No.8 9th August 2024
Hi,
Hope this finds you well.
It's been a busy, busy few days for the team leading the Community Week activities - some images from the week are below and we will hear more on Sunday morning and next week no doubt!
But we are grateful to those who have been engaged all week in various ways - often with these kind of weeks it is simply the working together which can be the surprise highlight... there have been lots of seeds sown, bible verses have been read and learned, opportunities to serve have been taken up and lots acts of kindness and times of prayer and fellowship in between.
Enjoy the mag.
M
Sunday 11th August, 10.30am
Holiday Club Service
Scripture - 1st Corinthians 9:24,25
At Sunday morning's service we will hear what has been going on through the week at the various activities, esp the Holiday Club.
And we are going to have a special focus to pray for all our school leavers at Mearns Free Church.
Some are staying around Newton Mearns and some are heading off.
During the service, we will gather them up front to lift them up in prayer as they transition into new chapters of their lives.
It will be an opportunity to support and bless these young adults on their journeys ahead.
LARGE PRINT
If you would prefer to have a large print copy of the song words which appear on the screen on a Sunday morning let the door team know.
We don't want to print copies which aren't used so just the team know and we can organise that for you.
If you require a lift to get to church email office@mearnsfree.org
Letter from the Manse
Dear Congregation,
What a fantastic time we have had during the first Mearns Free Church “Community Week”. We had between 29-35 primary school children attend each day and 15-20 young assistants (most in their teens). We could not have run the week without our great assistants!
It was super to have members of the congregation come and pray each day on-site and I know many of you have been praying from other places. I doubt we could have accommodated too many more than were present for Café Connect on Tuesday afternoon. We had a great film night on Wednesday and though we did not have a “beach-BBQ” we did have a “Belmont-BBQ”.
It was great to have a “parents & toddler café”. On some days we had up to six parents remaining to talk.
With added adult help, we have had a wonderful team effort. Well done to all, but a special thanks are most certainly due to Pauline and Jacob who initiated the week and helped organise us all.
Perhaps the most successful aspect of the week lay in the fact that most of the primary school children present do not attend our church and had come from a mixture of backgrounds. How wonderful! It was a week of children and parents from the community indeed!
On the Friday night, we had a Scottish/Chinese cultural evening marking the upbringing of Eric Liddle, the Scottish Christian athlete who won Gold for GB in Paris 100 years ago in the 1924 Olympics.
Liddle was born in China to Scottish parents. Liddle was brought to faith in Jesus as a young man. When he saw that the Olympic 100m heats were on a Sunday he made a decision. Already convicted from the Scriptures that Sunday was the Lord’s Day for worship and rest, he refused to run. Despite pressure from others and the fact he was favourite to win, he sat them out. As we have been learning from Romans 14 in Sunday worship, he rightly followed his conscience. He believed from the bible it would have been wrong to run on the Sunday and so, it would have been a sin for him to run (Romans 14.14&23). Martin Luther, the 16th-century reformer once said, “…my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."
Liddle knew that his worth in life was not based on the momentary success that an Olympic medal would bring. Rather, he knew that this value had already been gifted to him by God.
Opportunity arose for Liddle to run in the 400m instead, a race with a very different skill set. He not only won gold in the 400m, but gained a new world record time!
Having been reared and educated in Scotland, Liddle later returned to China as a missionary. He was imprisoned by the Japanese in China during the Second World War and died in the prisoner-of-war camp in 1945. A memorial stone was erected to remember his life and death in Weifang, China.
It is very tempting to bow to external pressure rather than to do what we believe God would want us to do. It is also extremely tempting to seek meaning in life in momentary successes and experiences rather than seeking to glorify God in the things of everyday life. The Lord gifts eternal medals (crowns) to all who take up that life-long goal!
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:25-27)
With warmest regards,
Scott
Community Week Gallery
Morning Team Time - "Hands up if you think Jacob should have a red shirt on!"
Scott hovering at each table:
'Are you going to finish that scone?'
Great afternoon for the Community Week
Cafe Connect
Having no clear upper age level at the Youth Event on Tuesday backfired terribly.
Always interesting to see the destinations people choose for their holidays
New Email Addresses For Mearns Free Church
Please make sure you change your email address list.
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Tom Brown (Office): office@mearnsfree.org
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Minister: minister@mearnsfree.org
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Sandy McDougall (Treasurer): finance@mearnsfree.org
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Pauline (Children and families worker): children@mearnsfree.org
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Jacob (Ministry Associate): youth@mearnsfree.org
Ladybird Book of Mearns Free Church
A Warm Asparagus Milkshake or the Living Water of the Gospel?
SCOTTY SMITH
“’God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up…” (1Pet. 5:5-6)
Heavenly Father, I regret hiring a “Christian” plumber that had a “Jesus fish” on his business card but left a drippy pipe under my house. I regret not going on a fishing trip that brought home a few Yellow Finn tuna. I regret not buying Apple stock when it was $22.00 a share.
BUT, I have never regretted humbling myself before you. Humility is the welcome mat, open door, and big hug that leads me to the dance floor of your grace. It’s not rocket science, it’s Gospel-sanity: Staying proud, getting defensive, making excuses, ignoring your Spirit’s convicting work … these things never end well.
Really? Who in their right mind and heart wants to experience your opposition? That’s like me trying to kayak my way up Niagara Falls, or betting on my golf game against Scottie Scheffler. Or, instead of choosing a free helicopter ride out of the bottom of the Grand Canyon, choosing to hike out on two broken ankles wearing a 100 backpack.
By your Holy Spirit, Father, show us where we have chosen pride over humility, a stiff neck over bent knees, saving face over saving grace, a warm asparagus milkshake over the living water of the Gospel. Never let us forget that grace always runs downhill… always. So Very Amen.
Concert at NMBC - 18th August
Can you get along to this concert?
The link for FREE tickets is here.
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SATURDAY 14th SEPTEMBER
We have a St Andrews First Aid course entitled "Emergency First Aid" (plus baby and child CPR) booked and have some spaces available.
Click
here to see details of booking.
This is a 4 hour course, starting at 10am and will likely be held at Belmont. We have secured a discounted rate of £83.40 per person.
Contact Pauline if you'd like to book a space.
Safeguarding in Mearns Free Church
One of our priorities now that we are in the Free Church is to ensure that we comply with the Free Church’s safeguarding policy and processes. Our safeguarding team is here to help everyone to do what is required; our safeguarding team comprises Sue Anderson (Safeguarding Coordinator) and Ian Forgie (Deputy Safeguarding Coordinator) assisted by Marlene Smith, Sue Amery-Behr and Alastair McLellan.
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
We are in a series looking at aspects of the Gospel.
Don Carson has a short booklet based on this exposition of 1 Corinthians 15:1-19 from the plenary address at The Gospel Coalition's inaugural public conference in 2007
"I shall try to bring things to clarity by focusing on eight summarizing words (six of which were first suggested by John Stott), five clarifying sentences, and one evocative summary.
1. The Gospel Is Christological; It Is Christ-Centered
2. The Gospel is Theological
3. The Gospel Is Biblical
4. The Gospel is Apostolic
5. The Gospel is Historical
6. The Gospel Is Personal
7. The Gospel Is Universal
The Gospel Is Eschatological (ie. relating to the end of the world or the events associated with it in eschatology.)
This could be teased out in many ways, for the gospel is eschatological in more ways than one. For instance, some of the blessings Christians receive today are essentially eschatological blessings, blessings belonging to the end, even if they have been brought back into time and are already ours. Already God declares his blood-bought, Spirit-regenerated, people to be justified: the final declarative sentence from the end of the age has already been pronounced on Christ’s people, because of what Jesus Christ has done. We are already justified—and so the gospel is in that sense eschatological. Yet there is another sense in which this gospel is eschatological. In the chapter before us, Paul focuses in vv. 50 and following on the final transformation:
I declare to you, brothers that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
It is not enough to focus narrowly on the blessings Christians enjoy in Christ in this age: the gospel is eschatological.
So what Paul preaches, as a matter of first importance, is that the gospel is Christological, theological, biblical, apostolic, historical, personal, universal, and eschatological.
B.Y.O.C. please
CAN YOU HELP?
it makes such a difference if people bring their own cups rather than using the disposable ones each week - can you help?
Mearns Free Church has a What's App Group for Prayer
Here are some details on what it is about... read to the bottom and then find out how you can be involved...
Purpose: A platform to share information regarding a sudden need of prayer
Speak to Margaret Boyd if you would like to be added to this group or email your details to mandmboyd@hotmail.co.uk
You need WhatsApp on your phone to get set up.