River of Life Church Long Prairie (Audio)

We begin a new series looking at the 3 gifts the wisemen brought to Jesus in the Christmas story. Bringing a little bit of perspective and light to the significance of those gifts. This week we specifically look at the gift of Frankincense. What was it? How was it used? But more importantly how this gift foreshadows a specific role that Jesus would fulfill and help us understand who He is for each one of us.

In the final week of the series, "21 Days of Feasting," Pastor Josiah talks about contentment. What does it mean to be truly be content? What does it mean to covet? Can we have both at the same time? We look at the apostle Paul and what he learned about contentment, how he found contentment in any situation, and from his example how we can also learn to do the same.

This week Pastor Josiah looks at 3 different biblical passages that show us different ways of showing gratitude. We see that it is more than just being thankful, it is more about our attitude or focus. We walk through these 3 ways and are challenged to truly gauge where we are in our own lives.

For the next few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving we want to focus everything that we have around the idea of gratitude.  But how do we do it different than we have every other November? 

Pastor Josiah walks us through the definition of gratitude, what we can learn from Jewish tradition.  He also lays out some practical things we can intentionally do for the next 21 days to help us remember what is right, and in turn respond in the right way.    

This week we conclude our series, "Out of the Cave" by talking about an another thing that can negatively contribute to our mental health. Rumination - obsessively thinking about an idea, situation or choice. How do we break this cycle? We wrap up the series with 3 things to put into place to workin on our mental health.

In our first ever Blaze Orange service Pastor Josiah shared some of his personal hunting stories and the lessons learned. One of those being Focus vs. Scope. How we approach our lives matters. Do we look at our lives as though looking through a scope or the entire big picture. Both ways can be unhealthy and we look at how we can filter those views.

Continuing in our series, "Out of the Cave", we look at 2 more factors that contribute to our mental health. Comparison, something if we are being honest we are all guilty of, and can easily take our sight off of our unique God given purpose. And our physical health, and how we take care of our physical body greatly impacts our mental health.

In week 2 of our series, "Out of the Cave" we continue to look at the story of Elijah in I Kings 19. There are 6 factors that we see in this passage that lead to Elijah's unhealthy mental state. This week Pastor Josiah talks us through the first 2 factors, Fear & Isolation. Both of those things can push us to an unhealthy state. What do we do about it? How should we respond when we find ourselves in a place of fear and isolation?

This week we begin a new series, "Out of the Cave." This week we open simply talking about how we all deal with Mental Health. We believe that this is something we as believers should be talking about because we all at some point struggle with it. We look at how our physical, spiritual and mental health are all connected and how each one can affect the other.

This week we look at the importance of Community.  Not just any community, but a faith community.  Pastor Josiah walks us through 3 reasons why it is so important and vital for each one of us to be a part of a faith community.  What does this look like for us, what active steps do we need to take to be a part of the faith community we are in?