River's Edge Baptist Church

The Healing Psalms - Part 3

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:05:49 PST

The Healing Psalms - Part 2

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:05:33 PST

The Healing Psalms - Part 1

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:02:40 PST

New Hope for Your Heart - Part 5

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:29:48 PST

New Hope for Your Heart - Part 4

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:29:16 PST

New Hope for Your Heart - Part 3

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:56:31 PST

New Hope for Your Heart - Part 2

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 05:47:17 PST

New Hope for Your Heart - Part 1

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 05:38:31 PST

How Should We Behave? The ‘One Another’s’ in God’s Word - Part 6

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:21:10 PST

How Should We Behave? The ‘One Another’s’ in God’s Word - Part 5

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:57:40 PST

How Should We Behave? The ‘One Another’s’ in God’s Word - Part 4

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:27:53 PST

How Should We Behave? The ‘One Another’s’ in God’s Word - Part 3

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:13:39 PDT

How Should We Behave? The ‘One Another’s’ in God’s Word - Part 2

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:12:52 PDT

How Should We Behave? The ‘One Another’s’ in God’s Word - Part 1

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:42:24 PDT

Stand Firm, Live Free Part 5 - Lessons from the book of Galatians

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 07:54:17 PDT

Release Them and So Release Yourself!

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:59:28 PDT

“Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”
Mark 11:25

It is hard work to forgive someone who has offended you! Even for Christians, forgiving and loving those who have “despitefully used us,” remains a challenge. But God has given us His grace and He demands that we too be gracious. We have a responsibility to allow Jesus Christ to forgive through us. There is no doubt that we cannot forgive others through our own strength. It is only by the blood and through the love of Jesus that we can forgive any person. Let God begin a fresh new work in you by forgiving those who have wronged you! God’s Word is clear, we may not be best friends with the people who have hurt us, but we will stand clean before the Lord if by forgiving them, we have released them from any consequences or judgments that we might desire them to experience! Don’t wish anvils to fall on people’s heads! Let God deal with them! Before we can experience true renewal and revival in our spirits, we have to release offenders into the Lord’s hands. They need not have control over us or our feelings any longer. Release them and so release yourself!

As we gather for A Sacred Assembly before the Lord this Sunday, turn loose of all those things and all those people who would hinder you from experiencing the joys and blessings of God! Name those persons one by one, forgive them in Jesus, and leave the discipline of their lives to God alone!

I love you all,
Pastor Stephen

Remove the Idols from Your Heart

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:50:45 PDT

“If your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow down to other gods and worship them, I tell you today that you will certainly perish.” Deuteronomy 30:17-18

“Anything that takes the place of your first love for God can be a false god or an idol of the heart,” (Claude King). My brothers and sisters, as we prepare to worship the Lord this Sunday in our Sacred Assembly and 7^th Anniversary Celebration, I want to ask you: Have you lost your first love for God? Have you replaced your once strong and passionate commitment to Jesus and His church with some other action, or person, or job, or service? It’s easy to lose our way. People stray away from God’s will and His future for them quickly. But the Lord warns us in His Word through Ezekiel 14:3 …that we can put stumbling blocks in our own way, and in Matthew 22:37 ….that all our love should go to God, and in Revelation 2:4-5 ….that when we leave our first love, if we do not repent (turn around) and turn back toward God, He will remove our influence as a church from the community. As we prepare to praise God, thank God, and listen to God we must first repent from our idol worship! What ever it is that takes more time and priority in your life than the Almighty God, is an idol of your heart!

Today, will you pray along with me to put aside the idols of our hearts?
Gracious Heavenly Father, full of mercy and love; We worship You today! We thank You for your loving kindness to us. We praise You for always blessing us. We honor You for never leaving us! Dear Lord, we ask You to clean up our hearts today. Help us God put aside the idols of our hearts in which we have replaced Your worship! We cry out and ask You to forgive us Oh Lord! We have sinned and have fallen so short of Your glory. Please purge us of our wants and lustful desires. Please wash us in Your grace! Please anoint us with Your healing mercy. Please be our Refuge and Strength! Father, You alone know what we need and we know You will be faithful to Your Word and supply our needs according to Your riches in glory! Hear our prayers today. Take away any wrong desire within us. Help us walk in Your Truth and in Your Ways. You alone are our first love! In Jesus’ name, Amen!
I pray your day will be filled with God’s peace and His joy!

I love you all,
Pastor Stephen

Watch and Pray

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:39:58 PDT

“Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

All of us have painful areas of weakness in our lives. We struggle just like Jesus’ original disciples to “stay awake and pray, so we won’t enter into temptation.” Jesus’ disciples were about to be severely tested and they didn’t even realize it. Every one of us will also be tested in our faith. Temptations to give up or give in will shower upon us and we must come to a decision concerning each one of them: Will I stand strong in the Lord, or give in to what is easy? Our spirit may be willing, but indeed our flesh is weak!

As we draw near to a time we are calling, “A Sacred Assembly,” may I ask you to “stay awake and pray?” Our church family is a blessing to so many people and the opportunities to reach our community are amazing, but we have to remain faithful and not enter into the temptation to give up when we face challenges. The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 6:9 – “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap (a harvest) if we do not lose heart.” Don’t lose heart! Don’t give up! Never just quit! God has great blessings in store for those who will consistently be faithful.
As you pray this week, please listen to the encouragement of our Lord. I know your spirit is willing, trust Jesus to help you overcome your flesh or the temptations to stray away from God’s path. Get alone with Jesus in prayer. Carve out some time to spend with Him. He has answers. He has directions. He has joy for all of us!

Remember that this Sunday, October 9^th we celebrate our 7^th Anniversary as a church with “A Sacred Assembly” before God. Please be here!

I love you all,
Pastor Stephen

Stand Firm, Live Free Part 4 - Lessons from the book of Galatians

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 08:52:51 PDT

Lead Me to Calvary

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:21:40 PDT

“When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left.” Luke 23:33

As Jesus left the Last Supper with His disciples, He began a movement toward the cross. We cannot even imagine how He must have felt. Into the Garden of Gethsemane he walked with three faithful disciples and He asked them to “watch and pray” with Him. Jesus agonized in that garden with the will of the Father. Do you ever agonize over God’s will? Our Savior struggled so mightily with what He was asked to do for us that capillaries in his skin burst to form droplets of blood mingled with sweat falling down His face. Have you ever struggled that much with what God asked you to do? Then, having been betrayed by Judas, Jesus spent the rest of that night into the blazing sun of the next day being ripped apart for us physically and emotionally until finally reaching the most terrible of executions on the cross of Calvary.

Our Praise Team sings this special song many times before Easter:
“Lead Me to Calvary,” by Jennie E. Hussey
King of my life, I crown Thee now, Thine shall the glory be; Lest I forget Thy thorn-crowned brow, Lead me to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane; Lest I forget Thine agony; Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary.”

Have you been to Calvary in your mind? Have you placed yourself in the mind and heart of Jesus in those moments? I believe for true repentance, restoration, and revival to come to us personally and as a church family, we have to remember what Jesus has done! Brothers and Sisters, this is why we are a church of Jesus Christ. It is because of Who Jesus is and What He has done for us! It is not about ministries we do, or a worship style we have, or a building we work in….we are God’s church because of Jesus. When we stray away from our first decision to follow Him and stray from our first love of serving Him, we venture off the path of His will.

Let the Holy Spirit lead you to Calvary today and remember. Our lives are about this! Our salvation is about this! River’s Edge is about this!

I love you all,
Pastor Stephen

*Thanks given to Claude King for inspiration given in his book: “Come to the Lord’s Table”.

Called to a Sacred Assembly

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:10:37 PDT

“Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself. She was permitted to wear fine linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.” Revelation 19:7-8

Last night our Vision Team met to pray and discuss how God would ask us to lead in these challenging days for our nation and for River’s Edge. The theme of everything we shared centered around our personal need for spiritual healing, restoration, repentance, and renewal. We often speak of these things but rarely do we follow through and seek the Lord with all our hearts. We have great needs that can only be supplied by a great God! In the light of this, the Vision Team is calling for our church family to have a “Sacred Assembly” of worship and repentance. Sacred Assemblies have always been special times when God’s people recognized the urgency of the season to repent and be right with the Lord. These assemblies were practiced in ancient Israel among the people of God and are evident throughout the New Testament period among Christians seeking to serve God with all their hearts. We are asking that all the members of River’s Edge Church engage in a time of seeking God. Beginning today, September 29^th, I will be writing devotionals to prepare us for our 7^th Anniversary Sunday Celebration on October 9, 2011. This will be our day of Sacred Assembly. It is so significant that we are moving towards this “new beginning” with the Lord on our 7^th anniversary. The number 7 in the Bible always speaks of completeness and striving for perfection in God. Obviously, none of us are perfect or we would have no need of repentance and restoration. But our Lord is perfect in every way! He desires to live in us and work through us. He is calling us to be right in spirit with Him and with one another. I am imploring you as your pastor to seek God in this next week and do not look on this time as “business as usual”. God wants to do a great work among us and we are the only ones standing in His way! In our Sacred Assembly, we want to worship the Lord, confess our sins, testify to the miracles of the Lord, renew our Church Covenant, and come clean and pure to the Lord’s Table for Holy Communion. God is speaking to us, to all of us, and we must take the time to listen. Can I ask you to do something? Not only take each of the devotionals to heart and personally apply them to your life, but please be in attendance on Sunday, October 9, 2011 during worship time at 10:45 am. Don’t let anything hinder you or get in your way. Don’t let some lame excuse keep you from attending. Please come, please share, please pray, and please be ready to obey the Lord. He wants to use River’s Edge in a mighty way for His glory.

The Scripture above speaks of the marriage supper of the Lamb when all God’s people are gathered to rejoice in Jesus. The prerequisite for attendance at the marriage supper is the preparation of God’s church (the bride). This preparation involves our repentance of sin and our willingness to serve in the righteous acts of God. My beloved River’s Edge family, we need to be prepared! Life is not about me or you, life is about our Awesome God. We are His servants and His people who tell the world what we believe about our God by what we say and how we act. All of us are filled with unrighteous actions that we need to repent of. Repentance just means turning away from our sin and our self and turning back toward God. I will begin with me….repenting of any unrighteous attitudes that may contain anger or an unforgiving spirit. What about you? Is there someone you need to forgive? Does someone need to forgive you? Let God into your heart to lead you in these next few days. We are called to a Sacred Assembly of the Lord’s People! Let’s praise and honor Him by what we do this next week!

A Prayer for Today:
Wonderful God, I love You and praise You for Your faithfulness to me and to River’s Edge Church. Lord, You are all powerful and Almighty! You can do anything. You can cleanse us and make us whole. You can cause all things to become new through Your Son Jesus! “And You saw me when You took a crown of thorns, Your blood washed over me. And You loved me through the nails that You bore. Your blood washes over me. Bless the Lord always! Bless His Holy Name!” (HillSong Church Music). Thank You, God for the miracles You are going to provide. We all love You, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

You are all so precious to me and I love you!
Pastor Stephen

Worthless Things

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:03:37 PDT

“Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.” Psalm 119:37

Do you find yourself focusing time and energy on “worthless things” or trivial pursuits? There was a game that came out in the 1980’s called “Trivial Pursuit.” It was filled with worthless facts and a challenge for the players to know them. Worthless things ought to be left to a game and not real life! I confess, I can become caught up worrying about things I can’t change or in trying to solve problems with my own creative thinking rather than seeking God’s wisdom. Too often our attention strays from what matters in life to those things that have no eternal significance, and that drain all the spiritual and emotional energy we have. The psalmist reminds us of God’s way. What is God’s way? Looking to Him for answers rather than trying to solve things in life on our own. When we seek the Lord, His answers revive us, cleanse us, and prepare us. God desires to walk with us and lead us in His way.

The question for today is: Are you allowing God to walk with you and lead you in His way or are you wasting your time focusing on worthless things?

“Lord, please turn my eyes away from worthless things today. I want to concentrate on Your truth, Your way, and Your life. I know my life has meaning because You made me and You desire me to experience Your love. Revive me today, dear God and help me stay on the right path with You! In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you all,
Pastor Stephen

Stand Firm, Live Free Part 3 - Lessons from the book of Galatians

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 11:06:50 PDT

Stand Firm, Live Free Part 2 - Lessons from the book of Galatians

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 11:06:24 PDT

Stand Firm, Live Free Part 1 - Lessons from the book of Galatians

Pastor Stephen Wood (Pastor Stephen Wood) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 11:07:12 PDT