Sunday Recap 11-15-09

Good day @ The Ridge today as we continued our series “Love Handles: getting a GRIP on God’s design for marriage.” Today Jerry talked about Intentional Intimacy and how we have to have intentionality in our marriage if we want our relationship to grow in intimacy. He did a great job.

The band rocked face as usual. Kerry led and Michelle and Kendall did some great acapella harmony on “Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus”. Jason, Danny and Richard did fantastic as always. Kendall closed the set with an amazing rendition of “Oh How He Loves Us”. Wow!

Attendance was strong and up in the worship gatherings, but we were down a bit in the kids areas. Go figure that one.

Announced The Gift offering will be taken up on December 13th. All the details will be available next Sunday. The Staff & Stewardship Team are prayerfully putting together the details. I am excited about what God is going to do as we give our best gift to Jesus this Christmas.

Our Operations team did a fantastic job today. Set up went really smooth. Love these folks and their heart for ministry. Amazing effort each week. If you want to be a part of a great team that makes a difference each and every week, then Operations Team may be just for you! The tech team pulled off two great worship gatherings despite a ton of technical  problems today. Great job guys…no one could even tell!

We wrap up this series next Sunday with “Protecting Your Valuables.” Remember if you miss any part of a series, you can download the podcast from our website. You can also subscribe to the podcast on i-tunes. For either of these go HERE.

We have some great community ministry opportunities coming up for Thanksgiving and Christmas as we are going to be helping our partner ministry Warehouse Of Hope with collection of canned goods. On November 20th we need folks to help pick up canned goods from 18 different schools in the area that have been collected all month. Then on December 5th we have a special community outreach opportunity to collect food items at Kroger on Ridge Road for WOH. We’ll also be giving away hot chocolate and have some jumpies for the kids. More details on how you, your family or your small group can be involved in this will be coming next week.

I’m able to type with two hands this evening, although not very fast. The broken arm is slowly getting more mobility. Still can’t move it much and still can’t lift anything with it. Thanks for the prayers.

Supervised the kids cleaning out the garage this afternoon. We have a family movie night tonight. After pizza we’re watching “Up” together. Thankful for the $1 movie box at Wal-Mart!

Friday Funny

Brian Regan is hilarious! Check out his take on Pop-Tarts…

Thank you veterans!

This is a video tribute that we shared this past Sunday @ The Ridge.  I share it today to thank and honor all of our veterans and their families…because freedom is not free. My prayers go out on your behalf…especially today to those who were impacted by the attack at Ft. Hood. May God bless you and give you peace. Thank you for your service to God and our nation!

24 New season

My favorite show will return in January. Nothing like a cold winter evening, a fire, kids in bed and watching a recording of “24″ with my wife. Here’s the trailer for the new season:

Sunday Recap 11-8-09

GREAT day @ The Ridge today! I was so pumped! I think God is really using this series. I am praying for the marriages in our church and community. Here’s the highlights:

• Honored our veterans with a special video tribute. Thanks to Gunnery Sgt. Lyndon Smith USMC (ret.) for leading a special prayer of blessing on our veterans and their families.
• The band and Creative Arts team did their usual great job. Love these guy’s hearts. An awesome bunch of people!  Jerry had to fill in for Kendal who was home sick. Praying for her to get well soon.
• Saw lots of new faces today and several people we haven’t seen in a while. That was awesome.
• At least four people indicated that they were putting their faith in Jesus for the first time! That never gets old! Praise God!
• Attendance was strong today. That’s exciting to see God continuing to bring the people that HE wants here.  I pray that we will continue to be faithful to reach out to those people in this community who are far from God and need a new perspective on the church, God, themselves and others.
• We were in part 2 of our Love Handles series. Today was about Realistic Expectations.
• Some of the points we talked about from Genesis 2:18-25 and 1 Peter 3:1-8 were:

One of the biggest lies and most deceitful traps we can fall into as Christians is the idea of our spouse being a “soul mate”

Eve was not the completion of Adam, she was the completion of God’s creation

Your spouse was designed to compliment you, not complete you.

If we are looking for anything other than God to complete us or fulfill us, we are in danger of practicing idolatry.

If we would stop focusing on the imperfections of our spouse and start working on our own, I believe that most marriages would change overnight.

Put your hope in God, not in outward beauty and not in man.

Here’s the Handle for today:

If we are expecting our spouse to complete us, we’ll always be disappointed.

The homework challenge this week is to see which spouse can out serve the other. I pray that we will have a ne perspective ont eh expectations we have and should have in our marriages. Can’t wait for next week: Part 3 Intientional Intimacy.

Tomorrow @ The Ridge: Love Handles Pt 2

What were you expecting when you got married? What are you expecting if you are planning to get married? Is your spouse meeting all of your expectations or have you, honestly, been disappointed…maybe even disillusioned?

Are our expectations realistic? The Bible has some things to say to us about expectations in marriage. I guarantee, most all of us don’t have a “handle ” on it.

If you need to get a new GRIP on your marriage; if you need some love handles…or you know someone who does…make sure you AND they are here tomorrow @ The Ridge as we continue this fun, challenging, and provocative series. Part 2: Realistic Expectations

We will also be honoring all of our Veterans with a special tribute.

Don’t miss church…@ The Ridge Sunday! Go to our website and click the e-vite link to send to a friend and invite them to be here tomorrow. It’s not too late!

A “Love Handles” Friday Funny

In conjunction with our current Love Handles series @ The Ridge, I thought I’d share this touching story:

The little old couple walked slowly into McDonald’s that cold winter evening. They looked out of place amid the young families and young couples eating there that night. Some of the customers looked admiringly at them.

You could tell what the admirers were thinking: “Look, there is a couple who has been through a lot together, probably for 60 years or more!”

The little old man walked right up to the cash register, placed his order with no hesitation and then paid for their meal. The couple took a table near the back wall and started taking food off of the tray. There was one hamburger, one order of french fries and one drink.

The little old man unwrapped the plain hamburger and carefully cut it in half. He placed one half in front of his wife. Then he carefully counted out the french fries, divided them in two piles and neatly placed one pile in front of his wife. He took a sip of the drink, his wife took a sip and then set the cup down between them.

As the man began to eat his few bites of hamburger, the crowd began to get restless. Again you could tell what they were thinking: “That poor old couple. All they can afford is one meal for the two of them.” As the man began to eat his french fries one young man stood and came over to the old couple’s table. He politely offered to buy another meal for the old couple to eat. The old man replied that they were just fine. They were used to sharing everything.

Then the crowd noticed that the little old lady hadn’t eaten a bite. She just sat there watching her husband eat and occasionally taking turns sipping the drink. Again the young man came over and begged them to let him buy them something to eat. The man again explained that no, they were used to sharing everything together.

As the little old man finished eating and was wiping his face neatly with a napkin, the young man could stand it no longer. Again he came over to their table and offered to buy some food. After being politely refused again, he finally asked a question of the little old lady: “Ma’am, why aren’t you eating? You said that you share everything. What is it that you are waiting for?”

She answered, “The teeth.”

*This funny courtesy of MikeysFunnies.com

Encouragement for Today

Was reading this Psalm this morning and the Lord encouraged me. Thought it was worth sharing. Where are you looking for your help? While this Psalm is written to and for Israel, it applies to us as well. No matter what you are facing, know that God loves you, is with you, and will take these circumstances and use them for your good and His glory.

Psalm 121

¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?

² My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;

⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

⁶ the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life;

⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Bill Cosby’s thoughts on current TV

“I’m not thrilled with the deliberate onslaught of the public by the major networks in terms of the sitcoms. They still don’t get it about race. They still don’t get it about gender. Jokes are still about jerks and body parts and sex. The excuse is always the public wants stuff that raises the dopamine level.”
—Bill Cosby

Cosby is the 2009 recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. This quote was on why he doesn’t watch television sitcoms. He also added, “Our youth [should be able to] find themselves being excited about things other than going straight for the genitalia.“   [usatoday.com, 10/22/09]

Good word!

“V” …. has anyone else thought about this?

If you’ve seen any tv lately you have seen the promo for the new series “V” which starts tonight. It is actually a remake of a series from the 80s. However, as I watched the trailer for it. It struck me as eerily current. Has anyone else thought about the current political correlation of the statements made in this promo? Very similar to recent political rhetoric. Is this intentional? I remember where the original series went with the plot, but I wonder what the take on this one will be? Who will be the heroes and who will be the villains. Could be kinda ironic…if it wasn’t so close to reality. Just some random, interesting thoughts. Watch it and tell me what you think…