A few more Community Blogs

Here is Jill Peel's Blog

Rachel Blazer's

and Kim Janous'

In the meantime

We are sort of shutting down the Riverside Blog.

But, we would like to direct you to... essentially the same thing: blogs by Riverside folk.

For this week I would encourage you to peruse Greta's Blog, and Linz Merrill's Blog (the name of which I did not actually get for the first year I read her blog... don't know why, made me question my abilities with English...).

Anyway, hope you enjoy, if you have a link I should put up please throw up a comment. (throw down a comment?)

The Biblical Waltz

This coming Sunday we are beginning a four-part series on grace.

I threw this link up for 3 reasons - 1. It is funny. 2. The 10 Commandments are a great example of the Biblical Waltz 3. This video is a great example of why and how we miss the actual steps.

Exodus is a fantastic picture of the way God works: He graciously saves (Exodus 1-18), he reminds of the saving and asks for participation/reception of Him as the savior (Exodus 19), then he describes what that participation will look like (Exodus 20). God says (in this video), "I am the LORD, commanding you to obey my law..."

Its funny right?

But, it isn't what happened.

While Mel Brooks' rendition is certainly worthy of oscar consideration, the story doesn't represent the real story!

The 10 Commandments are a rule I have to follow so God will love me, they make me happy because now I know what to do. The 10 Commandments are annoying, because rules are annoying; I am fine in Christ, I'm going to Heaven, you're a legalist if you try and impose these 'rules on me'.

There is a third way... I hope to see you Sunday. Incidentally, God didn't call them rules.

-Matt Blazer

Stolen From Twitter

This is a great way of thinking about your devotional life in 2010. If it doesn't sound like you, or seems overly rigid (or lax) keep reading. There is the right amount of encouragement towards flexibility and the right amount of suck-it-up-juice implied.

Enjoy.

Jesusland

Many a Ben Fold's song is much to linguistically vulgar for me to post the lyrics here, but his music has always made me think. Ben is a bit of a cynic...okay, I don't know if the man believes in anything. But, I think he makes a good point about the hypocrisy and divides we find in this "Christian" nation. Take a look.


Take a walk
out the gate you go and never stop
past all the stores and wig shops
quarter in a cup for every block
and watch the buildings grow
smaller as you go

Down the tracks
beautiful McMansions on a hill
that overlook a highway
with riverboat casinos and you still
have yet to see a soul

Jesusland
Jesusland

Town to town
broadcast to each house, they drop your name
but no one knows your face
Billboards quoting things you'd never say
you hang your head and pray

for Jesusland
Jesusland

Miles and miles
and the sun goin' down
Pulses glow
from their homes
You're not alone
Lights come on
as you lay your weary head on their lawn

Parking lots
cracked and growing grass you see it all
from offices to farms
crosses flying high above the malls
A longer walk

through Jesusland
Jesusland

-Natalie

Post-Sermon Blog: Wilderness

I spent all afternoon semi-consciously thinking through what I wanted to say about John the Baptist, and the importance of his personal life before God (supposed to be Main Point 2 :) .

John spent significant time in the wilderness as a boy; one pastor said he essentially skipped adolescence through his wilderness time. He was also full of the Spirit - which means his mind and affections were set upon the LORD (this plays out in different ways throughout the Bible). The two go hand in hand, and the result was a courageous man (not boy, or guy).

Because John went to the wilderness, he knew who he was before God. This prepared him to be able to worship his younger cousin - another Jewish man. John's time in the wilderness gave him courage to call the religious leaders of the day "vipers", to call the military people who came to him 'cowards' (read between the lines of "stop extorting people with threats in Luke 3), and to call the local mayor a sinner who should publicly repent (not call a press conference and do everything but repent).

I will leave it up to you to determine how to get to the wilderness yourself - be it metaphor or literal. But, if you're like me it would encourage your heart as a man (or woman), husband (or wife), friend, son (or daughter), employee, and simply as a human being - to know who you are before Christ. I pray that you will enter the Holidays full of the knowledge of who you are in Christ (For John he began with who he was in God, and moved to who he was in Christ!). I pray also that this knowledge will give you the courage to relate to your family, engage the inevitable loneliness of the holidays, and move forward in love to those around you.

Merry Christmas; hope to see you at the Christmas Eve Service.

Yours,
Matt Blazer

Top Ten Reasons you should come to the Riverside Gallery

10. Everything is priced at 60 or under
9. Food/Beverages are free (and good)
8. It makes you more sensitive if part of your date involved your support of a local non-profit Art Gallery
7. It makes you cooler if part of your Friday Night plans involved your support of a local non-profit Gallery (try using this line in conversation, "Yeah, let's go there, but first we should all stop by this non-profit Art Gallery and have a drink..."). How can you possibly lose?
6. The artists are very talented
5. Mary is one of the artists... If you're from Riverside, you love Mary and want to support her :)
4. It is an entertaining show: ceramics, headbands made of wire (or something), small photos and prints of paintings, birds talking to each other...
3. A blog has never really effected any kind of change to your life or schedule. UNTIL NOW!! MWA...
2. Your Friday Night plans are neither that good nor that intact...
1. You need AT LEAST one more Christmas Present for someone

-Yours,
Matt Blazer; Curator

curator |ˈkyoŏrˌātər; kyoŏˈrātər; ˈkyoŏrətər|
noun: a keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection.
Derivatives
curatorial: adjective
curatorship: noun
Origin: late Middle English (denoting an ecclesiastical pastor, also (still a Scots legal term) the guardian of a minor): from Old French curateur or, in later use, directly from Latin curator, from curare (see cure ). The current sense dates from the mid 17th century.