River’s Edge Church

During the Passover celebration, the Jewish nation remembers the Exodus: its release from slavery, the conquering of the Red Sea, and miraculous provision in the wilderness. As the nation celebrates, Jesus feeds thousands of people in the wilderness, shows Himself enthroned over the Sea of Galilee, and invokes the divine name "I AM" (from the Exodus). But the crowds who were present misunderstood, and just like the Israelites of the Exodus, the most confusing part of our faith is our time in the desert. 

After provoking the Jewish leaders by healing on the Sabbath, a confrontation erupts between Jesus and the Jewish leadership. Similar to the "temple clearing," Jesus responds by further provoking the national leaders. By rather than giving them a one a liner, He gives thirty verses worth of divine self-disclosure, unveiling who He is and what is relationship is like with the Father. 

Some time after healing the official's son, Jesus is back in Jerusalem as the scene for another healing story. But this one isn't primarily about physical healing at all, it's actually about the Sabbath. 

Jesus continues his journey from Jerusalem out to the fringes of Galilee, but the remarkable thing is, the further out he goes, the better response he receives. Those deemed "spiritually blind" on the fringes are actually the ones exercising the most faith, and therefore the ones who experience the most physical healing. But what is the relationship between faith and physical healing? Does Jesus still heal today? And if so what does it look like to partner with God in physical healing? 

In chapter 4 we find Jesus at an unusual place, talking to an unusual person. But the most remarkable part of the conversation is the way Jesus talks to this Samaritan woman, activating her in the way that the church was always intended to activate people. 

As Jesus sits with an unlikely person in an unlikely place, he tells her "if you knew who I was, you would ask, and I would give you living water." But what is this living water? And what are the lesser waters we run to that leave us thirsty again? 

John the Baptist shows up a second time as a witness in John's Gospel, making himself less so that Jesus can become more. But how does this inform the way we handle the pain of ministry, church competition, and the Christian tendency to divide? 

As Jesus wraps up his conversation with Nicodemus, John the author bursts out from behind the narrative, eager to interpret these events. And he starts with the words "For God so loved the world." To us, this verse is familiar enough to become cliche, but for the original audience it was provocative, if not shocking, and in some sense, it still provocative for us today. 

Join us as we interview Bryan Olson, just days before his scheduled departure for Nepal. What does it look like to live by faith instead of fear, and to trust God radically with our lives? 

The last century has been the bloodiest in all of human history. Yet the Enlightenment (and the secular culture its produced) has refused to change its tone, insisting that human beings are essentially good and that we just need the right external changes in order to flourish. Jesus has an entirely different take on the human condition, and what it truly needs to flourish.