A few weeks back I was in Turkey on honeymoon. Being fairly nerdish, Mel and I decided to go check out the local history. Needless to say, we saw some pretty amazing stuff in the region known in the Bible as Asia Minor.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to any of the big name places you’ve read about like Ephesus or Pergamum, but we did see some other amazing places.

We were privileged to walk the same roads as Paul would have done on his first missionary journey in the ancient ruined town of Perge, and we saw a couple of amazing Roman theatres. Check out the video below to see what I mean… the thing would’ve seated 15,000 in its time and there are many others like it throughout Turkey. The thing that blew me away most… well, you’ll have to watch the video to find out.

You heard right! The early church took this place over and worshipped here. Isn’t that amazing? That the main entertainment venues in the land were being used by the church?! It would be like the M.E.N. arena in Manchester or the N.E.C. in Birmingham being used for church weekly. That would be a BIG church.

And here’s the thing… that’s not too big for God.

It’s amazing to be part of a church that is constantly believing for growth, every ONE matters to God, so let’s reach a LOT of one’s and be a part of something that changes the region and beyond.

What amazing spring we have been having! As many of you know I have been involved in helping my dad lamb his sheep this year – the weather has been very kind to us and the 300+ lambs we now have. We will look after them for 16 weeks or more before we sell them on.

How different things were in the Old Testament where the farmers would keep all the lambs they could; they brought food, wealth and security to the family. Hence when God called them to sacrifice them as part of the ‘atoning’ (making right) their sin (rebellion against God’s holiness) it was a costly exercise and a reminder that it was no small thing to do wrong.

In the New Testament Jesus is called the Lamb of God – God’s perfect plan to ‘atone’ for man’s sin – proving once and for all both the costly nature of sin, and the amazing love God has for us as His creation. Celebrate and tell others these amazing things as if you had only just heard them!!

- Ed

Getting fed? The last time I checked, the only group of healthy people who need feeding are infants. Healthy people, who have full use of all their faculties, feed themselves. We pick up our knife and fork and we tuck in. We can feed ourselves.

Why is it then that one of the most common objections I hear from so called ‘mature’ Christians is “I’m just not getting fed”? I’m sorry, but by very definition, you don’t get fed once you’re mature. You get fed as an infant.

It would be insane for us to go without food for six days every week and then chow down on a huge meal once or twice a Sunday. As Christians we’re meant to feed ourselves from the living Word of God daily, and if you don’t have a Bible, we’ll give you one in church on Sunday.

I’ve found that most of the time, when people complain about not getting fed, they have missed some very important aspects of the Christian Way -

• Paul says in Hebrews 5:14 that “Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil”. This means that maturity is found in living right, NOT knowing the most.
• In the next few verses in Hebrews 6:1-2, Paul explains some of the basics. He mentions the Resurrection from the Dead in there. I’ve been in churches or in conversations with people who are trying to be ‘deep’ who teach and talk about end times eschatology but have no zeal for reaching the lost. What’s the point?

Be extremely wary of the one who can debate doctrine but who doesn’t live it. Paul warns Timothy about these people in 1 Timothy 1:6 – “Certain persons, by swerving from these [verse 5 explains; love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith], have wandered away into vain discussion.”

Let’s never be people who trivialise and discuss doctrine without demonstrating love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith.

If your theology produces anything but these it is at best, missing the main point and at worst, very very wrong.

If you want to go ‘deeper’ in the Word… If you want a more ‘intimate’ time of worship… If you want to develop a ‘greater sense’ of community… then what are you doing the other six days of the week? Please don’t wait for Sunday to feed all your spiritual cravings. It won’t work.

If you’re not getting fed, you’re probably not bringing your spoon.

- Dave

Yesterday was the penultimate Sunday in our Planted Series. Over the last couple of months, we have really explored what it means to be a person who is truly planted in the House of the Lord. We’ve gone through many of the values that create the Kingdom Culture that we are trying to cultivate at Ribble Valley Church and yesterday was no exception. Here’s a quick recap on what was said -

Life is about choosing to make great choices

Ps Ed shared nine different decisions that he is working on and encouraged us to do the same -

1. I choose to put God first and obey everything He says, even if it doesn’t make sense at the time.
2. I choose to read the Bible, think about it and do what it says.
3. I choose to communicate with God, which includes talking AND listening.
4. I choose to engage my brain in life.
5. I choose to do the right thing at the right time in the right way, at whatever the personal cost.
6. I choose to change what I can and not worry about the rest.
7. I choose to make great choices in small things just as much as big things.
8. I choose to ask advice from others.
9. I choose to help the church fulfil its mission.

Your choices REALLY DO matter and they affect you and those around you. Don’t take your choices lightly. Consistency in the small things leads to opportunity and increase in the big things of our lives.

Apparently, we make around 500 choices a day on average, so let’s try and make every choice as if Jesus was standing right there with us. After all, He is IN you!

Keep coming back to the blog, we post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with recaps like this one and articles from the pastors. You can also sign up to the RSS feed here, where you can automatically receive updates to your email inbox or to a reader like Google Reader or on your martphone with various apps.

Have a great week everyone, see you on Sunday for the last Sunday in the Planted Series.

Howdy Guys!

I’m currently in my eighth month of my internship; it’s gone by so fast! But they do say time flies when you’re having fun!

2010 was the most crazy and BY FAR the best year of my life! I found my purpose through Jesus Christ, jumped fully in on building the Kingdom and found myself applying for Valley Interns… an epic decision!

Every week brings new challenges, opportunities and achievements. Be it admin jobs, top one-to-one teaching with Pastor Ed and Chele or one of the core team members, taking time to grow spiritually with God, or listening to countless James Baker jokes! It’s amazing and I couldn’t think of any better way to spend a year out!

It’s an honour and privilege to be doing life you with you guys at Ribble Valley, to be working in the amazing office of world changers and to represent Jesus! I would seriously recommend the internship to you. Yes, you! DO IT! It’s wicked!

That’s all from me for now, as I think I’ve gone on a little too long, but hey! It’s an exciting thing to talk about!! If you want to know more, definitely come and find me on Sunday!

Tatty Bye!
- Chrissie

I don’t know how often you look in to the sky and try and count the stars.

I often do on a clear night, and remember the time I was staying on top of the moors outside Sheffield. We were in the middle of a youth camp and had heard that there would be an amazing show of shooting stars so went out to have a look. The shooting stars were good, as we saw dozens, however with no cloud and no other lights about we saw the true number of stars, the night sky was full of them! Countless millions twinkling away — truly breathtaking!!

Last week I saw on TV what I thought was a galaxy of stars, and then the camera moved in – and actually these were not stars but each light was a galaxy of stars all by itself! The commentator said it was one of millions of groups of galaxies in our universe, such vastness is difficult to take in.
 
 
Welcome to everything that God is!!