Sunday 21 July, 2019 – 11h00
Welcome to the Scots Kirk Paris
If you are visiting, know that you are welcome and please take the greetings of the Scots Kirk Paris back home. If you are settling in Paris, may you find a home here. Please sign the “visitor’s book” on the entrance table and join us for refreshments after the service. Mobile phone switched off…?
Call to Worship
Psalm 8:1-9 NIV
Hymn 111 Holy,holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
Prayer
Hymn 154 O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Children’s talk – Alisdair Gould
Hymn 174 God of great and God of small
Reading (Carleton Horner)
Ezekiel 1:1, 3-6, 10, 28 NIV
In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the Lord was on him. I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
Revelation 4:1-11 NIV
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
Sermon
5 People you meet in heaven – no 5…
Offering
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Welcome and Intimations
Hymn 484 Great God, your love has called us here
Benediction
May the Lord bless you
May the Lord keep you
May the Lord make his face
To shine upon you
May the Lord bless you
May the Lord keep you
May the Lord make his face
To shine upon you
And give you peace
And give you peace
This is the last week of our series on
“5 people you meet in heaven”
The idea was born from the book by Mitch Album titled “The 5 People you meet in heaven.” In our approach “heaven” is not “a place we go after we die”. Heaven is a metaphor for the deepest reality we carry within ourselves. It is a place of God’s truth. It is a metaphor for our real feelings, thoughts and actions, often hidden from ourselves and others. In this series of services we reflect on the truth about ourselves (1), our relationship with our parents (2), our relationship with someone who has hurt us (3). Last week we reflected on the 4th person – someone who had given you the gift of God’s presence. Today we will look at the “fifth Person we meet in heaven”. May today’s listening to God’s word be a blessing to us all.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT??? It is important because your world of thought and your relationships are important - and they are all connected. Relationships have “an eternal character” and lasting effects on our lives.
So you say you do not believe in “God”??? If you told me about the “God” you do not believe in, you might discover that I don’t believe in that “God” too!!!
"Astronomy is the alphabet of theology" John Calvin
“And, indeed, astrology may justly be called the alphabet of theology; for no one can with a right mind come to the contemplation of the celestial framework, without being enraptured with admiration at the display of God’s wisdom, as well as of his power and goodness. … for when the sun, in its daily course, completes so great and so immense a distance, they who are not amazed at such a miracle must be more than stupid; and then the sun, as it is well known, has its own course, which is performed every year, and never passes in the least beyond its own boundaries; and the bulk of that body is immense (for, as it is well known, it far exceeds the earth,) and yet it rolls with great celerity and at the same time in such order as though it advanced by degrees quietly. Surely it is a wonderful specimen of God’s wisdom. …
The fourth reason astronomy is the alphabet of theology has to do with the way that the study of the heavens should free us of our carnal and earthly conceptions of God….”
Intimations
This week the church will not be open on Wednesday. No Bible Study on Wednesday or Prayer on Tuesday 7pm.
Gifts for the homeless men: please see the list of items on the wall above the basket and bring what you can to help the homeless men in Paris through the work of the Missionnaires de la Charité.
Missionnaires de la Charité – other ways of helping !
As you know, we donate non-perishable food and toiletries each week to help to the Missionnaires in their work with homeless men in Paris.
Recently, we asked Frère Michel if there were other areas in which we could help and he mentioned the following
In the kitchen
in the café in their day centre
Street ministry with one of the brothers.
So, if you would like to help the Missionnaires in a more active way, please let us know. Speak to Jan Steyn or Pierre Mure.
Participation in Religious services with the poor (at 11pm + meal)
Christmas
Easter
25th March (Foundation of the Brotherhood)
11th October – Mary, mother of the Poor
On Sale for Church Funds:
"The Tartan Pimpernel" by the Rev Donald Caskie
Scots Kirk tea towels & notelets
and the Scots Kirk Recipe Book.
Contact
17 rue Bayard, 75008 Paris
Minister: Rev Jan Steyn
Tel. 01 48 78 47 94
Session clerk: Dorothy Mure
Pianist: Mr Paul Snelgrove
e-mail: scotskirkparis@orange.fr
Website: www.scotskirkparis.com
Facebook page: ScotsKirkParis
Amis: https://amisskp.wixsite.com/amisskp
Donate/Contribute: Name of the account: Assoc Church of Scotland
(BNP Paribas). IBAN number: FR76 3000 4015 3300 0100 9031 587