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The Journey: A New Heart

As I have been seeking more of God through practicing his presence and being still before him He has been quickly changing my heart.  He has re-arranged my heart and increased my desire to selflessly serve him.  With the changes that are happening to me and the ministry that he is raising around me including my friends - it is awe inspiring of the things he is doing.  I stand humbled at what he is doing and getting ready to do through us in reaching out to the urban poor in Knoxville.  He is giving me not only…

The Journey:  Feeling Schizophrenic?

Sometimes I feel like there are two people living inside of me. There is this part of me that enjoys where I am in life.  I feel God’s strength and I know God’s purpose in front of me.  And I am confident in his love to sustain me through every situation I will face.  Then there are those moments that I feel absolutely weak and unable to deal with anything around me.  I feel unsure of where I am or if I should even be here.  As I have had to deal with these feels I have come…

The Journey:  Oneness wih God

I have posted a few things about contemplative prayer lately.  I have been doing some reading on this ancient practice of entering God’s presence through meditating on God’s word, just being being in his presence, and silence.  It has bee very refreshing spiritually and has caused me to think about why I pray or what is the goal of my praying. 

So many times I come to him with a list of things I need or things I want him to change And I believe that is legitimate.  Usually though I have already got my answer…

The Journey:  Prayer & Distractions

As you practice God’s presence through silent prayer and listening to him you will face distractions.  With the society that we live in it may seem impossible for you to settle your thoughts and focus on one thing - God.  But it is possible and very beneficial.  To help settle and center your thoughts on Jesus meditate on scripture.  You don’t even have to use a huge portion it may be just a verse or part of a verse the your reflect on as you are praying and seeking God presence wthin.  This will help bring a focus…

The Journey:  Practicing His Presence

I have been reading a book by James Goll called The Lost Art of Practicing His Presence.  I am going to be sharing some insights into some forgot disciplines of the church that we would do well to remember and put into to practice.  The goal of all of this is deeper intimacy with God.  Other names for practicing his presence is contemplative prayer, silent prayer, or meditation.  This is not a new age technique for followers of Jesus. I think the best description of the difference between New Age meditation and what I am talking about is…

The Daily Journey:  The Case for Christ

I have been reading Lee Strobel’s book The Case For Christ this past week.  It’s an awesome read for any one who already believes in Jesus as the Son of God to those of you who don’t and have a lot of unanswered questions.  Lee is a research journalist with a law background who started out as an atheist. He went on a fact finding search when his wife became a follower of Jesus.  He set out to prove the whole thing was a sham and found out something totally different in his quest.  The conclusion to the…

The Daily Journey:  Facing Goliath

Sometimes in life we come up against the impossible.  The truly one thing that if you were to ask some one near you what they think they would say this can’t be overcome.  Maybe its a sexual addiction or drug habit that YOU can’t pull yourself away from.  Or on the other side of things you’ve been following God and now after obeying him and following him you find yourself in what seems like a dead end situation.  Things didn’t come together as you thought going into it and your dealing with poor finances, poor health, broke relationships…

The Daily Journey:  Worries?

You ever have fear strike you when you see an email in your inbox or a number on your cell phone that if you answer or look inside you know its not news that you want to hear.  Then you look at the shape of the society that we live in and you wonder how things are going to be in 5 years or 10 years or even 2 months from now.  I do.

I was working in my backyard yesterday dealing with some of these same fears and walked into my garage.  There is a…

The Daily Journey:  Our Battlefield

Read 2 Corinthians 10: 4,5

In the spiritual life, our battle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces that we face everyday in our thinking and feelings.  The greatest battle area is our minds and our thoughts.  This is what Paul is talking about here in this passage. 

What do you dwell your thoughts on through out the day?

Do you know God’s thoughts well enough to wage war in your thinking?  (His thoughts are what is compiled in the Bible.)

As you listen to the Spirit of…

The Daily Journay:  God’s Kids

I was just getting back from a long weekend in the mountains yesterday and thoughts of work started to hit in today.  Its not that I have bad jobs that I’m dealing with but a sinking feeling that things were going to fall apart because I hadn’t been around for the past three days.  I have dealt with this demon before.  Its something I saw my dad lose to all the time when I was a kid.  Despite the feeling I knew it was of God because of scripture that I know.  So I started to pray asking…

The Daily Journey: Our Enemy

I’ve been focused on what God does for us through Jesus his son and the Holy Spirit who lives in those who follow Jesus.  Many times we after making a decision to follow Jesus we think that everything is suppose to be great with no problems.  However, we live in a spiritual war zone.  If we could tear away the material world around us and peer into the spirit world that is around us we would live life much differently.  Lets take a look at our enemy:

In Ephesians 6:11,12 Paul describes our fight - “Put…

The Daily Journey:  Taking a Break

Hey Sorrrry....  I’m taking a break Monday and Tuesday, but while you wait read, pray and meditate in Luke 10:38-42.

The Daily Journey:  Spiritual Fruit

I have mentioned Galatians 5: 16-26 because it gives me a frame work to see how the Spirit of God is going to work inside of me.  This is very important understand as you start looking at how you feel during the day and asking yourself why you do what you do. 

Ask yourself these questions as you read through this passage:

1- What will empower you to over come your sinful nature that naturally rises up inside of you?

2- Is there a war that rages inside of you at times? …

The Daily Journey:  The Battle of Your Thoughts

Today I want you to read Romans 8:1-11

As you read I want you to read slowly, this is not an Olympic foot race.  Also as you read be asking God what he wants to tell you in these verses.  All the while let the verses sink into you.  Pause as you read and reread parts that are harder to understand.  Ask God to show you what he saying here.

Ask yourself these questions also:

1- If your living under the control of the Spirit what is there now no more of?…

The Daily Journey:  Our Life

I believe that we as followers of Jesus have o right to hold back our lives for ourselves.  Yes we do have a choice and face choices everyday when it comes down to do I obey God or do my own thing in life the choice should be easy. 

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19,20

Our…

The Daily Journey: God working in You

Another verse that goes along with Romans 12:1,2 is Philippians 2:12, 13:

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

To start a relationship with God through Jesus Christ you first ask forgiveness for your sin (1 John 1:9) based upon Jesus’ death and rising from the dead.  This is always…

The Daily Journey:  Transformation

One goal God has for all of us as he starts speaking to us through his word and the Holy Spirit in our lives is that he wants to transform us from the inside out to be like his son Jesus.  Romans 12:1,2 says:

“Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will…

The Daily Journey: More on The Holy Spirit

Sorry I missed my post for this morning. I am very hectic with work with starting a huge job this morning.

I want to challenge you to start listening to what the Spirit of God is telling you and do it.  Many times I have felt God moving me to do something for him and started doubting it and never followed through.  His will may conflict with your agenda, desires and reason many times.

For instance, last summer at this time we felt God was telling us to sell our house and move to…

The Daily Journey:  The Spirit

The Holy Spirit is one of the most important keys to our spiritual relationship with God.  Without him actively working in and through you you will not be able to have a health spiritual journey in this life.  But the Spirit coupled with the word of God is able to transform us into strong, fruitful followers of Jesus Christ.

In Genesis chapter two God gives us the story of how Adam the first man was created.  It says that God made is form from the dust of the ground.  And then he breathed into him the…

The Daily Journey: Our own Reason

If you ever got to really know me you’d find out that I am a person that loves to figure things out.  I love to know how things work and why they work.  I like to fix stuff because of this.  As a kid my dad had a couple of old lawn mowers behind our garage.  I would go out there and instead of playing I would take his tools and tear them apart to see what they look like inside.  To find out what makes them run.  I think many people are like this.  We like to…

The Daily Journey:  More on Faith

In the last post I started talking about faith and its importance in our relationship with God. 

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1

Faith is a vital element in a relationship with God because you can’t see or touch him physically.  In the Gospel of Mark this is portrayed very clearly in Jesus’ life.  Jesus visits his home town of Nazareth in Mark 6.  He visits the synagogue on the Sabbath day and started teaching.  As he was teaching the…

The Daily Journey:  Believe

We have been talking about the importance of the written word of God in your relationship with him.  Another key element in this relationship with God is Faith. 

In Genesis (the first book in the Bible) there is a short account about a man who knew God. 

“When Enoch had lived 65 years , he became the father of Methuselah.  And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether Enoch lived 365 years.  Enoch walked with God; then he was no more,…

The Daily Journey:

Jesus said to the people of his day:

“You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.  These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.  -John 5:39,40

Too often its easy to come to the Bible for all the wrong reasons or to simply carry it around like our name badge identifying ourselves with it.  As we approach God’s word it is meant to lead us to Jesus- a living encounter with him through the power of the…

The Daily Journey:  Meditate

Yesterday I was sharing Joshua 1:8,9 where God gives us a great promise that if we will not let the book of the law depart from our mouths but meditate in it day and night so that we will be care to do everything in it; then our way will be prosperous and successful.  This started a habit for me that I continue to this day.  As i read the Bible not all of it speaks to me like other portions do.  I am in no way saying that some parts are more important than others, but that…

The Daily Journey:  Being Prosperous and Successful

Every one that I’ve ever met has wanted to be prosperous and successful.  OK, most everyone.  In the later part of college God started dealing with me about being taking seriously this life with him that he had given me.  One of the first verses that he showed me and I started concentrating on is found in Joshua 1:8 & 9.  There God is speaking to Joshua Moses aid who took over leading the children of Israel into there new homeland in Canaan.  It had to be a very overwhelming position leading 1.2 million men not including women…

The Daily Journey:  What the journey is all about.

We all have a story to tell and a journey to share.  In several place the apostle Paul says to follow his example as he follows Christ’s example (1 Corinthians 11:1).  I in no way want to set myself up as being on the same level as the apostle Paul.  I do know that Jesus has brought me through many things and taught me alot about this life with God that Jesus has given us.  In this blog all I am going to be discussing every day is the things God has shown me or is showing.  I…

2 Pleasures when you have sinus allergies!!!!!!

OK, so I hate sinus allergies.  I am quite clear on my status with sinus allergies.  Living in the East Tennessee river valley must be one of the worst places on the planet for every kind of allergen known to my nose.  I have had really bad allergies this past week without any break from the itchy throat, sinus pressure, coughing and I won’t mention all the drainage.  However I have had two great surprises in the last 24 hours so for all of you suffering listen up.

First I was driving across town last night…

Old friends are better than $1,000,000,000

I hijacked the EdgePoint blog spot!  So I’ll take a few minutes to share some of my thoughts with you
(This is written by Beth Ritchie by the way, the real boss .

Some of you probably know that Jason and I were youth pastors once upon a time.  I think that was probably some of the most fun, rewarding, and passionate times in our lives.  Some people think we’re crazy I’m sure, but teenagers rock.

…

Awesomely New Episodes of Raw Survival Back on TV this Friday

I can’t wait!  New episodes of Man vs. Wild are back on this Friday with several more to follow.  Almost the next best thing to camping and backpacking.  If I can’t be out there I Love seeing some one else out there and enjoying it.

Leisurely Rides With Ellie and Daniel

Recently riding in the old mini-van my conversations with Ellie and Daniel have gotten more verbose.  They are in this stage where they have to know exactly where we are going, what we are going to do there and where are we going next.  Now the old daddy saying, “well you see when we get there” or “to a store” just won’t work.  They are even wanting to know the a daily schedule of the next day with ETD and ETA.  Yesterday Daniel and I were driving to Oak Ridge on a business errand.  Wanting a detailed schedule…

80’s Music

Every week at our worship experience we are featuring a new segment called Random Facts about the Ritchies.  This will give you some tasty tidbits that you may otherwise never know about us, or maybe never wanted to know about us.

This weeks is… We are hooked on 80’s music.  I don’t know how this got started, but for better or worse its happened.  I swore to myself that after escaping the eighties in my late teens that I would never go back.  Now here I am smack dab in the middle of the them again. …

Free Storage Shed

No I am not giving away a free storage shed.  Sorry.  I am wanting a free storage shed.  HA!  And no, I am not soliciting you for one.  I am building one and I simply DON’T want to spend any money at Lowes or Home Depot on it. I would really like to spend no money on it at all.  I Know what your thinking… he’s cheap.  Actually sometimes, but I really like taking things that most people would throw away and use them.  For instance I received some great pressure treated wood from a lady who was…

Our 1st Big Mention!

It seems that our website has made its first big mention.  Recently Jon, who designed our site, sent the site around to some other designers to check.  Before long we are being mentioned in a magazine about how cool we are.  We always knew this but its nice to be recognized by some one else.  Not that we’re bragging or anything?!  If you want to check out the article click on the link below.  So great job Jon, your awesome man!  You know if it was left up to me we would only be mentioned in publications like…

Recent Compliments

I just received some great compliments yesterday.  I was talking to Sylvia who is the receptionist at a local radio station and Steve the greatest guy I know in radio when Sylvia said that I didn’t look like the normal “man of the cloth”.  I said thanks I’ll take that as a huge compliment.  Then my buddy Michael was showing a couple of guys at work the website and one of the guys asked if I was the pastor. Then said he doesn’t look like a pastor.  The other guy said that he thought that was the point. …

When Business is Slow

Last week for my business was super slow.  I had two jobs for last Monday and a two hour job for Thursday on my calendar.  Just one little estimate to do that showed little promise for Wednesday.  Scary for a guy who has a wife, 3 kids, a dog and mortgage waiting for him at home.  With these thoughts I was feeling pretty heavy by Thursday morning.  As I was headed out of the neighborhood going to my one little job I sensed God speaking to me through all these thoughts. He was saying just trust me.  Then…

Potty Training

Adventures in potty training! Warning: the word “poop” may be used 1 or more times for descriptive purposes.

Wilbur The Pig

Here’s a quick YouTube clip of a story about how I rescued a pig that was the runt of the litter, but turned out to be pretty amazing. Kind of like “Charlotte’s Web.”

Napoleon Dynamite Birthday Card

I just got the most kickin’ belated birthday cards of my life!  On the front it has Napoleon Dynamite lounging on an old couch with his with his burnt orange leisure suit on.  The caption at the bottom says,"Happy birthday to someone with flippin’ sweet skills...” You open it up and its Napoleon saying “You know like numb chuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills...” Yep thats me.  Oh, and it also had a gift card for free food - Awesome!

By the way, Napoleon Dynamite rocks, so if your not a fan then you…

I Don’t Always Understand God

This past week I had praying about what God wanted me to share this morning for the second Sunday morning worship experience of EdgePoint Church.  We had started this series on “Edgepoint:  Our Vision” to get things started.  I was excited about speaking this morning because I felt like God was wanting me to speak about Jesus encounter with his disciples when He asked them who do people say that I am?  And then he asks them who do you think that I am.  And Peter impetuously answers Your are the Christ, the son of the living God. …

A Water Heater and a Toothless Guy

This past week has been a whirl wind for me.  I was trying to get some headway on Jon & Ashley’s tile floor when the dam broke on my cell phone and I kept getting call after call yammering for my attention.  Yes I believe yammering is a word but don’t hold me to it.  One of those calls was a realtor that I do business with who needed a water heater repaired on Friday morning for a closing at noon.  So I was there looking at it at 9 in the morning.  There aren’t that much to…

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