http://ourmedia.org/user/160383 Recently published media items from Ourmedia.org en http://ourmedia.org/node/455595 Theme song for Riverview Church of God. www.riverviewcog.com Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:31:14 -0700 Robert Kee http://ourmedia.org/node/448938 Theme Song for www.riverviewcog.com Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:19:32 -0700 Robert Kee http://ourmedia.org/node/428681 The security found when safe in the arms of God. Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:09:41 -0700 Ed Goble http://ourmedia.org/node/428668 The importance of being a person of your word. Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:52:48 -0700 Ed Goble http://ourmedia.org/node/428682 Do you think Lance Armstrong grew up wanting to be an average bike racer? Do you think Pavarotti had dreams of being a pretty-good singer? Do you think that Michael Jordan had his sites set on becoming a so-so basketball player? Did any of you grow up wanting to be a pretty-good mother, or a passable waitress, or average teacher? Of course not. Everyone wants to be good at what they do, we all want to be great, to be the best we can be, the question is, is that wrong? Are those secret ambitions and desires for greatness unbecoming to the follower of Christ? Shouldn?t we all just want to be invisible little drones that never make waves and never rise above the crowd? Hmmm? Well, Jesus is going to have that conversation with His disciples in the course of our passage today in Mark 9 starting with verse 30. Hopefully we?ll be able to glean some wisdom that will bring perspective to our ambitions and desire for greatness. Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:09:55 -0700 Ed Goble http://ourmedia.org/node/428484 Mark 7:24-8:21 The disciples come up to Jesus privately and say, “Do you realize that you offended the Pharisees?” They we’re offended! The disciples could tell, in fact they probably wanted everyone to know they were ruffled, they were wearing their offense on their sleeves for all to see! Probably huffing and exhaling loudly, and murmuring, making a real scene about their displeasure, so everyone would know that they disapprove. They took offense.And as childish as we might think they were being, I think it is interesting how often we do exactly the same thing as these Pharisees. Something rubs us the wrong way, we find fault with something or someone – and for whatever reason it is not corrected to our satisfaction – and what happens? We get offended. We huff and we puff and we think condescending, holier-than-thou thoughts, and we begin to harbor ill thoughts as we think, of course, that we are in the right, and we take offense - we get offended at the silliest things! And when we do, we bring judgment on ourselves, because the finger always points back at our own hearts. Jesus basically points back to the Pharisees, and to all of us, and essentially says, “It doesn’t matter how you wash your hands, or how you pass the communion tray, or the style of your music, what matters is your heart.” Your heart. A heart that is hungry for God will be a lot less likely to be offended. A heart that is surrendered to the Lordship of Christ will be a lot harder to offend, because that is a person that understands that it’s not all about him. Newsflash: Life is not all about you. Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:46:48 -0700 Ed Goble faith offence offended http://ourmedia.org/node/428476 When Jesus started to teach, He is speaking to a crowd of people that aren’t really tuned in to what He want’s to say, except if He directed them to form a line or something for healing. It was going to be hard for them to hear anything else. Have you ever been in a situation like that? I’ve spoken to groups before during banquets where the organizer would say to me, “We’re running a little behind so I’m just gonna have you get started while the waiters are passing out dessert.” And, you know, I don’t have a chance to communicate to these people while the chocolate mousse is being passed out and every one is trying it, and calling to the waiter for a clean spoon, or fresh coffee – they won’t hear a thing I say, their minds are on something else. Or in a school assembly when an administrator is trying to talk to all the kids who’ve been herded in there from recess, they may be looking at him, but their minds are all over the place, kids can walk out of there and have no idea what took place.So Jesus, instead of just teaching straightforward truth about the kingdom of God, changes His teaching style and used a form He hadn’t used till right now, he taught them using parables. Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:34:58 -0700 Ed Goble parables Storytelling truth http://ourmedia.org/node/428472 Can you be a Christian without being a Disciple? Do those words mean different things? Is being a Christian sort of the entry level, ground floor, to faith in Christ, and then being a disciple more of a full-blown, graduate level, super-commitment where you are more likely to become some kind of radical loon that treks off to the mission field or marches in abortion protests or something? Is there a level of Christianity for people who just want to go to heaven, but not get too carried away with going to church, or memorizing the bible, or spending all waking hours wondering “What Would Jesus Do?” Or does everybody have to jump off the deep end like the disciples of the bible?These are pretty good questions when you stop and think about the church in America these days, because it almost seems as if we’ve developed our own kind of hierarchy of acceptable Christian commitment, from the nominal to the radical. So what is the answer? Is there an answer? Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:17:49 -0700 Ed Goble deny yourself discipleship follower of Christ radical http://ourmedia.org/node/428464 A few times in each generation there are, what seem to be, critical moments for gospel of Jesus Christ. Now every day is time for the gospel, every day people are entering eternity, some in Christ, some not. But also, if you look back through history, century by century, there seem to be times, every fifty years or so, where the ageless truth of the gospel just cried out for proclamation. Whether due to war, dead religion, cultural turmoil, societal collapse, godless leadership, etc., there have been times in history that the Holy Spirit has risen up in the hearts of the church, igniting a fresh commitment to the proclamation of the gospel. If you’ve studied church history you may have heard reference to the Great Awakening, the Reformation, the Restoration Movement, Azusa Street Revival at the turn of the 20th century, and many of us found Christ during the period of time in the seventies known as the Jesus Movement. All of these movements came about as a response to something, or a host of things, that were going on in the culture of the day. These are times when the Spirit of God moved upon His church with a fresh passion for the gospel. These movements are known by different names but were essentially driven by the same heart, to return to the simple message of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified as the only hope for the world.I believe that this is one of those times. Not a time for a new movement, don’t get me wrong, but a time for a fresh commitment to the message of Christ, a new passion amongst the people of God to share their faith, a return to the timeless, ageless message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our world is truly at a crossroads, there is so much turmoil in the world right now, so much uncertainty, that no one truly knows what tomorrow will bring. War. Rumors of war. A culture that has turned it’s back on God. A church that coddles sin and is driven more by finances than by faith. It’s time to return to the gospel. Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:58:30 -0700 Ed Goble Good News Gospel witness witnessing http://ourmedia.org/node/424592 Followers of Christ are deployed in specific areas that they are uniquely designed to serve and reach. Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:27:38 -0700 Ed Goble Christian work Minister ministry Servant serving http://ourmedia.org/node/424799 Various Scriptures Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:29:18 -0700 Ed Goble http://ourmedia.org/node/420456 My father was my first baseball coach. Nearly every time the opposing team?s batter was approaching the plate we would hear me dad?s voice hollering, ?Okay Boy?s, Be Alive! Be alive out there!? And we?d yell to each other, ?Be alive! Be alive now!?And we all knew what that meant. It meant stop picking your nose and watch what?s going on. It meant stop throwing your glove up in the air and put it back on your hand, the correct hand. It meant stop watching the game on the field behind us. Right? ?Be Alive!? meant for us to tune in to what was going on in our game, to be a contributing, active part of this team.It didn?t strike me till much later in life that this was one of those baseball slang terms that really applied to life. Because we have a tendency to be distracted away from what?s truly important, we just seem to glaze over because of the routines of our lives and miss much of the excitement, adventure and wonder of life. We live, but we don?t really live. And I think the call comes to us Christians out in the ministry field the same way it does to those kids out on the baseball field ? Don?t just stand there, don?t just get by, don?t just let life pass you by ? be alert, be watchful, be alive! Be really alive!And that is the simple message of our passage today in Mark 13. Be Alive! Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:42:50 -0700 Ed Goble