who we are
Land Of Seven Rivers is first and foremost, a community of people that love God. We want to know and be known by the ever-loving, ever-lasting Father, His Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
We are committed to the authentic expression of identity in God through worship, community and accountability.
We are a community built around an atmospheric commitment. That commitment is to allow the fruit of the Spirit, the very nature of God, to develop in and manifest through us, shifting and changing atmospheres and bringing Heaven to Earth.
As a community, we are dedicated to championing the unique, God-given identities of people. We recognise that people come in a great variety of personality types and traits. We seek to honour each other ways of 'being' in the world, as well as encouraging each other in what we bring and contribute to the community and the world-at-large.
Land Of Seven Rivers champions the arts in all forms, recognising that art is found and expressed through people in as many ways as there are personalities. Some prepare food; some grow plants, some write, some compose, some paint, some dance, the list is endless and gives us a glimpse into the artistic heart of God.
We recognise that all we do should be the overflow of a life of being in God. In our society we often put the 'do' before the 'be', resulting in burnt out people who have not had the opportunity to learn how to live from rest and in the rhythm of God. We desire to journey together, developing people who live from the presence of God, and in His rest and rhythm.
We were all fashioned to express a unique element of the character and nature of the One in whose image we are created. We want to provide a place and space where people can be entirely themselves, understanding how God knows them and championing the personhood, gifts, abilities and distinctive expression of each person.
We are committed to the authentic expression of identity in God through worship, community and accountability.
We are a community built around an atmospheric commitment. That commitment is to allow the fruit of the Spirit, the very nature of God, to develop in and manifest through us, shifting and changing atmospheres and bringing Heaven to Earth.
As a community, we are dedicated to championing the unique, God-given identities of people. We recognise that people come in a great variety of personality types and traits. We seek to honour each other ways of 'being' in the world, as well as encouraging each other in what we bring and contribute to the community and the world-at-large.
Land Of Seven Rivers champions the arts in all forms, recognising that art is found and expressed through people in as many ways as there are personalities. Some prepare food; some grow plants, some write, some compose, some paint, some dance, the list is endless and gives us a glimpse into the artistic heart of God.
We recognise that all we do should be the overflow of a life of being in God. In our society we often put the 'do' before the 'be', resulting in burnt out people who have not had the opportunity to learn how to live from rest and in the rhythm of God. We desire to journey together, developing people who live from the presence of God, and in His rest and rhythm.
We were all fashioned to express a unique element of the character and nature of the One in whose image we are created. We want to provide a place and space where people can be entirely themselves, understanding how God knows them and championing the personhood, gifts, abilities and distinctive expression of each person.
what we value
The rest and rhythm of God as a way of travelling through life
Matthew 11:28 The Message
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
The unique identity, given by God to each of us
Psalm 139: 13-16 The Message
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God-you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvellously made!
I worship in adoration - what a creation!
You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.
Accountability to live from our God-given identity in community with others
1 Corinthians 12: 4-26 The Message
God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but Go himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts - limbs, organs, cells - but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptised.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain - his Spirit - where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves - labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free - are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you?" Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out?" As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way - the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honour just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the heating. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
The authentic expression of worship & championing people in their unique expressions of worship.
Worship is about more than singing a song, it is an attitude of the heart. It is about presenting ourselves to God as He designed us, and loving Him with all that we are. The authentic expression of worship by individuals is what we champion. We recognise that when one person enters into their unique expression of worship, abandoned to God and exuberant; it releases others into their authentic expression of worship.
Romans 12:1-2 The Message
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Ephesians 5:19-20 The Message
Don't drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.
2 Samuel 6:12-23 The Message
It was reported to King David that God had prospered Obed-Edom and his entire household because of the Chest of God. So David thought, "I'll get that blessing for myself," and went and brought up the Chest of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David, celebrating extravagantly all the way, with frequent sacrifices of choice bulls. David, ceremonially dressed in priest's linen, danced with great abandon before God. The whole country was with him as he accompanied the Chest of God with shouts and trumpet blasts. But as the Chest of God came into the City of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, happened to be looking out a window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before God, her heart filled with scorn.
They brought the Chest of God and set it in the middle of the tent pavilion that David had pitched for it. Then and there David worshipped, offering burnt offerings and peace offerings. When David had completed the sacrifices of burnt and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies and handed out to each person in the crowd, men and women alike, a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake. Then everyone when home.
David returned home to bless his family. Michael, Saul's daughter, came out to greet him: "How wonderfully the king has distinguished himself today - exposing himself to the eyes of the servants' maids like some burlesque street dancer!" David replied to Michael, "In God's presence I'll dance all I want! He chose me over your father and the rest of our family and made me prince over God's people, over Israel. Oh yes, I'll dance to God's glory - more recklessly even than this. And as far as I'm concerned...I'll gladly look like a fool...but month these maids you're so worried about, I'll be honoured no end."
Acts 16:24-26 The Message
The judges went along with the mob, had Paul and Silas's clothes ripped off and ordered a public beating. After beating them black-and-blue, they threw them into jail, telling the jail keeper to put them under heavy guard so there would be no chance of escape. He did just that - threw them into the maximum security cell in the jail and clamped leg irons on them.
Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn't believe their ears. Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose.
Luke 7:36-50 The Message
One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee's house and sat down at the dinner table. Just hen a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling over him."
Jesus said to him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Oh? Tell me."
"Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker cancelled both debts. Which o fate two would be more grateful?"
Simon answered, "I suppose the one who was forgiven the most."
"That's right," said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, "Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn't quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn't it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal."
Then he spoke to her: "I forgive your sins."
That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: "Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!"
He ignored them and said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."
Mark 12:41-44 The Message
Sitting across from the offering box, he was observing how the crowd tossed money in for the collection. Many of the rich were making large contributions. One poor widow came up and put in two small coins - a measly two cents. Jesus called his disciples over and said, "The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford - she gave her all."
BEING before DOING: having our doing emanate from the overflow of being
Psalm 23 The Message
God, my shepherd! I don't need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows; you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.
Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I'm not afraid when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure.
You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.
Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life.
I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.
Matthew 11:28 The Message
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
The unique identity, given by God to each of us
Psalm 139: 13-16 The Message
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God-you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvellously made!
I worship in adoration - what a creation!
You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.
Accountability to live from our God-given identity in community with others
1 Corinthians 12: 4-26 The Message
God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but Go himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts - limbs, organs, cells - but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptised.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain - his Spirit - where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves - labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free - are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you?" Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out?" As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way - the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honour just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the heating. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
The authentic expression of worship & championing people in their unique expressions of worship.
Worship is about more than singing a song, it is an attitude of the heart. It is about presenting ourselves to God as He designed us, and loving Him with all that we are. The authentic expression of worship by individuals is what we champion. We recognise that when one person enters into their unique expression of worship, abandoned to God and exuberant; it releases others into their authentic expression of worship.
Romans 12:1-2 The Message
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Ephesians 5:19-20 The Message
Don't drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.
2 Samuel 6:12-23 The Message
It was reported to King David that God had prospered Obed-Edom and his entire household because of the Chest of God. So David thought, "I'll get that blessing for myself," and went and brought up the Chest of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David, celebrating extravagantly all the way, with frequent sacrifices of choice bulls. David, ceremonially dressed in priest's linen, danced with great abandon before God. The whole country was with him as he accompanied the Chest of God with shouts and trumpet blasts. But as the Chest of God came into the City of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, happened to be looking out a window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before God, her heart filled with scorn.
They brought the Chest of God and set it in the middle of the tent pavilion that David had pitched for it. Then and there David worshipped, offering burnt offerings and peace offerings. When David had completed the sacrifices of burnt and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies and handed out to each person in the crowd, men and women alike, a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake. Then everyone when home.
David returned home to bless his family. Michael, Saul's daughter, came out to greet him: "How wonderfully the king has distinguished himself today - exposing himself to the eyes of the servants' maids like some burlesque street dancer!" David replied to Michael, "In God's presence I'll dance all I want! He chose me over your father and the rest of our family and made me prince over God's people, over Israel. Oh yes, I'll dance to God's glory - more recklessly even than this. And as far as I'm concerned...I'll gladly look like a fool...but month these maids you're so worried about, I'll be honoured no end."
Acts 16:24-26 The Message
The judges went along with the mob, had Paul and Silas's clothes ripped off and ordered a public beating. After beating them black-and-blue, they threw them into jail, telling the jail keeper to put them under heavy guard so there would be no chance of escape. He did just that - threw them into the maximum security cell in the jail and clamped leg irons on them.
Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn't believe their ears. Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose.
Luke 7:36-50 The Message
One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee's house and sat down at the dinner table. Just hen a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling over him."
Jesus said to him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Oh? Tell me."
"Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker cancelled both debts. Which o fate two would be more grateful?"
Simon answered, "I suppose the one who was forgiven the most."
"That's right," said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, "Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn't quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn't it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal."
Then he spoke to her: "I forgive your sins."
That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: "Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!"
He ignored them and said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."
Mark 12:41-44 The Message
Sitting across from the offering box, he was observing how the crowd tossed money in for the collection. Many of the rich were making large contributions. One poor widow came up and put in two small coins - a measly two cents. Jesus called his disciples over and said, "The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford - she gave her all."
BEING before DOING: having our doing emanate from the overflow of being
Psalm 23 The Message
God, my shepherd! I don't need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows; you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.
Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I'm not afraid when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure.
You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.
Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life.
I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.
land of seven rivers music & soundscapes now available from bandcamp & itunes
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