Easter

I couldn't have imagined a more enjoyable Easter Sunday than Easter 2009!

God truly has been good to us! Although we lost our awesome free meeting location last Sunday, God gave us a beautiful day on Easter for us to enjoy our worship gathering and picnic in Fountain City Park. Of course, He gave that day to everyone in our area, but maybe we appreciated it more than most of Knoxville did!

This was our first worship gathering outside. More importantly, it was our first worship gathering where we shared the Lord's Supper or Communion together. After the teaching on Jesus' identity as fully man, Jesus' crucifixion--taking the punishment we deserved for our sins, and Jesus' proof that He is fully God through His resurrection, sharing the Lord's Supper as a community of believers in Christ was extra meaningful for me. I hope it was for you, too. We will observe Communion regularly as a church, so look forward to it!

As I mentioned Sunday several times, Jesus has done all the "heavy lifting" (as well as the "light lifting" and "any lifting at all") to secure our forgiveness from God for our sins. We cannot earn our forgiveness from God no matter how badly we may like to try. We can, however, respond to God's calling in our lives and trust Him with our entire selves in faith. This all can happen because of God's gift of grace in Christ's death on the cross. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper together, we celebrate God's love for us, and Jesus Christ's obedience to die on that cross. We also look forward from the cross to the resurrection of Christ three days later on that first Easter. The Lord's Supper is so much to celebrate in such a simple act... It's a big deal and it's awesome to participate in it with you.

I pray that every Ridge Church Easter gathering is as glorifying to God as this one was. And, I pray that you are here to enjoy it with us!

As I mentioned Sunday, we have moved meeting locations... This Sunday, we will be meeting at Panache Hair and Body at 3501 Tazewell Pike in Fountain City. We're still meeting at 10 am (we'll keep as many things "regular" as we can!) until 11:15 or so. Ken and Christy Garrison have been very generous in allowing us to use their facility on Sundays, although they are already there six days a week!

If you read my last post, you know that having a building to meet in isn't everything and doesn't make a church. However, it does make things easier when, for instance, it rains! We'd also of course like to have more room as God blesses us and more people join into community with us. We want every friend and family member and neighbor who is invited to come to The Ridge to hear about Jesus to have that opportunity.

Rest assured we are keeping our eyes peeled for available, affordable meeting locations near I-640 and the general Fountain City area. Consider this an open invitation to participate in the search! Feel free to email me any ideas you have. No stone will be left unturned... Either way, we trust God will send us to our next location in His perfect timing!

One more thing you don't want to let get past you... Our April fellowship time! This Saturday, at Cris Patterson's house, we are having a cookout! This event is open to anyone who is interested in coming... Ridge folks and their friends and family and anyone else who is interested! This is another great time to bring someone who isn't too sure about Jesus or His people so that they can get to meet us and find out we're "normal" and really do care.

We're hanging out from 5 to 10 pm at Cris' house at 1718 Woodhaven Drive. If you want to eat, bring your own meat (and buns)! It's a really casual evening, so come and leave when you need to. Thanks a ton to Cris for hosting this evening. Hope to see you there!