- With it being Superbowl Sunday, we decided to not have our Sunday night service. Wait…..we don’t have a Sunday night service. But if we did, we would had not had it.
- It was great being back after being out last week due to snow and ice.
- Had a great number of first time guests today. I love seeing new faces!
- I love seeing old faces too!
- I had a great time sharing the Gospel today. Today was answered the question, how good is good enough. The answer? Jesus.
- People always get uncomfortable when you start talking about hell.
- If you believe that there is a good God in a good heaven and good people go there, then you haven’t read the bible.
- Bringing the heat again next week Ridge Church! Bring someone with you to hear this message!
Thanks to the fine folks over The Resurgence, I’ve learned a new phrase. The phrase is simply Coram Deo.
It means to live life before the face of God. To present before God all things…to be under God’s authority in all things….that life is lived for His glory alone.
Conscientiously or subconsciously life is being lived coram deo. What a world of difference our life could make if we choose to live it conscientiously.
“Pray it before you say it.” Mark Batterson – This is one is rather recent. It’s simple and one of those by just reading it, you go…duh. However, it carries with it HUGE implication. Before you ever preach, teach, or just speak any wisdom into any other person, how bout just praying it before you ever say it? As Batterson puts it, it’ll add greater anointing. Can’t argue with that.
” If what we do in here (the church) has no effect on the streets we use to get here, we’re missing the point.” Joel Houston – I quote this one a lot in sermons. Somehow it just keeps coming to mind. I believe it with all my heart.
” The difference between a day dream and a vision is the audacity to act.” Steven Furtick – A vision will never leave the day dream stage if we never act on it. Vision propels. Vision drives. Vision explodes. Day dreams go away.
” The bible says we’re DEAD in our trespasses and sins! Dead men don’t make decisions! They certainly don’t make the right ones!…” Matt Chandler – I’m not sure I have the space or the time to even get into why this one has wrecked me. Give it some thought and see what affect it may have on you.
There are so many more but I think I’ll stop at 4. That’s enough to wreck you at least for an evening. Maybe I’ll share some more next week. Tomorrow…scriptures that have wrecked me.
Not a whole lot to talk about for the replay this week since we had to cancel church due to bad weather. Cancel church is a bad phrase…we still had church. Check it out…
- It very rarely happens here in the south, but we actually had to cancel church due to snowy/icy weather this Sunday. It was sort of weird.
- Although we didn’t physically meet, we fired up our iCampus and had church online.
- We did a 20 minute Q and A time with where viewers could ask questions. We had questions ranging from what kind of hat am I wearing (Titans…thanks) to will the Ridge ever find a permanent location.
- The questions were great, so thank you to everyone that logged and in and participated!
- After the Q and A, we showed a video message from Perry Noble thanks to videoteaching.com It was his Go and Tell message from the No Perfect People Allowed series.
- Overall I’d say it wasn’t a bad way to still have church when you couldn’t have church.
- Someone asked if we would be bringing back our iCampus any time soon. We hope so at some point. It’s a great tool to have around!
- I’m looking very forward to getting back this week! I hope you are too as well! Don’t forget to invite someone to the Ridge this week!
Hey gang and RCCr’s! There will be no Ridge Church worship experience tomorrow at the Doubletree Hotel due to icy conditions that are expected in the morning.
However, join us online LIVE at 10:30am on our iCampus ( located here at http://www.ridgechurchonline.com/media/internet-campus/) for a special Q and A time with me and a special message from via video from one of America’s top communicators! You can use the chat function to ask questions, dialouge during the message or just talk to one another.
Remember…10:30AM on our iCampus. Spread the word!
If you attend the Ridge, you may be asking what we’ll do if it snows this weekend. And I say great question! We have an answer for you, but we need to see what the weather will do before we make our decision.
So…with that said, watch the blog, my Facebook page, the Ridge website and we’ll also send an email update to let you know the plan for Sunday in case of hazardous weather.
At the very latest, you’ll know the plan by Saturday night.
Stay tuned!
I frequently post about a long bearded worship leader named Charlie Hall here on bobbywilliamslive.com. Reason? He’s the man. In all seriousness, I just resonate with the music and lyrics. It seems as though they resonate with my soul so much and at the right time. I don’t plan it. I don’t search out the perfect lyric for what I’m dealing with at the moment…it just happens.
Today as I’m prepping for this Sunday’s message at the Ridge, the song Chainbreaker came up on my iTunes play list. You can hear the song HERE. In that song, the anthem during the bridge is…
“You are free, you are free, yeah the son has set you free. Drop your chains sons and daughters. Come and run in liberty.”
I’m not sure if there is much more liberating than declaring that for you life. You ARE free. In Jesus, you’re not bound to sin. You’re not bound to whatever you THINK holds you down. Jesus has paid the price for you to drop your chains, and BE FREE.
I want to encourage you today that if you feel chained to something…a sin…a memory…a past…something that keeps you from living free….that you declare this as a prayer to God today. Declare your freedom from sin before him BECAUSE of Jesus and stop living chained.
YOU ARE FREE.
Not sure I can put into words all that has been happening since the start of 2010 at Ridge Church. Wow is probably an understatement. This past Sunday was no exception as we kicked off the new series No Perfect People Allowed.
- Once again, our volunteers step up and unload and load our trailer in the pouring rain. I can’t say enough how thankful we are to have people who will show up at 7am and get wet just to make the Ridge happen that day the way we do. You want people to start stepping up in your church…go portable!
- Our set up is pretty systematic and runs on a tight schedule, all organized and led by Denira Williams. Yup…that be my wife…and she’s crazy organized, thus the reason she gets to direct that crew.
- We broke another attendance record this week at the Ridge….and I think next week we’ll break one of those attendance barriers everyone says is so hard to reach!
- Not sure on the exact count, but somewhere around 15+ first time guests were with us this past week!
- The message that God gave me this week was not a comfortable one. For the first time in a while I was very nervous about what God was directing to say. Usually I just say it without thinking about it much. But for some reason this week, the word seemed sharper than previous weeks.
- By the way, the word is always sharp, I just came in touch with the weight of that word this week.
- We had 6 people make decisions and commitments yesterday! Yeah!
- I can’t wait for this week as we tackle the mammoth question, how good is good enough?
- Lots of people…people around you right now…are asking that question more than you think.
- Ridgers….start inviting people RIGHT NOW to be there this Sunday! It’s only 6 days away!
Here are a few things we’re working on and preparing for at the Ridge Community Church that may get you as excited as I am about the weeks ahead!
- This week we start a new series titled No Perfect People Allowed. If you consider yourself perfect, then the Ridge may not be the place for you. We are a rag tag bunch of screw ups and habitual line steppers. Not to say we’re ever proud of that, but it’s good to know that it doesn’t disqualify us from God. If you attend the Ridge, THIS IS THE WEEK TO BRING SOMEONE WITH YOU!
- We’re working on finalizing some plans that will show some students at Oak Ridge High School that we not only love God, but we also do that love your neighbor thing too. There will be a great opportunity we’ll announce soon that will allow us to meet their needs.
- Speaking of meeting needs and partnerships, 2010 will be a great year in partnering with others to advance the Gospel and help meet needs ALL OVER THE WORLD! I can’t wait to see these materialize!
- In February we’re going to be tackling some of your toughest questions about God, the bible, the church, and spirituality in new series we’re working on where you’ll get to ask the questions and dictate what we talk about.
There’s so much more to tell, but I can’t let all the good news out at once! 2010 is going to be one crazy year at the Ridge!
A few years ago I went hiking with a good friend on a trail that I had never been on before. I had read some things about it, but had never really experienced it for myself til actually on the trail. What I had heard was that it was a very long, steep incline on the return trip. It was several miles, all up hill. Pretty much all my life, I have considered myself as a person who is in pretty good physical shape. I never really got winded running or playing basketball, so this description of this trail only made me go, ” I got this. It’ll be no problem. I can do it.”
Half way back on the return trip, my body started to tell me that I needed to rest. I ignored it. A little further, my body told me I better stop. I ignored it. Just a little further, my body cramped up, my knee hurt, and it told me I wasn’t going any further. I had to stop and if not for my friend encouraging me and allowing me to rest a few times, I don’t think I would had made it. I never dreamed that would be me…that I’d be that guy because I always took great pride in my ability to perform under physical pressure.
On the outside, everything looked great, but internally there was something really wrong. Although I never thought I was physically perfect, I really wasn’t even as good as I thought I was. I’ve recently learned my limits and have learned to even be ok with that.
What am I saying? I’m not perfect and will never claim to be. I mess up, stink it up, drop the ball and will never be as good as someone tells me that I am or as good as I may ever think that I am. And that’s ok BECAUSE of the grace of God. His grace qualifies what I or you disqualify.
At the Ridge, there are no perfect pastors and there are No Perfect People Allowed. Starting this week, we’re going to talk about these imperfections and why it’s ok to be imperfect.
Hope to see you Sunday
