‘Live as children of  light … and find out what pleases the Lord’ – Part of Grant’s scripture he has chosen for this week’s service.  Grant will be looking at Unity and truth, and whether we should compromise one for the other.

Pastor Hodges the visiting speaker today, is part of the team at the British Union Conference Offices in Watford.  Alan heads up the Ministerial Association which supports the ministry with a ministerial counselling service, Internship evaluations and professional reviews of the Pastors.

Pastor Hodges will be taking Matt 14:22-33 as his text, the sermon title is ‘Walking on the water’ -  “Christ always inspires faith in the hearts of those who really know Him. He is never as happy as when men and women trust him completely”.

Patience ~ the hallmark of a Saint:

A hallmark is the  official mark that goldsmiths use to attest to the purity of their metal.  Patience is the official mark attesting to the purity of sainthood.

Four examples of impatience:

1.  King Saul chafing at the prophet Samuel’s delay performed the work of the prophet himself by offering the sacrifice for Israel’s success in battle

2.  Esau – because of his impatience surrendered his birthright for a bowl of stew

3.  The Lord had planned that Moses deliver Israel immediately from Egypt.  Moses felt that the Lord was moving too slowly so he took m aters into his own hands by killing the Egyptian.   The Lord sent him into the wilderness for forty years to learn the art of patience.

4.  When a village rejected Jesus, James and John were impatient for revenge and wanted Jesus to call fire down from heaven to destroy that village.

There are four significant ways by which we can develop patience: by learning how to wait (Psalms 37:7); Patience thrives best in the soil of affliction (Romans 5:3); 2Peter 1:5,6 – these verses are part of Peter’s ladder for the strong development of a strong spiritual life; the quality of life that will help a person to attain patience is the love of Christ in their heart (1 Cor 13:4) “Love suffereth long”.

Luke 21:19 “In your patience possess ye your souls”.

Pastor Riches’ sermon title is ‘Thick Heads!’ -  Looking at Mark 16:9-14, he explores the reaction of the disciples and other followers to the news of Jesus’ being alive – their complete disbelief and lack of faith.

The name ‘church’ holds so much meaning for many people. It is what we love and sometimes hate. It is what we want to preserve as well as change.

Our teaching about church is full of irony. The church is where the saints worship, but is full of sinners.

The service this week will explore some of the challenges that we have with ‘church’ but find how God still loves it, because he loves all those it holds within his all encompassing arms of grace.

Come along for soup, bread and a good discussion…

The optician may tell you that you are a little short sighted and this could mean that you miss out on some
wonderful sights without the help of corrective glasses. However, the Apostle Peter reminds us that we can become
spiritually short sighted – which is a far more serious condition – and could mean that we miss out on a lot in our life time
and possibly even miss out on Eternal Life.

The young folks are putting on a gospel concert to fundraise for the Pathfinder trip to Finland.

The musicians are all people attending Crieff Church who are bringing their talents together for this concert.

Join us for our Sabbath (Saturday) morning service.

Football – for better or worse is going to dominate our media for the next month. The international rivalry will build or hurt our relationships together. Christians have a mixed response to sport. We love the opportunity for health exercise, but question the fanaticism that sometimes leads to a form of worship.

This Sabbath we will celebrate the positive influence of football in the lives of some of our members. We will also discover some of the lessons that Christians can learn from the ‘beautiful game’.

When we were created we were given the capacity to believe in God. As adults many choose to ignore their own brains and make every effort to reject God. Children are more able to accept the idea of God. Not just as a theoretical concept that wants them to behave in a moral way but as a spiritual being. Child-like faith is not naive it is pure. This Sabbath we will explore this pure child-like faith.

A Day of Fellowship is planned in Aberdeen at Cults Academy, Quarry Road, Cults, Aberdeen AB15 9TP on Sabbath 5th June.  10:00 Sabbath School, 11:15 Divine Service with guest speaker Pr Gifford Rhamie from Newbold college.  The theme is ‘the Church Family and the Community’.  2:30 Afternoon programme.  Churches from around  Scotland will be taking part in the service.  Please bring your own packed lunch and drinks.  Large dining area available.

alex, our youth leader will be taking the service today.  His sermon title is ‘Gethsamane Garden Prayer’

Salvation is a gift totally paid for by the death of Jesus on our behalf on the cross. So what are we expected to do in response to the gift? Do our good deeds count towards our salvation? This morning we will use the Bible, illustrations and a testimony to explain how Christ makes a practical difference in our lives.

“How to recognize and avoid deception…” with soup and bread.

Unless we’re very much deceived we’ll have an excellent discussion…

The service today will be taken by Pastor Bernie Holford, and the title of his sermon is ‘What on Earth is going on!’

I believe we find our search for purpose  and meaning when we a have a common understanding of the purpose of life (the big picture or paradigm). In the service on Sabbath we will be discovering that the Great Conflict or Controversy theme runs throughout Scripture. It tells of a battle between good and evil, between Christ and the Devil. We will also discover the God’s grace is the answer to Devil’s accusations. The battle continues to be fought in our lives through faith in Jesus Christ.

No, we’re no sure what it is either, dahling…

But soup is from Muriel and bread by Kate P.