River Valley Rockford Blog

Job Exchange

Some of you have been transitioned out of your jobs and others have openings or know of companies which have job opportunities. It seems to me that the church should help each other as best as we can. So, here is a place where you can exchange information and perhaps find a new job or employee. Of course, we should pray for each other as we learn about needs.

Use the "comments" link below to post either your name and the kind of position for which you are looking or information about a job opening.  

Please do not post phone numbers.

Use emails for contact information.

If at any point you would like your post to be deleted, please send an email to the River Valley Information Center.

Getting Sex Right

Sunday we tackled a tough but relevant topic:  sex.  At the heart of the message was the biblical truth that God designed sex to be deeply joyful, passionate and wonder-filled.  Yet, the attraction of sex and lust outside of marriage is powerful and terribly flawed.  Many people struggle to believe the right thing and behave the right way.  I am passionate about this topic because I hate seeing people duped into living a lower life than what God wants.  Many people settle for second-rate pleasure because they refuse to trust God:  they don’t wait to experience sex until marriage, they don’t protect their eyes from erotic images and pornographic videos, and they don’t work to make their marriages safe, intimate, and passionate.

Dreams of River Valley People

At the end of our InLife series on April 5, 2009, we taught and thought about dreams. Then people wrote down their dreams and posted them for others to see. These touched me deeply. God truly created us to live incredible lives. What would our world look like if we all worked diligently toward our dreams? Most of these are too large to for us to do alone. They are God-sized, and they require God to empower and assist. But, that is what he loves to do.  Here they are to inspire you:

Dreamers Don't Have to Be Famous

Marvin Webster died this week. He was 56 years old. The news spokesmen told us their memories and reminded us how great he was. I never heard of him.

He was 7-foot-1. His nickname was “The Human Eraser.” He played 333 consecutive games in the NBA, averaging 16.1 points per game during the SuperSonics playoff run in 1978. He next played for six seasons with the New York Knicks. He was a tremendous shot-blocker, well-liked, and his death didn’t make the front page. Neither will most of ours.

Yet, our dreams are important. 

What Is Fasting?

Fasting usually means abstaining from something, usually food, for a spiritual reason.  It is an often, overlooked spiritual discipline, but Jesus spoke about it in the Sermon on the Mount and made it equal with financial giving and prayer (Matthew 6).   Maybe it is something we should look into.

The Bible talks a lot about fasting because a lot of godly people fasted.  Here is a taste (pardon the pun) of some fasters: Moses (Exodus 34:28; Deut. 9:9,18), David (2 Samuel 12:16), Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1:4); Esther (Esther 4:16), Anna (Luke 2:37), Paul (Acts 14:23), Jesus (Matthew 4:1-2), and the early church (Acts 13:2). 

The purpose of fasting was usually to re-center the person’s heart and mind and devotion on God.  It wasn’t primarily a physical health thing but a spiritual health thing.  In an interesting psychological way, feeling deprived physically aids our desire to be satisfied spiritually.  God honors this practice. 

For me, it does at least three things. 

Fast for Easter

What could you give up in order to prepare spiritually for Easter?

I’m giving up lunch once a week.  I’m also saying good-bye every day to reading the news on the Internet and listening to the radio in my car. Instead, I will pray during those hours.  As I am driving down the road, I will focus on God (and the traffic), but not the radio.  And one more thing, every time I get a forwarded email, I’m sticking it in the trash without opening it and saying a one-minute prayer.  This alone should do wonders for me! I’ll do this fasting until Easter.

Will you fast from a few things too?

Make Some Goals

What are you going to do this year?  I’m on a mission to get people on a mission.  Too many people are living their lives by letting their circumstances determine their lives.  They don’t do what they want.  Instead, they simply roll with the punches, go with the flow, yield to the tyranny of the urgent, and end up nowhere near where they want to be.  More importantly, they end up nowhere near where God wants them to be.  Sadness, learned helplessness, and a sense of loss of control are all the terrible side effects.  That isn’t how anyone should live—especially a Christ-follower.  It’s a waste.

If you don’t want to waste your time or your life (which are pretty much the same thing), then you must make some choices, plan some actions, and take those actions.  I talked about this some in my first message of the year (Good Stops for Good Starts ), but I want to spell it out succinctly here.  

Experience The Treasure

This message series called The Treasure intrigued me before it ever started.  For months I prepared for it with this one guiding question at the top of my research page:  Besides heaven, what are the perks of salvation?  I put the “besides heaven” in there not because it is minimal but because it is familiar.  Everyone knows that heaven is a primary perk of salvation.  Avoiding hell is a primary incentive often teased out by preachers and evangelists, especially by those who sweat and beat the pulpit.  And it is no slouchy perk.  Hell is a real and terrible place, and heaven is apparently going to be much more relaxing and a lot cleaner.  But everyone knows that and many want to know why salvation is so great for this life, the one on earth.  As I thought about that, I noticed a whole herd of believers who couldn’t articulate much of an answer to such questions.  Which, for me, meant they probably weren’t living in the perks themselves.  That seemed like a sad thing.  Sort of like inheriting an amusement park but being told you can’t ride the roller coasters until you die.  What a bummer.

Your OMTL Stories

During the One Month to Live series, we have tried to learn and live out four universal principles: to live passionately, to love completely, to learn humbly and to leave boldly. Many people have made some positive and even risky decisions during the last 30 days. Your story can be encouraging to other people's lives. Please click "comments" below and share a part of your story.

Wakeboarding Video

Hey Everyone!  I know we posted the "One Month to Wakeboard" video up here a couple of weeks ago.  Thanks so some weirdness from YouTube, we've decided to go ahead and host the video up on our own site.  Go ahead and click the picture to find the video one our Media Page.  Enjoy!