What's New with River?

In River News

Jimmie Joffe just joined the River Family (whenever anyone makes a donation to River... they join the family... sounds kinda mafia-ish... ). Welcome Jimmie! The main website, http://www.riverofthespirit.com/ has some updates on the Training page with the last sermon i preached on Baptism.

Men's Life

The Men's Life group (3 groups of men that meet every Tuesday morning, 6:45 - 7:55 a.m. at Alamo Heights UMC, any man is welcome) raised $330.00 bucks for Mission India mostly by putting their pocket change aside for 2 months! They have decided to send children to bible school in India and people to literacy classes. In both of these programs (run by Mission India) kids and adults get a healthy measure of Christ Jesus! A big Thank You to Men's Life!

What did we learn in Ephesians this week?

We learned that more is required of men than we had originally thought! We were good with the part of chapter 5 verse 22 where is says "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord" ... but then it got into the parts that talked about husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church. That's when i occurred to us... "No wife would mind being subject to a husband who loves her as Christ loves the church" so what's the problem... it might be us guys! Do we really cherish out wives as we should? Here's another thought... in 1Timothy 2:14 it states that Adam was not deceived by what Eve did in the garden when she took the forbidden fruit. Could it be that Adam loved Eve so much... that he knowingly choose to share in the destiny that she had chosen? I'm not saying that what he did was right... but could it be that he was becoming sin for her (2 Cor. 5:21). The first Adam is pointed to as "a pattern of the one to come" in Romans 5:14 and even more about the first Adam in 1 Cor. 15. My point is... Adam must have really, really loved Eve! Am I that devoted to my wife? Good question... at this point I would rather think about it... than to ask her. And of course, one might argue, that unless Adam and Eve had stuck together -there would have been no redeemer, the "Seed of the Woman."

What Am I learning as a Dad...?

Well, when my oldest boy (8) comes home after a long day at school (in which he has been an angel, the teachers confirm this) he is ready to blow, let off steam, pop the cork, sometimes in an unacceptable way... I have found a few things that work.
1/ he needs some alone time... if I give it to him and keep his 4 year old brother away for a bit... he can decompress.
2/ he wants some of my time... normally to wrestle! This is always good since he joins forces with the younger one to gang up on dad. Then we all get to play... (stops for a second while writing this blog to but Advil on the grocery list).
3/ when none of these work and he's just looking for a fight (and I am a proponent that if they are looking for a fight and for some boundaries to go along with it... we should not disappoint them) I try one more trick instead of sending him to his room... no matter how hard it is... I give him a big hug! It is amazing what that does for him sometimes... Proverbs 15:1-3 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

Grace and peace...
troy