Riverside has partnered with Terry and Teresa Allen, pastors of Elim Covenant Church in Elim, Alaska, to help them meet the physical and spiritual needs of their rural Alaska community.

 

This week I am in Chicago at our denomination’s Midwinter Conference. My roommate is a close friend from seminary and the Worship Director at Cascade Covenant Church in North Bend, Washington.

 

Lesson from February 1, 2009

We know Jesus best when we share his deepest humiliation with him. It is the glass through which we see God most clearly
-David E. Garland

The opening verse in this passage can throw us off a bit if we imagine that Paul is referring to the sufferings of Christ. His reference is to his own sufferings on Christ’s behalf, which he incurred in the process of spreading the gospel and in particular in bringing it to the gentiles. He was in prison as he wrote this letter, and had and would experience many hardships.

Lesson from January 25th, 2009

Colossians 1:21-23

Fear, it has been said, is a primary emotion.  That is to say that it is one of the basic and fundamental emotions we feel as humans in response to situations that seem beyond our control and beyond our ability to cope.  In December of 2008 we do not have to use our imaginations to conjure up such situations, rather the current condition of the US economy provides the ready example.  We may be facing the loss of a job or the potential loss of a job or someone close to us may be facing it.  If we have not lost a job, nevertheless, we may be facing a very uncertain future in terms of our financial security and capability.  Various things we believed had a certain value such as a home or a retirement plan, now have much less value and it is not clear when or if these things will regain the value they once had.  And, the precise meaning of these things for our everyday lives is, once again, uncertain.  It is thus not hard to imagine what it means to experience fear.