Bishop Talks

12/29/2025

Join us for The Bishop Talks: Three Kings New Year’s Epiphany Service as we gather to seek God’s guidance, direction, and renewal for the year ahead.

📅 January 4
⏰ 3:00 PM
📍 14 W. 170th Street, Bronx, NY

This powerful Epiphany service will bring together congregations from across the Bronx for prayer, worship, special music, and a timely “Bishop Talks” message by Presiding Bishop Dr. Raymond Rivera—calling us to walk into the New Year with faith, clarity, and purpose.

🙏 Come expecting encouragement.
🤝 Come ready for fellowship.
🌟 Come prepared for new beginnings.

🎟 Register here:
👉 https://www.eventbrite.com/.../three-kings-new-years...

Bring a friend and let’s step into the New Year together—rooted in faith and filled with hope.

12/03/2025

DAY 3 – Waiting with Honest Lament

Scripture focus: Psalm 13; Romans 8:22–25

Are you tired of pretending everything is “fine”?

Advent is for people who are still waiting, still hurting, and still daring to hope. Today’s devotional talks about lament as faith, not failure—bringing real pain to a real God.

👉 Read Day 4 Tomorrow.

More on faith in a captive world:

This inspiring book is for any and all Christians who want to learn how to bring hope and redemption to their communities – for those who are ready to step beyond their comfort zone, leave the status quo behind, and take up Christ’s call to minister within a world crying out for freedom only God...

11/27/2025

Friday I’ll be speaking on a theme that has marked my 60 years of ministry: “Sovereignty and Fatalism Are Not Synonymous – A Biblical Perspective.” Too many of our people have been taught to bless what God never willed and to call captivity “God’s plan.”

Join me this Friday at 7 PM as we open Scripture and our lived experience to reclaim a God who is truly sovereign and still honors human agency, responsibility, and hope.

Mark your calendar now and invite a friend to hear this Bishop’s Talk at 7 PM Friday.

10/17/2025

In a world seduced by power and blinded by comfort, the story of Belshazzar’s feast in Daniel 5 speaks with prophetic urgency.

As Babylon’s walls trembled, the king feasted… and God wrote a warning on the wall.

This isn’t just history—it’s a mirror for today’s leaders, communities, and churches.

👉 Read the full article here: https://medium.com//weighed-and-found-wanting-ae4261ee122e

📘 If this reflection speaks to you, go deeper with my book Liberty to the Captives:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQTRGB6Y

10/17/2025

God’s heart beats for the poor, the brokenhearted, and the captives. Each day in this devotional journey draws from powerful passages—Isaiah, Luke, Matthew, James, Revelation, Acts, and the Psalms—to remind us that faith is more than belief… it’s a call to action.

This 7-day reflection invites you to:
📖 Rediscover the liberating mission of Jesus
🕊 Act on behalf of the oppressed
❤️ Live out a Kingdom vision of justice, mercy, and hope

If these Scriptures stir something in your spirit, I invite you to read the full devotional and walk with me through a theology of freedom, compassion, and transformation.

👉 Read the full blog here: https://bishopraymondrivera.blogspot.com/2025/10/7-day-devotional-blog-liberty-to.html
📘 Get the book that inspired this series: Liberty to the Captives (Available on Amazon here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQTRGB6Y).

08/31/2025

06/23/2025

Has the Gospel been hijacked?

We are not just in a political crisis—we are in a theological captivity.

When nationalism replaces Christ, and ideology replaces the cross, the Church becomes complicit in deception. This isn’t just about the right or the left. It’s about a distorted gospel—one that trades discipleship for dominance and truth for transaction.

📖 “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)

This is a call to:
✅ Dismantle idols—left and right
✅ Reclaim the Gospel—not for power, but for witness
✅ Follow the Lamb—not the loudest voice in the room

✊ It’s time to repent, rebuild, and return to Christ.

📍 Read the full prophetic word on Medium:
Unmasking the Spirit of Deception: A Christ-Centered Reclamation
🔗 https://medium.com//unmasking-the-spirit-of-deception-a-christ-centered-reclamation-e7e75a94bc00

06/21/2025

🛑 Is wealth a blessing or a bo***ge?

The Bible doesn’t condemn wealth, but it does warn us.

From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture shows how wealth can either serve God’s justice or become a rival idol that entraps nations, churches, and souls.

Wealth is never neutral.

It either liberates through Kingdom stewardship — Or enslaves through spiritual captivity.

✅ Learn how:
- Sabbath and Jubilee confront greed
- Jesus and Paul warned of wealth’s grip
- The early Church modeled radical generosity
- The cross redefines economic power

📖 “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” — Matthew 6:24

🕊️ Read the full prophetic word:
“A Biblical Position on Wealth: A Holistic Captivity Theology Prophetic Perspective”

📍 Now on Medium: https://medium.com/.../a-biblical-position-on-wealth-a...

06/18/2025

🛑 We are standing at a crossroads.

Division is growing. Shouting replaces listening. And the Church is caught in the middle—tempted by nationalism, silence, or theological retreat.

But theology—when rooted in Christ, shaped by humility, and committed to justice—can still be a unifying force. Not a weapon. Not a retreat. A prophetic witness.

✅ Captivity Theology names what binds us.
✅ Holistic Ministry proclaims Christ-centered liberation.
✅ Conviction without arrogance.
✅ Unity without uniformity.
✅ A Gospel for the wounded, the immigrant, the conservative, the progressive.

🕊️ The world doesn’t need louder opinions—it needs deeper compassion.

📖 Read the full message:
“Theology in a Polarized World: Captivity, Conviction, and Christ-Centered Compassion”

📍 Now on Medium: https://medium.com/.../theology-in-a-polarized-world...

✊ Let’s be the Church—bold, loving, and rooted in truth.

06/13/2025

🔥Prophet or Pastor? Why Not Both?

We are living in a time where silence can be complicity—but so can arrogance.

Some want soft comfort. Others want hard truth. But Jesus gave us both.

He turned over tables and washed feet.
He rebuked Pharisees and restored sinners.
He cried for the city and called it to repent.

Tonight on BISHOP Talk, I’m speaking on the sacred tension between prophetic witness and pastoral care—and why we can’t afford to choose one over the other.

👉 Read the full reflection now on Medium.com:
🔗 https://medium.com//the-creative-tension-of-prophetic-and-pastoral-ministry-87784d5bfd19

Let’s talk truth. Let’s walk in grace.

The Tension That Forms Us

06/13/2025

See you Tonight!