Ripon Community Church

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09/12/2021

It is so easy to come under condemnation when we fail the Lord, especially if we have failed Him yet again for the same thing. God was speaking to me about this and I felt Him saying, 'Just thank Me. Thank Me with real gratitude in your heart for My saving grace and for My forgiveness!'
Despite what we may have done, He forgives straight away and it is important that we acknowledge that by thanking Him. Yes, we recognise what we have done, but then simply receive His forgiveness.

Peter asked the Lord how many times should he forgive his brother, seven times? But Jesus answered, No, seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:21) So how many times will God forgive us....? I am not suggesting that it doesn't matter how many times we sin, but coming to Jesus and thanking Him for His forgiveness does something in our heart where we will not want to sin!

The thing with condemnation, is that we then try and put things right ourselves. We determine we won't do it again or feel we have to please God in some way to earn our forgiveness. But that's just the thing....that's why Jesus died on the Cross. We can't earn our salvation or our forgiveness! Ephesians 2:8 says, 'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.' In John's gospel we read. 'God did not send His Son into the world to condemn everyone, but to save people from condemnation through faith in Him'.(John 3:17)

Faith is the key! We just have to believe it's true. It's our choice.....yet what a wonderful choice to make. What happened on the Cross is for all eternity. So don't allow the enemy to get his foot in the door any more by bringing condemnation, but turn and thank the Lord for His amazing saving grace.
'The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.' (Lamentations 3: 23-23) Be blessed.
Pastor Ted Bell

23/12/2020

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42: 1-3)

There is no greater place than knowing the presence of God in our lives.
The psalmist had come to that time where he longed once more to meet with God and know His indwelling presence. He was going through a difficult time and yet he knew that if he could just discover again that place of intimacy and fellowship with his God, his life would find the answer to his need!

'Emmanuel, God with us', are words that we hear very much at Christmas. It was the name spoken by the prophet declaring the birth of Jesus.(Matt 1:23) We know the story of His birth and know too what His coming meant for the whole world, yet perhaps we don't fully grasp it's significance for us personally? The word emmanuel didn't just mean He had come to earth to dwell with man, but rather that He had come to dwell in man. That He had come to live in mankind by His Spirit and in so doing reveal His very presence – the person of God Himself.
Today that is still the heart of God, that we will know His presence, and like the psalm ist, we will thirst after the Lord to discover more and more of God Himself! It is not just to meet a need or have a mystical experience, but rather for His life to be so dynamically revealed to us and in us, that no matter where or when, we are living in that certain knowledge of Him, person to person, and heart to heart!

A book came out some years ago called 'The God Chasers' by Tommy Tenney. He talked in the book about a growing hunger among people to know God and the realisation that even among Christians, few really knew God personally and experienced His presence.

Maybe you are in that place right now, where God seems distant and you find it hard to know that He is right there with you and longs to reveal His love for you. I want to encourage to put all your doubts and fears aside and with whatever you have in you, take that step and entrust yourself to Him. God is on the move, but He will put all aside to draw you to Himself. His presence is not so much an emotional experience but simply allowing yourself to be drawn to Him. As the Song of Songs says, 'draw me away with You and let us run together'. (S of S 1: 4 Ampl.)

Pastor Ted Bell

07/12/2020

I was reading the other day in Mark's gospel, of the story of the paralysed man who had to be lowered down to the feet of Jesus to get his healing when the crowds were so many that they couldn't get him to Jesus. (Mark 2: 3-12)
What spoke to me in this passage was the determination of the man and his friends to get to Jesus regardless! We all need a lot of determination at times, and especially during this strange season when so many things are changing around us and our daily lifestyle and needs have been so much affected!

When I reflected on this story, I began to realise that there were many instances in the gospels where those in need went beyond themselves to get an answer to their need. The woman with the issue of blood who was determined to get her healing and pushed through the crowd to touch the corner of Jesus's robe and then was instantly healed. (Luke 8; 42-48). Blind Bartimaeus on the road who continued to shout out for Jesus to heal him even though he was told to be quiet by the people around him. He got his healing! (Mark 10: 46-52). The Canaanite woman, who as a Gentile should not even be speaking to Jesus and then was seemingly rejected by Jesus, stood her ground and received her daughter's healing.

We sometimes feel that it is wrong to 'hammer on heaven's door' for our need. We may even feel we have to 'please' God in some way as we don't feel good enough or that we don't actually have enough faith for it to happen!

All the promises are there in scripture of His longing to give us the desires of our hearts. And meet our need. 'Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom ' (Luke 12: 32). 'Or if he asks for a fish, will hand him a serpent? If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and advantageous things to those who keep on asking Him!' (Matt 7:10-11).
'In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. ' (John 16: 23-24)
Surprisingly, all the stories above, Jesus commended as an act of faith. We shared last week about our personal faith and the need for us to trust the Lord. This 'determined faith' may just be another aspect of faith that we have not embraced as yet, but it certainly worked for those people then and I know it works still today for us!
Maybe in closing, picture yourself with whatever need you have right now, pushing aside anything that may hold you back, reaching out and touching the hem of Jesus's robe. Or maybe you think that God can't heal you or meet your need for whatever reason and so you've never asked or if you have, it hasn't worked! 'For all of the promises of God are 'yes' and in Him 'amen' to the glory of God through us' (2 Cor 1:20). So go for it and don't give up! He is faithful and longs to bring His provision into your life. '
'And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.' (Luke 6:19)
Pastor Ted Bell

26/11/2020

I am conscious that many Christians are struggling with their faith and feeling isolated during this prolonger pandemic.
We want to try and encourage you in your Christian walk and hopefully strengthen your faith. It is often during this times of challenge that we come to know a more intimate walk with the Lord and also His amazing provision for our lives. So if that's you, hang in there!

(We want to bring whatever encouragement we can over this season in our lives, so will share regular messages in the coming days.)

I'm including a message below that I shared with our church recently which was on the theme of standing in faith.

Today more than ever, it is important that we are living, fully trusting the Lord and not depending on our own resources. Not living in a place of hope, where that hope is looking for a change in our circumstances or in things that are happening around us,
The question we can always ask ourselves is, 'What am I believing for?'. Not so much in the future but in the 'now'!
We will all say of course, 'I am trusting Jesus', and hopefully even when difficult challenges hit our lives, that it will still be our confession. But the truth is, to the best of our ability, we need to be living in a place of faith all the time.
In Mark 11:22, Jesus tells the disciples after cursing the unfruitful fig tree, to 'Have faith in God'. This could also be translated as, 'Have the faith that God has', or as the Passion version says, 'Let the faith of God be in you'. Faith is always God given and we need to remember that it is not dependent on ourselves but upon Him.
Mark 11: 23-24 goes onto say, that if you believe and do not doubt, we can speak to the mountain and it will be removed! The key is in v.24 when Jesus says, 'whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that it is granted to you and you will get it'. In other words, when we pray in faith to Jesus and the Father, (who is the 'Author and Finisher of our faith' Heb 12:2), He will give it to us and importantly, we will know He will, because we've put all of our trust in Him to do it. So it's going to happen!
When we 'know' something is going to happen, not having seen it, that is faith! (Heb 11:1). Our natural human reasoning always wants to have more knowledge or understanding before it decides to trust and believe, or at least a good feeling about it. It looks for evidence that it could or will actually happen, but in reality the only 'evidence' we need, is Jesus and He faithfully lives in our hearts. (Rom. 10: 8-10).
In verse 23 we find the words, '….and does not doubt at all in his heart....'. This is a biggy! There could be a hundred and one reasons why we doubt... our fears, not feeling worthy or good enough or simply not believing it will happen. They all can cause a lack of faith in one way or another! The challenge is to put all of our doubts aside and simply go for it and trust God. (At the end of the day it's nothing to do with us anyway, it is always Jesus who will do it!)
As we saw in v.22, Jesus simply says, 'Have God's faith'. Right back at the beginning of creation, God spoke and the world came into being.....it wasn't there one minute and then it was! Wow! Are we supposed to have that sort of faith? Well, yes ! In our everyday there are opportunites to speak things into being. So, 'What are you believing for?' God in His grace and mercy provides for us, but He longs for us to believe more and more for our lives and the lives of others. We easily say, 'Nothing is impossible for God', but then not realise that as sons of God and joint heirs with Jesus (Rom. 8:14-17), we too are those for whom, 'nothing is impossible'!
In closing, I want to say that when we pray, God always hears us! Faith is a relationship and He loves us to put all our dependence on Him. We know we can trust His word and that, '... all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us'. ( 2 Cor 1:20) .
So, what is faith for us? Simply taking God at His word! We may feel very lacking at times but can I encourage you to step out and believe even when things look so difficult. We were never meant to struggle, but to speak to 'the mountain', or maybe it is some large mole hills, which are blocking our path right now. Lean on Him because He holds each of our lives lovingly in His hands.

03/07/2020

I shared last week for our church's Sunday Morning message from a passage many of us will know well. 'Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you; rise to a new life]! Shine – be radiant with the glory of the Lord; for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon!' . (Isaiah 60: 1 Amplified version)

I don't know about you, but there have been times over these last 15 or so weeks that circumstances have been such that I have felt a bit down and even depressed. We've all gone through a lot during this time and for some it's been fine, but for others it has been really challenging, as our lives have been turned upside down!
The passage above mentions 'prostration', for which my first thought was that of being flat out, exhausted on my face on the floor. Well I hope that has not been the case for you, but when I looked the word up in the dictionary, it said, 'burn out, collapse, fatigue, frazzle, lassitude, tiredness, weariness'. Another definition said, ' the state of having no strength or ability to do anything, for example, because you are very ill, very tired or very upset.' Again, some may have experienced some of those too!

But here's this passage in Isaiah saying, 'No, forget all that and rise up because you have a new life'! In fact more than that, 'Shine for God's glory is upon you. Your light is come!'
Now let me say at this point that in no way do I want to bring any condemnation on anybody. We all get tired and discouraged and feel 'yuk' at times. But when I was praying on the morning that I shared this message, feeling, yes, tired and a bit down, I felt God said that I was to get to my feet and with all my strength declare the truth of who I really was! That I was in Christ and Christ was in me, that all the power of the God head was mine, that I was to rejoice in His goodness and in His love. That this day was going too be a great day and that He was my strength and my victory!
It was at this point that I was reminded of the above passage. Have you noticed that you read a scripture and what it says is really challenging at the time? It takes all of your energy and determination to do what it says! But when you do, something starts to happen inside of you. Hebrews 4:12 says, 'For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power....' It's not so much what it says, but what's behind it. The 'What' of course is Jesus! His power, His authority, His life, His salvation, His healing, His deliverance, His love....we could go on and on!
'He' gets revealed in us! He gets released in us! Faith and hope starts to arise and we begin to see and perceive things differently and before long, things fall away and like the dawn of a new day, we take hold of the truth and reality of God Himself shining in upon us!

So, coming back to, 'Arise and shine for your light is come...', as one translation says, I believe that there is a powerful anointing on those words for this day and generation in which we are living. We are to take those words as a declaration over our lives and receive the power that is in them to release us from any 'depression or prostration' we may be feeling or anything else we may be going through and give a great victory shout over our lives. These are the days of the victory of the Cross and all it means for us and mankind. It is the place where every negative thing was defeated and replaced with the freedom and joy of the very presence and power of God; a place where we can walk in His victory, each and every day.
Verse 2 of the passage says, '…..darkness shall cover the earth', but then it says, '….but the Lord shall arise upon you and His glory shall be seen on you'. It may be hard to fully understand what His glory really is, but I believe it is that full revelation of all that God is. Jesus, the Light of the World is that full revelation of His glory, and we are told that that glory is on us and that we are to let it shine for all to see.
Put simply, He has arisen on us, so now we can in faith and assurance rise up too and boldly declare in truth, the goodness of God and as we do, His glory will shine out of us for all to see. As somebody said, the darker it gets, the more others will see our light.
Shine Jesus, shine!

Pastor Ted Bell

29/05/2020

As we celebrate Pentecost this weekend, I believe that it is going to be a significant time, especially as we embrace all that Pentecost meant for those early disciples generations ago, and for us in these days as we anticipate a real move of God and His Spirit into this generation!
God has been preparing our hearts for what He wants to do in and through us, but He has also been opening the hearts of people in the nations, for them to hear and receive the gospel in these challenging days. People who have suddenly had to face the frailty of life and death itself and then having to face a future of great uncertainty!
During this lockdown period, God has been speaking into our lives. For some, it maybe that we have spent more time with the Lord and been able to deepen our walk with Him, or He has given us a fresh revelation of who He is and who we are in Him. For others, to lay aside the past and embrace fully the new life He has given us in Christ. But whatever it is, He is certainly readying us for all that He has planned in the coming days!
I shared the other week about a message on God’s love given by Bill Johnson from Bethel Church in Redding, California on Easter Sunday morning. He emphased the incredible love God has for the whole of humanity. He also explained how everything that God does or allows for His people is so that we will know His love no matter what! ‘If God (in His love) is for us, then who can be against us”. (Romans 8:31)
Pentecost at the end of the day is all about God’s love. It wasn’t just that people needed to be saved, but that they would also come to know that there was a Father who loved them. Wasn’t the Holy Spirit a gift from the Father, and doesn’t Paul say in Romans 5:5b, ‘...for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.’ That love was freely expressed by Jesus in His redemption and His saving grace for mankind on the Cross, and made available to everyone regardless of race, creed or nationality!
We stand today in a similar position to those early disciples. We’ve seen over the last decades man rejecting God and deciding that He wasn’t relevant any more. However the present crisis is changing all of that and many are searching for truth and thousands are turning to the Bible for answers for their lives. People are looking for reality and that reality we know is in His love for each and everyone.
As God has personally been renewing and refreshing us, I believe for all that we love His provision and blessings individually on our lives, that increasingly we are to see that now is His time to pour out the blessing of His Spirit and His love afresh on this generation and that we are to be the ones to go out into our streets and communities with that love and in the power of His Spirit. Don’t misunderstand me, God’s personal blessings are not wrong, in fact I know that He is showering an abundance of blessing on His people at this time. It is just that we need to centre our faith on the needs of those about us and to see them through His eyes and from His heart, even if it means putting aside our own needs! The amazing thing is, that when we choose to love and give to others, He always meets our needs at the same time, even without our asking!
When those early disciples went out into their community, something amazing happened and I believe will happen to us as we do the same! A new boldness born of the Spirit filled their lives! Their fears disappeared, and with it their concerns and insecurities. Their anxieties went out the window and any feelings of their unworthiness were forgotten!. Even what was going to happen in the future was so given to the Lord, that they only viewed it with excitement and anticipation at what He was going to do!
This was a new day and a day of new beginnings. The past was behind them and any negative uncertainty and doubt was replaced with a dunamis (dynamite) faith that only wanted to see Jesus glorified. They no longer did anything in their own strength, they just did what the Spirit showed them to do and we know the fruit of what happened! Miracles and multitudes saved! It all came about through the witness and ministry of a group of very ordinary men who chose to give whatever they could to see God’s Kingdom life established on this earth.
My prayer is that we will be so open in these days to a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit in our lives, that any hesitation we may have will be put aside. Jesus said, ‘Look I say to you, raise your eyes and observe the fields and see, they are white for harvest’ (John 4:35)
There’s a mounting grace on the Church in these days, and it’s a grace of His provision to be able to do what in the natural we would find it hard to do. We will not need to do anything of ourselves. It will be entirely His work! All we need to do is be available. With that dependency and trust, we will have the greatest opportunity to change this nation and the nations of the world with the revelation and saving power of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Ted Bell

24/04/2020

I've been hearing a lot about God's love recently. It was only last week that we celebrated Easter and that victory of God's love in Jesus as He shouted, 'It is finished' on the Cross.' Amazingly, it was not just His suffering that was ended that day, but every torment of mankind, whether sin or sickness or death itself. All broken by the power of God's love. As Jesus died for mankind and as He rose from the dead on that resurrection day, He once and for all restored us to fellowship with Himself and to the Father. That love was not nemulous, but so very real and personally ours, that Jesus would have died just for you!
As I reflect on His love, I realise that everything we do is out of a desire to be loved and to receive His love.. This sounds a bit extreme, because we know of course that not everything we do is right. Man was created in God's image and in His love, and although man has perverted that image and that love, deep in our hearts we all desire to be fulfilled and blessed in the assurance of a love which solely has it's source in Him! His love encompasses everything we will ever need and once embraced brings true peace and joy, with an overwelming sense of acceptance and affirmation of being His.
It is interesting that sin is the only thing that separates us from His love. When we do, we are called us to repent and ask for forgiveness! Surprisingly, true repentance is simply turning around and doing the opposite thing. If we don't of course, we end up feeling guilty or condemned, or we try to jusifiy ourselves for what we've done, or we ignore what we've done and then end up doing the same thing again!
Though repentance may seem hard at the time, it is actually the best thing to do because when we do repent and 'turn around', we turn to the One who understands perfectly what we are going through, and with His amazing love immediately forgives us. In His grace He doesn't demand anything more from us, but for us, this is the time when we need to fully embrace His love. Why? Because it's the power of that love that changes us, and actually establishes a right way of living in our hearts and so keeps us from continuing in our old selfish ways.
The question is, are we able to fully receive His love ? For some reason after our failures and mistakes in life, we find it hard to accept and receive that love. The truth is that so many of us are still trying to please God through our own efforts. Or feel that we have to earn His forgiveness and acceptance. Some have a poor self image and feel unworthy, so much so, that they can't accept that He truly does love them! We happily quote, 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.' (2 Cor 5:17), but deep down we struggle to believe it, primarily because we still see so much 'of the old' in us! Yet this is the miracle of love, that He took all of us to the Cross. He took our guilt. He took our shame, He took our lack of self worth. He took our old self nature and gave us an entirely new beginning. A new beginning that has it's life in Him and nolonger in ourselves (Gal 2:20). That is the key to living a full, redeemed, victorious life. We are set free from the bounds of our self life and now live free in Him, and experience His incredible love for us! He then becomes a resting place, where we nolonger have to strive or try to get it right. He is our right – eousness, and as we live, trusting in Him, we find everything taking it's rightful place and knowing His abiding presence that gives us victory in every situation!
His love is a free gift, not just for us, but for every human being on the face of the earth! That gift lies open before us with no strings attached.(they've been removed!) He is here to meet our every need, now and in the future, all safely in His hands.
Maybe you are reading this and you don't know Him yet as the One who died for you and gave His life, so that you '... would have life in all it's fullness' (John 10:10b). All He asks you to do is to put your trust in Him. He's been the answer for life all along. He's just been waiting for this moment to meet with you and today is your opportunity.

Pastor Ted Bell

03/04/2020

Due to the Corona virus, all of a sudden we are finding we have lots of time on our hands! I think the great temptation would be after getting all those previously put aside jobs done, to just sit back and put our feet up and wait for eveything to get back to normal!
However, I believe this is a time of real blessing for us as His people during this strange season. It is as though God has given us a sabbatical, when as the word means, we can rest and to be restored, be strengthened and maybe for some, renew their relationship with the Lord.
God loves it when we take time to fellowship with Him. Not just reading our bible and praying, but taking our time to get to know Him more and seeking Him for revelation for our lives. (Colossians 2: 6-7)

Maybe the pace of our lives up to now has been such that other things have taken priority or we've ended up being busy with things that we feel are important, but actually do nothing for our walk with the Lord!
I've been reading a book called 'He sat down (so you can too)' by Wes Raley about the need for us to learn to rest in the Lord. He initially centres the opening chapters around the verse in Ephesians 2: 6 …...'we are seated with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus'. You will need to read it to get the full message of the book, but suffice to say it's all about learning to stop what are doing and living in the rest and total provision that Jesus won for us on the cross.

Can I encourage you to use this time to really get to know Him more, to build up your faith, and to be established and encouraged in the calling He has placed on our life.
The world tomorrow may be a very different place, but whatever happens, I believe many will be viewing life very differently and wondering what will happen next! Surely a great opportunity for sharing the gospel and revealing from our own lives, the incredible love God has for each and everyone.
Pastor Ted Bell

25/03/2020

I am sure many of us will have experienced an element of fear and apprehension at the circumstances that have been happening around us over the last days and weeks. We are, maybe, all familiar with the hymn, 'Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine...'. The writer of the hymn, F***y Crosby must have had a real encounter with Jesus to write those words. She knew He was the answer for her life and that He was the greatest assurance she could ever have, watching over her life!
We certainly need to know more than ever in these days, that He is our 'blessed assurance', an assurance of faith and trust in our walk with the Lord.
The thing with any prevailing fear, is that it counteracts faith and so we doubt the truth that normally we would stand on and declare over our lives and situations. That knowing of God's love for our lives, also gets diminished as the enemy of our souls comes with his lies and accusations.
I've started re-reading the book by Colin Urquhart called 'The blood speaks'. In this book, he reminds us of all that the blood of Jesus has done for us. - not just our forgiveness, but the power of that blood which has overcome all the power of the evil one. Because we are in Christ and Christ is in us, in essence His blood, metaphorically is in us! It has power over sickness, over disease, in fact it gives protection over very area of our lives.
At times like these, we are challenged to really put into perspective what we believe in regard to our faith. We easily say 'I trust in Jesus', but when difficulties come, how assured are we, that no matter what happens, He is our protector, He is our victory over every circumstance.
Maybe for some, it is a time to entrust our lives fully into His hands. He is faithful and ...'He will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus' (Phil 4:19).
As a church we have been listening on line to a message which was very timely for today, centred on Psalm 91. (I wonder if the psalmist was in a similar situation as we are now, when he wrote it!)
The promises in the psalm are so powerful and certainly do apply for us today, so can I encourage you to read the psalm as an act of faith and speak it over your life and over your family.
Be blessed and be encouraged, for the Lord will keep you and protect you as you put all of your trust in Him.

Ted Bell – Pastor Ripon Community Church

29/02/2020

In a world where for the moment fear is making the headlines. We as a praying Church, continue to pray for the health and safety of all.
One of the most powerful ways to do this, is too read the Lords word. Psalm 91 is a wonderful, powerful and mind relaxing read if you are feeling down, are worried or in distress.
God Bless you all.

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Community House, Sharow View, Allhallowgate
Ripon
HG41LE

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