Money can buy so many things that those who have it can so easily forget the things it cannot buy - it's a good thing to check up, every once in a while, that you haven't lost the things money can't buy.

Rev Mac took Luke 12: 16-20 as his text:
​16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ (Luke 12: 16-20 ​)
​

The old saying, "seeing is believing" is well established. Anything we can see with our own eyes is real; we can depend on it; trust it; rely on it.

Can we see air? Can we see electrons in the electricity wire that powers so much of what we take for granted in our homes and factories? Can we see the electo-magnetic waves above our heads that provide the mobile communications that we all rely so much on? 

We can't see so many things in our world and yet, they are real.

Joy, sadness, heartache, love, the bonds that bind people - all things that can't be seen yet they too are real. We can feel them and know that they are authentic, and have a lasting effect.

So there are things that we can't see and yet are definitely real and that endure.

At the same time there are things that look permanent - our coastline, mountains, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, and our physical bodies - that yet, are in the process of changing and, in fact are in the process of decay.

Paul reminds us that there is faith, hope and love - things we can't see but that are most real and last forever.

Paul said, We do not look at the things that can be seen. We look at the things that cannot be seen. The things that can be seen will come to an end. But the things that cannot be seen will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4: 18

Church organist, Leona Coulter and the choir performed, "The Power of the Cross" at out Easter Sunday Service 2017. You can listen to it again, here.

Dr Walker used the story of Peter's arrest and escape to illustrate the power of prayer.
​
While we are still asking, God is putting things in place....
He answers yes, no, or not yet....but keep praying.

And if you don't get the answer you think you should:
- it's not because you don't have enough faith
- it's not because you're not good enough
- it's not because God didn't want to

God knows the best pace for one thing to happen so that another can come to pass. God knows what we cannot possible see in front of us. Some things have to happen to fit in with the parts of the plan 'on the other side of Jerusalem' that we can't see.

Trust that He is working
Trust that He is caring.
Trust that He is listening and answering.

​We don't know who is standing outside the door until we open it.

Dr Heather Walker: When you pray you really do make a difference

Alister revealed that he wasn't the only member of his family to have preached from our pulpit. His uncle, the Rev Trevor Kennedy was the speaker at our Bowling Service back in November 2010.

Rev Dr Will Patterson encouraged the congregation not to avoid the prompting of God in our minds and lives. Abraham in Genesis Chapter 2, he said, was prompted by God to have faith, to "take a chance" and promised in return to:
- that he would be blessed, and
- be made a blessing to other people.
And God holds out these same promises to us.

A "blessing" in the bible is used to express the happiest, most perfect state of life; to face any odeal without fear; not to be anxious for tomorrow. Such a way of life cannot be attained ourselves nor can it be received from other people; it is the gift of a power greater than ourselves and can only come from God.

We can have faith and rely of God's promise to bless us
- and on His second promise - the desire that we should be a blessing to other people.

Don't avoid God's prompting but have faith is HIs promise
- It's too good an offer to refuse!

"Serve the Lord with gladness" - Rev Dr Will Patterson (7 February 2016)