Today we provide another short answer for another question asked during the Q&A Series. This time the answer comes from Ps Ed Carter

Question – If heaven is perfect, how come Satan came from there and does that mean sin could enter heaven again?

Answer -

• This answer begins with a need for a few simple definitions: Sin – the attitude and actions of “I know better than God”, Heaven – the place where God is, different from our known universe, Satan – one of the chief angels that rebelled against God.
• We know that God is the creator of all things including that which is now ‘fallen’ (was created good but is now not so).
• Created beings fall, when given the choice of either following God or doing what they feel is right they have chosen what they feel is right over what God has said to do. Satan and the angels (that are now demons) where given the choice in heaven and rebelled (and as a result where thrown out of heaven), mankind was/is given the choice on Earth and rebelled. Satan and the demons choice is now fixed (can’t be changed) and when mankind dies their choices also becomes fixed.
• This means, as it stands now, no sin is in heaven or can enter it.
• Therefore the only way sin could again enter heaven is, if God created a being, which lived in heaven and which had free will to choose and chose to do it own thing not God’s.

So this is what you’ve all been waiting for – the answers to the questions we didn’t quite have time for. The answers are fairly brief and quick summaries. To fully get to grips with them, further study is necessary! So hopefully these will provide some food for thought. We’ll keep answering them over the next couple of weeks.

Question – If God is all powerful, why doesn’t he stop natural disasters?

Answer – This is a common question and one that normally leaves people feeling dissatissfied with the answer given! Firstly, we need to understand that this question is loaded and we all make assumptions when we ask it. We also look at only one side of the logical coin in figuring out God’s part in this stuff. One side of the coin is easy – this is when we talk about God being a ‘good’ God and who is all-powerful and because of this logic, we can’t reconcile the fact that we believe in a good God but bad things still happen to a lot of ‘bad’ AND ‘good’ people. The other side of the logic coin is that we are finite, God is infinite. We don’t know everything God has done in the past and we don’t know everything that God will do in the future. Bearing these two perspectives in mind, we can attempt to answer the question.

Matthew 5:44-45 (AMP) says – But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 To show that you are the children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike].

C.S. Lewis once wrote that ‘Pain is God’s megaphone to the world’. It’s impossible for us to know the causes or the true consequences of natural disasters, or even disasters closer to home. Perhaps you lost someone you love, maybe financially everything is going wrong even though you’ve applied wisdom. Sometimes stuff just happens to us and no matter how well we live or prepare or plan, bad things still happen. Pain still comes. As hard as it may seem, perhaps God uses the pain of the world to draw us to Him?

The important thing for us as Christians is to ensure that we never take a ‘God is punishing you’ stance. As far as I’m concerned, there is never ever ever ever an instance where anyone can say with %100 confidence that they are correct that God is punishing someone. If God was like that, we’d all be long dead. God, like a loving father, allows His children to experience hardships and pain to learn lessons, to drive us to seek Him and to realise that we need Jesus. Life is hard and I for one certainly wouldn’t want to do it without Jesus helping me through.

Like the verse says, good things and bad things happen to both ‘good people’ and ‘bad people’. We can’t presume to understand or know the reasons or consequences, all we really need to learn to do is to Trust and Obey.

Every week in Ribble Valley Church is exciting and fresh but we are especially excited to be able to announce that on the 8th August, we will be blessed to have Pastor Tim Douglass from Hillsong Church, Sydney with us in both services to preach the Word.

Ps Tim has been involved in youth ministry in Hillsong London, worship ministry in both London and Sydney and now pastors the Hillsong Macquarie Extension Service and the Hills Campus 6pm Service at Hillsong in Sydney. With a big heart for people and a great ability to communicate the Word of God in a down to earth, relevant way, you won’t want to miss this weekend in church.

So make sure you’re there and invite your family and friends to what is sure to be a great day in church.

So, we’ve reached the end of the Q&A Series, we’ve asked and answered a whole lot of questions as best as we can. Stay tuned for more content soon – we didn’t have time to answer every question but we’ll get some more answered online here.

For the time being, enjoy the videos from our special guests over the last four weeks -

Well, Five Hot Weekends is done for 2010! We have seen some amazing stories of God moving in people’s lives and people coming to know Jesus. Check out this video to see some highlights of the last five weeks! We’ll be doing it all again next year so stay tuned for details! The best is yet to come…

Hey church,

Yesterday we had the fourth of our Five Hot Weekends. Ps Rachel Hickson was a massive blessing to us and she spoke three great messages throughout the day. You can download those messages here.

In the morning, Ps Rachel preached on ‘Enjoying a Great Life’ and in the evening ‘Making Sound Waves’. In the afternoon, the women of Ribble Valley Church gathered together for the second ever Valley Women event. Ps Michele hosted and many lives were impacted as Ps Rachel shared her heart with the women.

All in all we enjoyed a day full of God-encounters, inspiration and life-change. And get this – it was also our BIGGEST EVER SUNDAY. So, and here’s the main point -

THANK YOU!

Church is not about events, programmes or structure. It’s not even just about great worship and preaching. Church is about God and it’s about People. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for all that you do to support our church. You give faithfully of your time, finances and energy, you are committed to the cause and the vision of the house and you never cease to amaze us with your never-give-up attitude. Church wouldn’t be the same without you, in fact church wouldn’t be church without you!

So let’s look back with thankfulness and continue to look forward with passion and expectancy as we move forward and build His Church. The way of life winds upwards for the wise (Pro 15:24), so let’s commit to moving upwards and onwards in pursuit of Him.

Thanks Church,
Ed & Michele

The women of Ribble Valley Church recently went to Cherish Conference at Abundant Life Church in Bradford. They came back inspired and refreshed! Why not post a comment below and let us know your favorite bits about Cherish 2010?

You can book tickets online here.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet” – God may have said when He was half way through creating the world, King David may have said as he chose Solomon to take over the throne in Israel, Jesus may have said it to the disciples before the day of Pentecost. In fact, it seems to me, that everybody who faithfully and passionately follows God can always use the refrain “You ain’t seen nothing yet”, as our future is always destined to more and bigger than our past because of God working through us. I can’t wait to see it in your life, in my life and in the life of the Church.

We’ve had two unbelievable weekends at Ribble Valley Church as we come to the middle of Five Hot Weekends. Ps Mark Foster and Ps Stephen Matthew both blessed our church in a mighty way. And the best part is, we’re spiralling upwards with three more weekends to go. The best is yet to come with Ps Luke Brendling, Ps Rachel Hickson, and a great friend of Ribble Valley Church, Ps Derek Smith bringing the Word on the final weekend. Do whatever you can to be there and bring a friend with you!

Ps. Ed

It’s almost HERE.

We’ve been talking about it for weeks now and it’s almost time to kick off FIVE HOT WEEKENDS on the 23rd May. Just in case you hadn’t seen it, you can read up about Five Hot Weekends here.

It’s been a huge blessing to see all that God has done in the first few months of 2010, and we’re believing that the best is yet to come for the people of the Ribble Valley and beyond!

THREE WAYS YOU CAN GET INVOLVED -

1) Sign up for our Community Action Projects. These are happening every Saturday during the Five Hot Weekends and involve us rising up and BEING the hands and feet of Jesus in our communities. You know the saying ‘actions speak louder than words’? Well we’re going to put it into action and SERVE and LOVE people. Sign up in the foyer at church on Sunday.

2) Distribute publicity. We have hundreds of posters and flyers for YOU to use and you can take them free of charge. Where could you put posters up or distribute leaflets? Firstly, to your friends! Also, maybe at your school or college Christian Union, or perhaps the place you work? You can pick them up on Sunday in the foyer at church.

3) Come on Sundays and BRING someone with you! Five Hot Weekends is all about people connecting with God so make sure YOU are there! And it’s too good/important to keep to ourselves. Bring someone with you! Every Sunday at 10:30am and 6pm (here’s a map). EVERY Sunday at Valley is special because of the fantastic people who bless each other just by being there. Don’t miss out!

You and your friends will be greatly blessed with passionate worship and by each of our special guests who are travelling from all over the nation to bring God’s Word to us.