Major Events Ahead
Jul 29 ... Concert of Prayer
Aug 1 ... RBI Registration begins
Aug 1 ... WoG Registration begins
Aug 2 ... Academy Uniform Sale
Aug 4 ... Family Supper resumes
Aug 4 ... Deacons Meeting
Aug 4 ... New Member Welcome
Aug 4 ... Lord's Supper
Aug 6 ... M&M Training
Aug 6-16 ... Mission Trip: Honduras
Aug 6-16 ... Mission Trip: Romania
Aug 7 ... Movie Matinee
Aug 8 ... Young Married "Combo"
Aug 14 ... Clothing Give-Away
Aug 18 ... WoG Registration ends
Aug 19 ... Promise Land "Open"
Aug 20 ... Academy Open House
Aug 21 ... Auto Safety Clinic
Aug 22 ... Promotion Day
Aug 22 ... 6th Grade Prep
Aug 22 ... RBI Registration ends
Aug 22 ... Young Married "Combo"
Aug 23 ... Academy begins term
Aug 24 ... Primary Election
Aug 27 ... "Stand in the Gap"
Sep 1 ... Deacons Meeting
Sep 1 ... New Member Welcome
Sep 1 ... Lord's Supper
Sep 1 ... Board of Directors
Sep 3 ... Singles "First Friday"
Sep 6 ... Labor Day holiday
Sep 8 ... New Schedule begins
Sep 9 ... Men's Breakfast
Sep 9 ... Men's Shepherd Group
Sep 10-12 ... Youth Secret Trip
Sep 12 ... 9 & 10:30 Worship
Sep 12 ... Bluegrass Registration
Sep 12 ... Ensemble Auditions
Sep 13 ... Conservatory begins
Sep 16 ... New Member BBQ
Sep 19 ... RBI begins
Sep 23 ... Hospice Seminar
Sep 24-26 ... Youth Secret Trip
Sep 26 ... Ensembles begin

LIVE  WORSHIP
• Watch Sunday’s (10:30 a.m.) and Wednesday’s (6:30 p.m.) services “live” through GraceWorx Ministries’ Livestream. It's located at www.GraceWorx.com. 
• Listen “live” via radio to Riverbend’s Sunday services at 10:30 a.m. on FM: 89.7, 90.3, 97.3, 102.7. If you are out of town, listen “live” on the Cornerstone Radio website.

Which Riverbend pastor?
For correct answers to the trivia questions about Riverbend's pastors, click here.

Riverbend's singles ministry, Single Purpose, now has a blog site: Living as we are called. To view it, click here.

Be part of the Riverbend choir through Sept. 5. Meet each Sunday at 10 a.m. in the Choir Room and sing during 10:30 worship.

Check out the new GraceTrax blog, which has been designed for easy interaction by you.  To see it, click here.

Some 155 Riverbenders are among the 320 folks involved in Riverbend's own Youth Summer Camp during July 26-30 at the Georgia Center in Covington, Ga. (near Atlanta). Four other churches from Florida, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina are also involved.

All youth are encouraged to participate in the ACTS Summer Bible Study on Mondays at 10 a.m. Contact Pastor Michael Harsch for more info by clicking here.

Wednesday’s Fellowship Suppers (4:30-6 p.m.) resume on August 4.

Summer "Fun Days" (grades K-5) continues on Tuesdays: Aug. 3, 10. It begins at 10 a.m. and concludes with a sack lunch (bring your own!) at noon.

The church's Military Support Group needs the names of all Riverbenders and family members mobilized or deployed overseas. Submit names to Ken Edwards by clicking here.

Have your car inspected for safey on Aug. 21 (Saturday) at 9 a.m.-noon on the church parking lot.  Fluids and tire pressures are checked (and replenished, if needed). Belts, hoses and lights are also checked.

Music & More leadership training is scheduled Friday, Aug. 6, at 4-10 p.m. at the Bayberry Lakes Clubhouse (off LPGA Blvd) in Daytona Beach.

Two missions teams leave on Aug. 6 (and return on Aug. 16), the youth team heading to Honduras and the college team heading to Romania.

Men's softball practice: Aug. 9, 16, 23 & 30 ... 6-9:30 p.m. ... Ormond Sports Complex (off Hull Road).

God’s own sacrifice provides eternal life to repentant, undeserving, trusting hearts

What event is the most significant happening in all of history? Unequivocally, it has to be the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nothing like it ever happened before ... or since. And no event in the history of the world has ever been more celebrated.

The Bible says that Jesus was God Himself. His perfect life on the earth, His substitutionary death and His resurrection from the grave carry meaning almost beyond description. Realize these points: 

1. God is the holy, dynamic, wrathful, personal, loving Creator of the universe. He is all the Bible says—plus. He is perfect in all His characteristics; His greatness is unimaginable to the human mind. (Genesis 1; Psalm 8:4-6, 19:1; Isaiah 6:3, 40:1-31).

2. God made us to glorify Him by keeping His standards for living our lives, and, thus, to glorify and enjoy Him (Leviticus 19:2; Isaiah 43:6-7; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Matthew 4:10, 22:37; Mark 12:28-30; Revelation 4:11).

3. God will not, however, relate to us as long as our lives are characterized by sin—something He hates and judges harshly (1 Kings 8:46; Ephesians 2:3; Isaiah 59:2; Jeremiah 2:12-13, 13:23; Romans 3:23, 6:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:9). We were born sinners and are therefore under God's judgment. (Romans 5:12). It is our nature to sin, which gives us an automatic sentence to hell and the accompanying wrath of God. Committing even just one sin, the Bible says, makes us sinners against all of God's law. (Ezekiel 18:4; Matthew 25:46; Hebrews 9:27; James 2:10; 1 John 1:8,10).

4. God made only one way for us to escape this deserved fate and come to Him—through the shed blood and barbaric death of sinless Jesus, who was God Himself come down to earth as a man (John 1:14, 10:30; Acts 20:28; Romans 5:8; Hebrews 4:15). The resurrection of Jesus from the dead validated His deity (Acts 17:31). Through this great historical event, which was planned by God before Creation, God provided Himself (the only holy and just Sovereign in existence), as the only means of acquitting guilty sinners and providing Eternal Life (John 3:16; Romans 3:25-26, 5:1; 1 Corinthians 15:2; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Peter 2:24, 3:18).

5. God provides this free, unbuyable gift of Eternal Life—and escape from His righteous judgment—to all who repent and trust Him (John 1:12, 3:36, 5:24; Acts 3:19; Ephesians 2:8-9, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). Repentance is brokenly regretting our sin against God in the past and turning away from those sinful ways to a conscious, Holy Spirit-led lifestyle of seeking to please God in every thought, word and deed (Isaiah 55:7; Luke 13:3; John 14:15; Acts 17:30). Trusting Him means placing ALL hope for Eternal Life with God ONLY on the shed blood of Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, 16:31; Romans 1:16, 10:9-10, 13; 1 John 5:12-13).

 Call upon Jesus to save you from the bondage, the guilt and the punishment of sin. All who repent and call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10:13) will be saved from God’s wrathful judgment.
 
© 2008 Riverbend Church