Recent content by RiverOL

7 Ways The Church Can Stay Relevant In A World Where It’s Becoming Increasingly Irrelevant This past weekend (Memorial Day weekend) I enjoyed a rarity as a preacher: I had a Sunday off. I took the opportunity to travel with my boys up to Memphis for a baseball tournament my oldest son was...

Shielded By God The Christian needs the armor of God more today than ever, but God offers Himself as a shield to those who trust in Him. Awareness The Bible tells us that we have an enemy and one that’s more dangerous because he’s invisible. The Apostle Paul wants us to be prepared and so...

Bring Life into Alignment [ 1 min read ★ ] . . . get out there and walk . . . on the road God called you to travel—Ephesians 4:1-3 A steel beam has integrity when its purpose, its design, its manufacture...

The Secret To True Greatness Everybody wants to be great. We want lives of importance. Lives that matter and impact others around us. Lives that both satisfy our longings and affect the world around us. In our pursuit of greatness, we have ruined ourselves. In the name of greatness, we are...

Suffering Is No Accident I write this on the one-month anniversary of Nanci’s homegoing. Strange to think that our true home is a place we’ve never been. Paul said, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Philippians 1:23). Yet our eternal home will be on the New Earth...

4 Things Your Worship Service Needs To Better Help People Know God This has nothing to do with style of music, the translation of the Bible you use or whether or not you employ a fog machine to enhance the light show. People worship in many different styles, and many forms can be successful...

The Apostle Paul’s Last Will And Testament The Apostle Paul knew he was about to die, so he left Timothy, and all of us, his last will and testament. Paul’s Purpose With the Apostle Paul’s departure, he knew that soon enough, wolves in sheep’s clothing would subtly move in and try and fill...

Becoming Fast and Light [ 1 min read ★ ] How can we who died to sin still live in it?—Romans 6:2 Imagine being fast and light when moving through this life. Imagine being free from things that weigh you...

Dare You to Pray This ... [ 1 min read ★ ] Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me—Psalm 51:10-11 In the aftermath of adultery and murder, King David pleaded with God. He...

Eve: Mother To All (Genesis 1:1–5:2) Read Genesis 1:1–5:2; Galatians 3:10-4:7 I’m 38 years old and have been in church my entire life. By my math, that means I’ve sat through close to 2,000 sermons, including approximately 38 sermons on Mother’s Day. And, yet, I can’t recall ever hearing a...

The Bible: Getting Rich Quick & Stinginess Are A Formula For Poverty Proverbs 28:22 “A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him. “ The man described in this proverb has two overlapping issues: he is stingy and he hastens after wealth. Although he is...

No Single Molecule, Or Virus, Is Outside The Orbit Of God’s Sovereign Control One of the fundamental truths of the Scriptures is the reality that God is utterly sovereign in all things. Not only has God made everything for its own purpose, including the wicked for the day of evil (Pro...

Moving Past Regret: How To Fix A Painful Past. Retrospect is a human luxury. It’s great to remember the good, the joyous journey of the past. But it also serves as a painful, backwards glance at what-could-have-been, should-have-been. When I look back at some of the decisions I’ve made...

Standing Firm In God’s Grace: Putting Away Sinful Habits by PUTTING AWAY SINFUL HABITS I remember when I was 8 years old and my dad was the pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Knob Lick, Kentucky in 1980. I had recently given my life to Jesus Christ, and I was in Sunday School class...

Is Codependency Stopping You From Getting The Love You Want? Recently, I asked a client this question: “What is it that stops you from getting what you want out of a relationship?” Her answer was: “It’s too hard to go through a breakup and to be alone.” My response went something like this...