What is so amazing about Grace?

Roll on the 30th August

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:59:00 +0000

That's the date we expect our contractor to hand over our new building at MKCC. Here are some of the latest pics. I understand that some of the block work will start next week.

Looking through into the main church hall

Roof going on our Cafe & Foyer Area

Ready for lots of cement

Broken but loved

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:06:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks I have been confronted forcefully with reality that I am broken. I need fixing. I've tried to fix myself, boy I've tried. And slowly I am beginning to understand that I can't do it. To a Mr Fix it, control freak like me that's hard to even say let alone accept.

I don't say this to indulge in a pity party, I actually feel good about it. I feel like I have got to a place and a point where so many people even Christians don't get too. We realise we are broken and we cannot do anything about it. Of course we realise we are broken but we will not admit it to anyone even if we are brave enough to admit it to ourselves.

So we spend our lives covering up our brokenness and trying in vain to fix ourselves. Whist we are trying fix ourselves we even leave God out of the equation. We focus on ourselves and our weaknesses instead on God and His power.

Ultimately I think we are afraid. Afraid of exposure, afraid of failure, afraid of rejection.

Today I heard a phrase that helped me understand all over again in a brand new way.

"God is not in love with a future version of you." - Matt Chandler

Sure God has a future version of me that I am becoming but he loves me for who I am now. Broken and loved.

Living in and on the Bible

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:31:00 +0000

Read this quote by Charles Malik (1906-1987), Lebanon's ambassador to the USA (1945-55) over at Desiring God.

"I speak to you as a Christian. Jesus Christ is my Lord and God and Savior and Song day and night. I can live without food, without drink, without sleep, without air, but I cannot live without Jesus. Without him I would have perished long ago. Without him and his church reconciling men to God, the world would have perished long ago. I live in and on the Bible for long hours every day. The Bible is the source of every good thought and impulse I have. In the Bible God himself, the Creator of everything from nothing, speaks to me and to the world directly, about himself, about ourselves, and about his will for the course of events and for the consummation of history. And believe me, not a day passes without my crying from the bottom of my heart, ‘Come, Lord Jesus.'"

And yet we leave this book gathering dust on a shelf. Why? We talk about it, argue about it, fight for it, listen to other talk about it, read books about it BUT fail to read it, so never hear what God has to say to US.

Teaching the Rebels

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:15:00 +0000

King David was noted as a man after God's heart but yet he did things that I have never done. He was an adulteress and a muderer. He was a victim of God's agressive grace and pened a song of thankfulness and praise to God after being forced into the open with his sin.

Part of his prayer:

God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Psalm 51 v 10 & 11

This song was written on the back of this Psalm:

Hallelujah from Elevation Worship on Vimeo.

So because I am one my request to God is as David's

v 13 - Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.

Simple Church

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:15:00 +0000

“Don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this. You are the equipment. No special appeals for funds. Keep it simple." - Mark 6 v 8

We do a great job in the church at complicating things.
To do church we seem to NEED a lot of equipment.
Looking at our new church build has caused me to think about it much more.
We are having to think about all the things we NEED.
Really the list of things we NEED is much smaller than the list the we WANT (and more importantly can afford!)
We will not have all the bells and whistles but Jesus suggests that the equipment that the Holy Spirit works through is not cables, lights and projectors but flesh and blood.
The Holy Spirit has not found a home in a speaker or projector but he does take up residence in His people.

(Although I still love all the gadgets!!)

Work the Word - Meditate

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:28:00 +0000

I hope many of you from MKCC have been joining in with the New Thru 30 reading plan this month. However one of the negatives of embarking on a plan that requires a lot of reading is that we start to just rush through just to get to the end.

I love this quote by Spurgeon:

Some people like to read so many [Bible] chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart! --Charles Haddon Spurgeon

As someone once told me Meditation on the scriptures is using the same God given ability that we use often to worry, but using it to focus on scriptures.

Worry takes us on a downward spiral whilst meditation takes us in an upward spiral.

Work the Word - Hear
Work the Word - Read
Work the Word - Study

Work the Word - Study

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:23:00 +0000

Check out the previous 2 posts:

Hear
Read

We also need to Study God's word. Basically ask questions like: Why? When? Where? Who?

Rick Warren has written a great book on this subject: Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods: Twelve Ways You Can Unlock God's Word

Another two essential tools is:

A Study Bible - I would suggest:ESV Study Bible

A Bible Dictionary - I would suggest:Zondervan Bible Dictionary

What suggestions do you have. Leave a comment below.

Work the Word - Read

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:27:00 +0000

Following on from yesterdays post, Work the Word - Hear, today we look at Read.

Statistics suggest that nearly 60% of Christians in the UK seldom or never read the the Bible. And it isn't that very involved people do and "nominal" Christians don't. One person who is very involved and a great person to boot said that a year ago they would have been in the 60%.

Reading the Bible on a regular basis is a must for anyone wanting to follow Jesus.

Following a reading plan each day is one way to do this.

We have posted 3 PDF's that you can download at MKCC website: 30 day New Testament, Bible in one year or the Bible Chronologically in one year.

If you are more of a technology geek then you can access a whole host of plans at Youversion.com. To keep a record of where you are you need to sign up for an account.

Youversion have also developed apps for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and even Java apps that work on most popular web enabled phones.

Jump in today.

God is God and God is Good

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:17:00 +0000

I was introduced to Zac through reading his blog via the Internet. We have never met. But how he faced his first bout of cancer challenged me to my core. I cried and celebrated when he posted the news he was clear. Only to be stopped in my tracks with the news that transpired only a few weeks later.

Zac says If God heals him God is God and God is Good and if he doesn't heal God is still God and God is still good.

Watch his story and pray for him today.

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

Being Authentic - really

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:57:00 +0000

I've tried to be authentic in my posts here. I document my struggles with all sorts of things. I am a fan of grace because I need it so often. Somethings are struggles but they don't really affect anyone but me, others unfortunately affect people.

So today I sit frustrated with myself. Today I used my words to hurt someone. Somewhere in the scheme of things I MAY have had a valid point, but it really does not matter. And I sit trying to understand myself. Confused & annoyed!?

It's not a surprise to me, I know myself only too well. This has been with me from early in life. Being physically weak meant that I lost at most things such as sports, which I loved. I never got used to loosing I just hated it all the more. Even my nickname, Spunk, was derogatory and poked fun at my weakness. I hated it every time someone used, I wanted to hit them but knew it was a waste of time. But winning in anything became important even if it was just winning an argument with words.

I'm a control freak and can win an argument but lose the person.

None of this is an excuse and it isn't the whole story but it is the beginnings.

I'm broken and I really need God's help to fix me.

Hard to write but probably not a surprise to those who really know me.

Work the Word - Hear

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:31:00 +0000

Yesterday we completed our teaching series TXT at MKCC. We looked at "Working the Word into our Lives"

Here is one thing that summed it up for me.

"We don’t go first to the bible to find out about us and how we should live our lives, or to find out about church and how we should do it. We go to the Bible to discover God in all his glory and fall down on our faces in awe and gratitude."

We said that we needed to do 6 things to work the word into our lives:

Hear
Read
Study
Memorize
Meditate
Apply

This week I will provide some links that will help you in each of these areas:

Today - Hear

Download an MP3 at Faith Comes By Hearing
Listen at Youversion (Go to the bottom of the right hand panel on the Bible Reader view)
Buy an Audio Bible at amazon.

Listen or watch past sermons on the web from MKCC

Listen to other teachers:

Mark Driscol - Marshill Church
John Piper - Desiring God
Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones - Living Grace

You can listen on line, download MP3 or subscribe via iTunes.

Baptism Burial

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:21:00 +0000

In our recent History Makers series at MKCC many of wrote the names of people that we were praying would start following Jesus.

We have taken all those names, put them in a capsule and we have buried them underneath our new Baptism Pool. We are looking forward to baptising people as the come to know Jesus and celebrating the fact that their name had been buried underneath as an act of faith.

A reason to visit the Whitehouse and its not Obama

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:40:00 +0000

Listen to Esperanza Spalding here.

HT: Blakenship

Jesus Your Cross has Saved Us

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:33:00 +0000

This Sunday we wrap up our series on the Bible - TXT at MKCC. The following week we launch a brand new series that will take us through to Easter Sunday called simply - The Cross.

I came across this new song by Elevation Church that sums it up - Your Cross.

Your Cross Has Saved Us from Elevation Worship on Vimeo.

an·tic·i·pate

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:54:00 +0000

***UPDATE*** Listen to it here

an·tic·i·pate - To look forward to, especially with pleasure.

In that case I am anticipating the release of the Newspring Worship Album - Our God is Love!

Promo: Our God is Love (Live Album) from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

Details soon at newspring.cc

God never let him really hurt me

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:50:00 +0000

Still, your father has cheated me over and over, changing my wages time and again. But God never let him really hurt me. - Genesis 31 v 7

How Laban treated Jacob boarders on abuse.
It was not a one off it was 20 years of trickery.
7 years for a wife he did not want.
7 years for a wife he wanted.
And another 6 years all the time being cheated out of money.
What makes it all the more galling is that Jacob brought prosperity to his Uncle Laban.

But instead of bitterness he chose God's perspective.

"God never let him really hurt me."

Always remember we are in God's care.

Duty is only a substitute for love

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:08:00 +0000

This last few weeks I have been thinking much about the process of sanctification. I am OK with the fact that my salvation is nothing to do with me and everything to do with God. But my early church life and experience programmed me into a religion of duty.

People outside the church did not even refer to us a Christians or even followers of Jesus. They used the term: They are Good Living. This summed up what the church portrayed to those inside and outside the church that the christian life was all about morality.

About an imposed list of duties to perform that I have to summon up the will power to do. That's the definition of sanctification I am continually trying to ditch. I think I am free of it and it jumps up and bites me again and I join the roller coaster of good living and failure.

I loved this video from John Piper on the subject where he quotes C S Lewis saying: "The whole purpose of the gospel it to deliver us from morality."

The crazy things we do

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:47:00 +0000

The high priests picked up the silver pieces, but then didn’t know what to do with them. “It wouldn’t be right to give this—a payment for murder!—as an offering in the Temple.” - Matthew 27 v 6

Reading this confirms how warped our human mind can be. It's OK to pay money to get Jesus murdered but it wasn't ok then to put that same money in the offering.

They killed the Son of God and were now having a committee meeting to discuss what was the right thing to do with the blood money. Yet no one seemed to recognise the craziness of their discussions.

Maybe that's why very often in church we spend so much time discussing and arguing about little stuff so it means we don't have to confront ourselves with our own lack of obedience.

Confronting doubt

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:17:00 +0000

"In my soul, I can't you how dark it is... I feel like refusing God."

"I am told God lives in me -- and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul"

Not two quotes that you would associate with Mother Teresa. But she honestly shared these feelings in her personal journals.

My journey in God has taken me sometimes to these dark places of doubt and despondency. Today they are much rarer but only because I was prepared to tackle my doubt. I fought with myself and searched for God and when I thought he was there I fought with Him as well.

Today I am thankful for my bouts of doubt and emptiness because they help me to trust and believe even in the darkness.

But even today my prayer is taken from scripture. "Lord I believe, help my unbelief."

Jesus raises the bar

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:18:00 +0000

Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom. - Matt 5 v 20

There is a perception that grace is easy. But it is anything but. Jesus never lowered the bar for his followers he just raised it.

Although he criticised the Pharisees often. He didn't have a bone to pick with them because the kept the rules. He had a problem with them because:

1) The pretended to keep the rules.
2) The told others to keep the rules whilst they didn't.

In the verses following he raised the bar for his followers:

Do not murder - do not get angry
Do not commit adultery - do not lust in your heart
Grace is not a loophole it is a ladder.

Sometimes God is working behind my back

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:15:00 +0000

The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. - Mark 4 v 28

Jesus spent a lot of time trying to explain to the disciples what His Kingdom was like. He needed to and still needs to for us. We find it difficult to understand it, it goes against the grain. Its values are strange.

Service gives you significance.
Selflessness gives you reward.
Humility gives you power.
The list goes on.

But the thing that we find the hardest is that entrance, acceptance and growth in His Kingdom is not about what we do but about what he does. Like the farmer in Jesus story in Mark 4 who even forgets about the seed he has sown but finds it growing. He doesn't know why or even how but it grows.

I am so thankful that even when I am careless & forget about God and what he has told me, He never forgets about me and is constantly working to bring about fruit in my life.

Thank you God for sometimes working behind my back and I am totally unaware.

Steelwork Finished at MKCC

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:14:00 +0000

The last 2 weeks have seen some big changes at the MKCC building project. As of today all the steelwork has now been erected. (Although the guys will be checking and leveling it next week). It is great to see the whole structure now, the main auditorium and how it wraps around and links into our existing building.

Here are some photos.

A Mere Stagehand

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:12:00 +0000

As he preached he said, “The real action comes next: The star in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will change your life. - Mark 1 v 7

Unfortunately in my experience of church leadership to many of us have though of ourselves as the star of the show. God has only had one gift to this world and His name was Jesus not Billy. John the Baptist had it right when he described himself as a "mere stagehand".

Wikipedia says A stagehand is a person who works backstage or behind the scenes. Their duties include setting up the scenery, lights, sound, props, rigging, and special effects for a production.

John the Baptist was recognised by Jesus as the greatest man that had lived and he saw himself as a stagehand. So to be part of the greatest show in History I think I am more than happy to be a stagehand.

If I can fetch and carry and add something to Jesus production I will be more than happy.

Radicalis - Perry Noble

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:06:00 +0000

It is no secret that I love Newspring Church. I have had the opportunity to meet a few of the team and many of the voluteers there. God is doing amazing things in their church. Everyone I have meet is humble, down to earth, encouraging and mad about Jesus. In Perry Noble they have a a great leader but the "secret" of Newspring Church is not Perry it is all the team persuing Jesus.

That said Perry is always on the edge when preaching so yesterday was no different. At one point I am sure his ADD was kicking in because I nearly fell off my seat laughing.

Here are some of his thoughts:

I asked God why am I here along with peeps like Rick Warren & Andy Stanley, He said you are the moron.
Radical devotion begins with an accurate view of Jesus.
I dont think we would speak to Jesus the way we speak to Jesus if we just realsied who he is.
Pastors, do you want the people in your church to see you or do you want them to see Jesus?
We dont need to close the back door of the church, Why? In the scripture the church is called a body!
Very few pastors are willing to flight for the flock because of the personal cost because of the price of the pain.
If all hell is breaking loose it's because hell is scared. Get ready because all Heaven is about to break loose!
The church today has become way more dependent on strategy than the Spirit.
Church leader dont ever give up on the God who has never given up on you.

Radicalis - Rick Warren

billyritchie@mac.com (Billy Ritchie) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:48:00 +0000

Thanks to the wonders of live streaming over the Internet I had the privilege of watching the Radicalis conference from Saddleback Church, Orange County, LA.

I caught the first 2 speakers, Rick Warren & Perry Noble. (8 hours time difference makes it hard to see it all) Rick explained why he used the name Radicalis. It is where we get our word Radical from. We tend to think of radical as being on the edge, being extreme. The reality is that being Radical is more about being determined to get back to the ROOT of something, and that is what the conference was about, getting back to the roots.

Here are some of Ricks thoughts:

Everyone wants to be a leader no one wants to be a servant.
The church doesn't need servant leaders it needs servants.
We're looking for better methods & God is looking for better men.
Most people are spiritual zombies wondering through church life without really being engaged.
What you are in private determines who you lead in public. HUA!
There is no correlation between the size and strength of a church. Bigger is not automatically better. Better is better.
You don't get credit for starting the race you get credit for finishing it well.
How do you know when a church has roots? It was fruit.
At saddleback church we have figured out how to move people from come and see to come and die. BOOM!
What the world is looking for is an authoritative message though a humble personality.
You cant make God stop loving you. you can try but you will fail.
God is not mad at you he is mad about you
Your gifts are not given to you for your benefit but for radical devotion to God- rick warren.