now

The Creator of the galaxies has entrusted me to share the story of His Love to a lost and dying world who has forgotten the meaning of what love is, and has rejected Him. Yet He does not send me to walk this path alone - He is here, giving me strength and security and bringing a light to the darkness. He has, is, and will redeem me from my sin, washing me with His holiness for the remainder of my life until I stand before His throne.

-----------------------------------
Breath of Heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of Heaven

Breath of Heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me, your holyness
For you are holy...Breath of Heaven

-----------------------------------

Do you wonder
As you watch my face
If a wiser one, should of had my place
But I offer-all I am
For the mercy-of your plan
Help me be strong
Help me be
Help me

Why doesn't God question this plan, or choose someone better & more capable than me to walk this road? Because that's the great adventure, the truth beyond the Christmas story: God takes ordinary, weak people who are willing to say, "Yes!" to His plans, and gives us the mercy & strength to take up the role. And He will be there, helping me along every step in the road.

And His gifts extend beyond that. The words we display this time of year (Love, Joy, Peace, Faith) are promises, and are ours to keep as we seek the Baby that was born so long ago. Lay hold of them, and remember the One who was born... and grew up to lay down His life. Who was a man, in order to lead us by true example to His Father. Who is Majesty. Emmanuel. God.

He is holy. He is the greatest gift of all.

A Forgotten Power, or a Fanciful Myth?

2010-10-23T08:23:00.000-05:00

by Hanna Baker
Not all blog postings will be about Bible Study, I promise!

Our Wednesday night Bible Study started off this week in typical David George fashion - with a movie clip. To everyone's surprise and amusement however, this one wasn't WWII related; instead, we settled in to the opening strains of the LotR - The Fellowship of the Ring (don't worry, we only watched the first few minutes; we try to avoid 5 hour long Bible Studies!).

The correlation David drew was impressive. In Middle Earth, the residents at one time were fully aware of the power that the rings - especially the One Ring - had; that power affected every aspect of their lives. Through a series of events, however, that power was misplaced, lost, and eventually forgotten. A few tales remained as a distant legend, but most people didn't even believe them anymore.

As followers of Christ and beloved children of God, we are intended to have power as well. Jesus told his followers that, "anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these" (John 14:12, NIV). The New Testament contains tale after tale of Jesus & the early church performing incredible miracles, healing sick, raising people from the dead, prophesying, casting out demons, speaking in unknown tongues, and more. We are intended to have and operate in that power!!

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, the Western church forgot. The stories slipped into history instead of practice, and "some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth." (quote from Galadriel, The Fellowship of the Ring.)

It's time to get back to the truth, and learn how to access the gifts that God intended His church to use - the gifts that allow us to be effective and powerful at communicating and spreading the love of Christ to the hurting world around us.

New Season

2010-10-16T13:43:00.001-05:00

by Hanna Baker

We are two weeks into our Fall Semester Bible Study. This semester we're going to be going through a book entitled You May All Prophecy by Steve Thompson. We haven't actually started the book yet, as we took the first two weeks to set the stage. David being the WWII buff that he is, the discussions included (tasteful) war video clips to illustrate these questions.

Week One
~ What are the spiritual gifts? Why are they important?
Week Two
~ How do you begin to step out and operate in the gifts?

We looked at how every Christian has certain weapons at their disposal in the forms of prayer, fasting, and Scripture. These are the equivalent of basic rifles, handguns, etc; effective, but only a limited amount of power.

The spiritual gifts (tongues, prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, healing, miracles, faith) are the equivalent of the heavy weapons, such as grenades, M-16s, anti-tank missiles, etc.

Everyone who has committed their lives to Christ, making Him Lord and asking for and accepting His forgiveness for our sins has the power of God; the problem is that it's hard to access, or (using the illustration from this Wed) 'dammed up.' Requesting to be filled or baptized in the Holy Spirit begins the process of destroying that dam, and allowing access to be used by God in the full extent of His power.

Those of us at Bible Study who have received this gift shared our stories. It's amazing how everyone comes to that point in different ways, and how the stories differ, just like stories for each person are unique for how we came to salvation.

New Member in the Family

2009-12-07T13:41:00.000-06:00

by Hanna Baker

Our church has been eagerly awaiting welcoming a new member into our church family as we are approaching the date that David & Jenn's new baby will be born. A new life is an amazing miracle and blessing, and is surrounded by joy for all concerned.

There is only one miracle that can surpass the birth of a baby. I was privileged to witness that miracle yesterday when I had the opportunity to welcome a new member into the family of God.

In addition to the delight and awe of seeing a friend make the most important decision possible and choose to follow Christ, this also gave me an opportunity to process through what salvation is, and what it means to be a Christian. It's difficult to describe the joy of explaining the message of what Jesus did for us, and the impact that it has on our daily lives. It's so simple, yet takes a life time or more to process. What is this reality?

God is holy, and entirely perfect. This perfection, beyond our comprehension, makes it impossible for sin to be in His presence.
Every person born was born with sin, with the natural tendency to do things wrong. Each of us lies, is jealous, snaps at someone, and does countless other mistakes. Because of God's purity and perfection, the consequence for everything we do has to be death - both physical death as our bodies deteriorate, and spiritual death, eternal separation from God in hell.
Because of God's incredible love for us in spite of our failures, He was willing to sacrifice Himself in order to be near us, and to welcome us back to His presence. With Jesus' death on the cross he took the guilt and burden of every thing we've done and will do, and his resurrection three days later opened the door for us to have life with Him forever.
We have a choice. Do we accept that free gift, choose to believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and rely on God's strength, forgiveness and power to lead us into a relationship with Him and the ability to walk in freedom from our struggles, temptations, hurts and pain? Or will we reject Him, foolishly believing that we can survive this world and whatever happens after death on our own?

Life can still be intensely difficult as a Christian. God doesn't make all our problems go away. He doesn't protect everyone and everything around us, and He doesn't promise that we won't suffer the consequences of living in the world as it is today. What He does do, and does promise, is to be there beside us every step of the way, providing love, comfort, advice, forgiveness and peace. All we have to do is accept, surrender, and ask.

Being able to be a part of someone taking that first exciting huge step is the greatest gift and honor I could ever have. There is nothing better, beyond my own salvation and relationship with my Heavenly Father, than being able to introduce someone else to Him. One less person will suffer a life and eternity in torment. One more person will join us for the celebration of the ages on that day we get to see Him face to face.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-02T13:28:00.001-06:00

by Hanna Baker

After successfully indulging in 4 scrumptious and massive holiday meals (River of Hope's annual Thanksgiving Dinner, 2 large family gatherings, and my brother's birthday!) within an 8 day period, I'm thankful that I have a small break before the next big event. It has been wonderful, however, to be reminded of what is important, and that I can choose to be thankful regardless of what my circumstances are.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. My family grew, as a result of a new sister-in-law and a new nephew, both wonderful and dearly welcomed and loved. Our church has grown in the last 12 months, resulting in new friends and new connections with old friends. I'm blessed with a great roommates, a good job, and a nice house. It worked out for me to take a vacation this year.

There have also been a few stresses and frustrations this year. As much as I appreciate and (usually) enjoy my job, I work in a very busy and stressful office. I hugged a dear friend and cousin goodbye before she left to live in Africa for two years. I had a roommate move out, and a brother move away and get married. Every time I hug my grandma, I see how her body is failing her, and wonder if I'll see her again.

What I'm thankful for most of all, however, is that I have a God who is worth thanking. He is, and has promised to always be, my Friend when I'm lonely, my Strength when I'm weak, and my Comforter when I'm stressed and overwhelmed. He is my Savior, guaranteeing both my eternal life and the ability to cling to Him to defeat sin and fear in my life. Without Him, there is no reason to be thankful, for there is no one else to thank.

The Limitations of Science

2009-10-28T11:14:00.001-05:00

by David George

Science was one of my favorite subjects in school. It ranked second only to history. I especially enjoyed science when I got to high school and I realized that science had entire disciplines within it that I could study: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Geology, Astronomy, etc. So I took AP Chemistry & AP Physics my senior year of high school for the fun of it. (I realize that I have a strange concept of fun.) In fact the biggest disappointment in my college academic career is that I couldn’t fit any geology classes into my schedule in 7 years. That still irks me to this day.

Webster defines science as: “the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.” Inherent in this definition is the inability of science to explain supernatural phenomena. That is where religion comes in to the picture. Throughout all of human history man has been unable to explain all of the phenomena that he has experienced through just natural laws and processes. Now in many instances, supernatural explanations were given to natural phenomena that simply were not understood. For instance the ancient Greeks believed that lightning struck the tallest trees in the forest because the gods were trying to humble them.

But just because natural phenomena were incorrectly explained in the past, we can’t presume that all phenomena that we experience have natural causes and supernatural explanations are just symptoms of ignorance. That would be a great presumption and presupposition. But in fact that is the great presupposition of Naturalism, the philosophy that manifests itself in the Big Bang theory, Darwinian Evolution and most science textbooks. Webster defines naturalism as “the system of thought holding that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws without attributing supernatural significance to them.”

Naturalism masquerades as science because it holds scientific investigation as the supreme source of knowledge. That would be true in a world in which there are absolutely no supernatural phenomena, but what would happen if something supernatural took place? What if a stone suddenly turned into a loaf of bread? If a Naturalistic observer found the loaf of bread after the transformation took place and tried to explain its existence, they would conduct several experiments and determine that the bread was a composition of flour, salt, water, oil and carbon dioxide. Reason and experience would dictate that someone mixed the ingredients together, baked the bread and then left it where it was found. Measurements of the moisture content and temperature of the bread could even allow them to estimate how old the loaf of bread was. And even though this would seem to be a reasonable assessment of the origin of this loaf of bread it would be incorrect because of the philosophical limitations that Naturalism placed on the observer and the fact that he didn’t actually observe its origin.

So in a universe that has both natural and supernatural phenomena, science finds itself inadequate to explain everything. To be sure, it is very useful in explaining the natural phenomena, but it comes up very short in explaining supernatural phenomena.

That means that in the Origins debate we need to first determine if this universe is limited to natural phenomena or if it has supernatural phenomena too. If it does indeed have supernatural phenomena then we’ll need a lot more than just science to explain the universe.

Being a Watchman

2009-10-16T12:58:00.002-05:00

by Hanna Baker
At Bible Study this week we looked at what a watchman is, and the role that one plays today. It was a good discussion as we evaluated whether we have the courage to be a watchman in the lives of our friends, and when people have played that role in our lives.

A simple definition of a watchman is someone who keeps watch out for danger, and warns those who may be in danger or approaching it. An example used is when Michiah was enthralled by the fireplace; David & Jenn repeatedly moved him away from the danger as he tried to get close to it. When he wouldn't listen to a gentle warning, sterner measures were needed in order to protect him.

There are times when we are warned of danger, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual. How do we respond when a watchman points out that danger through loving correction? Do we ignore them, get offended, or laugh it off? Or do we take heed and recognize that they are instructing us for our own good?

I had a friend act as a watchman in my life recently. There were some areas of sin and fear that I have allowed myself to be captured by, and she recognized that as we talked. It's not comfortable to have issues addressed, and I don't always respond well, but this time I realized that God wanted to spare me from additional danger to my heart and future. If I ignored and pushed off dealing with this sin, I would be hindered in my ability to get closer to God and it would effect my ministry to others. Working through these issues and being able to walk in freedom is an exciting journey!

Being challenged to be a watchman is a little intimidating, but I hope that I can grow in confidence in allowing God to use me in this way. It's important to remember to operate in love, not attacking or berating the other person. It's also something to be done carefully, with wisdom and listening to God's direction.

Time with Friends

2009-10-14T13:42:00.001-05:00

by Hanna Baker

To briefly continue on the topic of what David shared earlier, it is always a blessing to have Neil & Ruth visit our church. Neil has known me since I was a toddler, and played a huge role throughout my childhood, teen, and young adult years as I learned how to walk with God and grew in my relationship with Him.

Having the opportunity to beat Neil at Scrabble is always a highlight as well. I'm naturally extremely competetive, and, in that respect, Neil brings out the worst in me. Playing is fun even when I lose, as I usually do, however. I can only hope that our fellow players enjoyed the games as well.

Good Friends

2009-10-14T13:02:00.002-05:00

by David George

Everyone needs good friends and so does every church. Our church’s good friend is Neil Thielke, my mentor of 10 years now. We recently had him visit our church for a Friday night “fireside chat”. You see he is the interim pastor of our sister church in Fargo so we can’t have him up for a Sunday morning church service easily. Since we don’t have access to our Sunday morning venue on Friday nights, my living room had to stand in for a church building. And that works for now because our whole church can comfortably sit in my living room which was endowed with a fireplace 105 years ago when our house was erected.

That in and of itself is why our church needs such a good friend: We all fit in my living room! And that is where Neil shines. The highlight of the evening was not the message that he shared with us, it was the Scrabble games after his chat. His message was fine and encouraging (although I confess that I was nodding of at the end because I had deprived myself of 4 hours of sleep the night before reading the third book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) but his strength is interacting with people through an activity.

With just the suggestion of Scrabble he drew in 3 other players and two very intense games ensued. I think that they wrapped up closer to 11pm than 10pm. I strategically avoided the game not out of disinterest but because I knew that a Scrabble game (or two as it turned out to be) would strengthen his relationship with the members of our church more than preaching. And that is exactly how it worked.

Oh I almost forgot to mention that Hanna beat Neil in the second game by one point.

Food and Love

2009-09-28T16:52:00.002-05:00

by David George

Food is an amazing thing. It comes in an infinite number of textures, flavors, colors, temperatures and consistencies. There is as much variety in food as the human imagination can conceive of. There is almost no limit to the variety of food that we can eat and enjoy.

Take potatoes for instance. They can be boiled, fried, deep-fried, baked, twice baked or eaten raw. They can be eaten with cheese, ketchup, gravy (beef, chicken, pork or turkey flavored), broccoli, butter, sour cream, carrots, olive oil, bacon, etc. I’ve eaten potatoes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and every snack in between. In spite of all my experience with potatoes, my wife still has this innate ability to conceive of new ways to cook them, mix them and generally make them tasty for eating (and don't get me started on Russian skills with potatoes!).

Love is similar to food in this way. There is no end to the ways in which it can be shown to others. You can show love through your patience, kindness, helpfulness, faithfulness, righteousness, forgiveness and goodness. You can communicate love through a hug, a smile, a kind word, a thoughtful gift, a good conversation or even cooking potatoes. We speak love differently to a daughter than a son, to a friend than a wife, or to a parent than a grandchild. Every relationship we have possesses unique possibilities of showing love. There is actually more ways of showing love than there are varieties of food in this world if that were possible to fathom.

Much in the same way that chefs and culinary artists explore the realms of food, Christians should dedicate themselves to explore the ways of showing love to others. The only limit is our own imagination. Show love to someone today in a fresh innovative way.

How to Avoid Dating a Jerk

2009-09-14T17:00:00.002-05:00

by David George

Modern dating has become a test drive for marriage and a long-term relationship. Unfortunately many give it no more thought than test driving a car figuring that if they don’t like the person they can just end the relationship. Unfortunately, failed relationships leave us with a lot of baggage in our hearts: scars, wounds, fears and apprehensions. This “baggage” then follows us through the rest of our life into all of our other relationships until we get inner healing. So dating isn’t really like test driving a car because it entails a lot more risk. It would be like saying, “I’ll test drive your car and I’ll either love it and I’ll buy it, or I’ll get into an accident and be scraped up and bruised or possibly even end up in the emergency room with serious injuries.”

Solomon exhorted his son, “Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life”. Our heart is our truest self, the core of our being. It is where our beliefs reside. When we date someone, we open up our heart to them and they are able to plant either truths (“You are beautiful”) or lies (“You aren’t worth my time”) into our heart. These beliefs affect our motives and our emotions. Our heart is so valuable that God sacrificed his Son Jesus in order to redeem it. Our heart is too valuable to risk opening it up to a jerk.

We need to guard our heart by determining the character of potential dates before we pursue a romantic relationship. People generally show their true character when under stress or pressure. I once went on a camping trip with my youth group. There were two girls in the group that I was interested in and watching. The stress of the camping trip revealed that these two girls had very different character. One of them refused to help out at all with cooking, clean-up or anything else around the campsite. She even joked about how lazy she was. The other girl was ready and willing to pitch in and help all the time. She often was asking if there was any way she could help even after she got back from a 12 mile hike and was tired.

Of course it will take patience if we want to determine someone’s character before we date them. Our heart will want to jump into a relationship as soon as we think that someone is attractive and has a fun personality. But we need to guard our heart from getting into a relationship before determining their character. Instead of jumping headlong into a relationship we need to be patient until time and circumstances has revealed their character to be trustworthy. Then you will be confident that they are not a jerk.

Redemption

2009-08-31T19:52:00.001-05:00

by David George

Once a few years ago my father bought a van to carry his grandkids around in. He bought a 2000 Oldsmobile Silhouette that was in pretty good condition. It just had a few quirks that needed to be worked on. For instance, the windshield leaked water in one spot when it rained because of a bad seal and some rust. The brakes needed some work and the automatic door opener on the passenger side wasn’t working properly. So he set to getting it all fixed up and all the quirks worked out.

Well as would be expected, this process started to cost more than he anticipated and a few more quirks surfaced. So while he was driving the van back to the auto body shop for the 2nd or 3rd time to finally get the windshield sealed he started to gripe to God. “What did I get into God?” he said. “This is a lot more than I was hoping to spend fixing this van up.” God responded to him with a single comment: “Redemption is costly, isn’t it?” Needless to say he got the point and the griping ceased.

What I find amazing is how willing God was to pay the price of redemption for us, but how unwilling we are to pay the price of redemption for smaller things in our lives. How much will it cost you to redeem a friendship? How about your marriage? It will be worth it.

Creating Wealth

2009-08-24T17:44:00.001-05:00

by David George

The tricky thing about creating wealth is that once wealth is obtained it is too tempting to spend it. Our consumer society has conditioned us that the only useful purpose for money is to spend it. Unfortunately that totally neglects the idea of investing money which is certainly a useful purpose. I’ve discovered (along with millions of others) that invested money produces more money if given time. Thus the Proverb: “…he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.”

Perhaps the first step in creating wealth has less to do with actions and more to do with our mind. We actually have to reprogram our minds away from the consumption mentally. Not that consumption is bad, but we need to do all things in moderation. Typically we do too much consuming and too little investing and giving.

If you think that this is good for everyone else in country to hear except you, figure out as a percentage of your income how much money you invest, give and consume. The results might surprise you.

Getting out of Debt

2009-08-19T11:19:00.001-05:00

by David George

I love paying off loans. I don’t like making payments, but I absolutely love the feeling I get when I write out the last check necessary to pay off a loan. It is exhilarating. The rush of freedom is almost overwhelming. So far in my life, I’ve gotten to experience that feeling 5 times. Unfortunately the fifth time, when upon moving out we paid off the mortgage on our first house, was very short-lived because just hours later we had to take out a new mortgage on the new house we were moving into. Oh well, for six hours I enjoyed not having a mortgage hanging over my head and at least our new mortgage was for less and had a lower payment.

I’ve learned a lot from the debt that we’ve had to pay off. First, don’t go into debt to begin with. Second, get out of debt as fast as possible: it makes household finances so much more flexible. Third, never counsel anyone to take out a loan if there is any possible way around it that doesn’t risk life and limb. Fourth, never let my children know that loans exist to be utilized.

Thanks to Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method, I’m scheduled to feel the exhilaration of paying off a loan twice more in the coming year, once in the fall and once next spring. At that time we shall be debt free except for our mortgage. Praise God!! Then we get to try and build a real emergency fund.

Budgeting? What's That?

2009-08-12T18:01:00.001-05:00

by David George

In my experience budgeting seems to be difficult for young adults. For some their impulsive nature destroys any budget they create. For others, realistically anticipating expenses is the tricky part. And others have a hard time with the bookkeeping that is required to track and monitor spending. But really I think the largest single factor is that we don’t think that our income (or lack thereof) should limit our spending.

Now we may not all consciously think this, but our actions reveal it. Perhaps the most revealing is that the officials we elect to govern our national budget agree with us. Last year in 2008 the federal budget deficit was $450,000,000,000. This year the deficit spending has been projected to be close to $1,900,000,000,000, over four times as much as last year. It will increase our national debt by nearly 20%. It’s as if actual tax revenue is irrelevant in determining federal expenditures; only perceived necessity is factored into spending decisions.

Really this shows that we no longer think we must earn our heart’s desires. Instead, we feel that we are entitled to them. But the truth is, we are not entitled to our heart’s desires. We still have to earn them and if we ignore that truth it will catch up to us eventually. Anyone who has filed for bankruptcy will tell you that. The State of California realized it this year, and the federal government will discover it someday too. Have you discovered it yet?

Debt in Western Culture

2009-08-03T10:41:00.002-05:00

by David George

In preparation for the Financial Seminar I’ve been reading from Dave Ramsey’s book The Total Money Makeover. It has been eye-opening to realize how much of the American economy revolves around people taking out loans to buy stuff and enslaving themselves to lenders in the process.

In the midst of the financial crisis you would think that people would realize the folly of this. In essence banks have given out too many loans to too many people. They finally reached the “enslavement capacity” of society when too many people had acquired too much debt and they stopped taking out (or were unable to take out) anymore loans. But instead of seeing the folly of our ways, politicians and people alike have criticized the banks for not lending enough. They are blamed for the economic downturn that ensued when the credit crunch began.

In reality the cause of the downturn was our own impatience. We wanted to buy things now, instead of later when we had saved up the money. So we bought houses, cars, furniture, appliances and whatever else we wanted on credit until we could no longer afford anymore loans. Individuals consumed more than they produced until they were forced to stop. Now everyone is suffering from the inactivity of the consumer who is shackled with debts they took on because they “had to have it now.”

Most of the remedies that have been cooked up have revolved around reducing interest rates to ease the credit crunch and increasing consumer spending. What we really need to do though, is to begin living below our means. We need to pay off our debts and refuse to get into debt again. We need to take responsibility for our own financial futures. Some will do this and some will not. What will you do?

Our New Building

2009-07-27T15:34:00.004-05:00

by David George

In July of 2009, we began meeting in our new building on the corner of Belmont and 4th Ave South. But this is not just any building; it is an actual church building that we rent from Gospel Outreach Ministries for our Sunday morning services. Strange as it may seem, our church has existed for almost 5 years without meeting once in a location originally intended for church services. Now we use the oldest church building in Grand Forks. Actually it has been almost 20 years since I’ve attended a church that meets in an actual church building.

There are a lot of advantages to our new building. First, it seats about 175 people in the sanctuary which gives us a lot of room to grow. Second, it has a kitchen facility and a small fellowship hall in the basement which comes in very convenient. Third, the acoustics of the sanctuary are unbelievably good. Few would care much about that, but most of my service in churches has been with the sound system. It matters.

It is also a change from what we are used to. The architecture and interior design is very formal and that is something that we’ve never experienced. But change is good. It keeps us flexible and keeps us from getting stuck in a rut.

All in all, it is an amazing great facility for a small church like ours. May God’s abundant provision continue.

Wanted!

2008-07-29T00:27:00.004-05:00

by Jen Watts

Both our guitarists will be leaving us, sadly, and soon we will be in need of multiple guitarists, both acoustic and electric, to fill out our worship team.

If interested, please check out www.riverofhopechurch.net for contact info, comment on this post, or simply show up to a service and say "Hey, I play guitar. Which channel do you want me to plug my guitar into?"

Baby George!

2008-06-19T23:48:00.011-05:00

Michiah John has finally arrived! Here are pictures!