No.77      7th February, 2026

Hi, 
Hope this finds you well. 

If you are reading this on the Saturday morning (and why wouldn't you be?) some of the kids from church are at the SU weekend away in Gowanbank - they will have already finished their breakfast, pretended they have washed, and brushed their teeth, and be getting ready for their morning activities...this will include taking almost everything out of their bags and making their dorm look like it has been hit by a hurricane...pray for their leaders - there are more prayer points below.

So we won't see them on Sunday morning...talking of Sunday mornings, do you come expecting to enjoy worship? Silly question? What about 'Do you think God will enjoy the worship? Will he be pleased?'  Often we hear people refer to styles of worship, or saying how they prefer worship to be less traditional and more contemporary (or the other way around!). For instance, I imagine as Scott H visits Tarbert and Lochgilphead the experience of doing church there is very different - but what about the 'worship of God'?

Scott K's prayer helps us consider what we think about worship and shapes our prayer about worship and the Sabbath. In the TEA BREAK there is a link to SInclair Ferguson's Unseen podcast who, in the past week, looked at these questions too, ie. encouraged us to look away from ourselves and ask 'I wonder if our worship pleased God?' 

Lastly, the Tweet of the Week is from Andrew Wilson - reminding us that if we omit to take time reading the Bible throughout the week, then whether we go to the BBC, CNN or X for our news updates, we will be missing out on what is really real.

Enjoy the Mag,
MB

Sunday 8th February

Morning service - 10.30am
Rev Scott Kirkland
Mark ch10

Evening Service

 

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 The Wednesday mid week prayer meeting
meets in the Robertson's this month, in Beech Avenue.
7.15-8.15pm

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Pray for...

Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire
and Inverclyde SU P5-7 weekend

This weekend children and team members from Mearns Free and others are attending Gowanbank
- they arrived on Friday eve and return on Sunday afternooon

• Give thanks for the 24 children attending and for the strong team of leaders
• Pray for friendships among the children to form and deepen and for there to be no fallings out or division
• Pray for God to speak to the children and for them to be open to listening as we explore themes of God making us, God doing the extraordinary with the ordinary, God always being with us, prophecies of Jesus and the significance of Jesus sacrifice.
• Pray for health for the team and children. Some have been struggling with illness in the lead up to the weekend
• Pray for  safety as we do our activities and travelling home on Sunday

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NEXT SATURDAY 

Saturday 14th February . 9am - 10am 
at the Smiths, Eaglesham
"Prayer is the very way God Himself has chosen for us to express our conscious need of Him and our humble dependence on Him".
John Stott

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GET READY FOR MARCH
We are planning to run the 321 evangelistic course - starting on 1st March.
321 is a four-week course that invites you to see life the way Jesus does.
Inspired by Jesus’ vision of reality, 321 is designed to help you think about God, the world and yourself through immersive videos and thoughtful illustrations.
It’s great for someone new to Christian things - no prior knowledge is needed and you’ll be helped to think through some of the big questions of life in a simple and easy to understand way.
Here is a taster VIDEO - more details to follow.

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Letter from the Other Manse

Hello church family,

I’m off to Argyll this Sunday. There is a 10am service that takes place in Tarbert and then an 11:30am service that takes place up the road in Lochgilphead. I’ll be heading up the road just before 7am, being chased by the sunrise, and I’ll collapse onto the sofa around 5pm! Despite the journey, Scott and I are very keen to support and back these churches as they close in on finding a minister for the future, especially given all of our local links.

It’s a beautiful part of the country (even in horizontal rain!) but, when you’re in these areas, you’re increasingly aware of the need to have a strong gospel witness to reach the nooks and crannies of our country.

The Free Church has a relatively decent coverage of our country, but we’re always thinking about areas that need a church plant, churches that need a minister, churches that need revitalisation, and other areas where there are faithful churches which need encouragement and strengthening.

The latter category of church is a new one for me as I plug into a wider denomination. These are churches which have a gospel minister, gospel ministries galore, but with a small team running a lot of events and shouldering a lot of the pastoral care, perhaps lacking the necessary infrastructure to support the minister in the way he ought to be supported.

I’m not talking about Lochgilphead and Tarbert, of course. Our prayer for them is that they appoint the right minister for the two churches in due course. However, I’d love for us to be praying for ministers, elders and churches up and down Scotland that are finding it harder and harder to minister to the smaller towns and villages that they’re trying to reach. Some places are noticing an aging population, shops shutting down, people moving out of the local area, all of which presents its unique challenges.

For your encouragement, Glasgow and Argyll presbytery is extremely committed to prayerfully and practical support those in these contexts. I was heartened to hear of a minister ask for assistance, and for the presbytery to almost instinctively wrap ourselves around him and his church, offering a number of different ways in which we could care for him, and help him to keep flying the flag in his remote town.

As is always the case, we need to be praying for more and more workers for the harvest field (Matthew 9:38). As is always the case, salvation belongs to the Lord (Psalm 3:8), and nobody can pluck Jesus’ sheep from His hand (John 10:29). We needn’t look at the spiritual state of our country with any trepidation. God is mighty to save wherever He pleases. However, we ought to be praying for these smaller communities and churches, that God would continue to raise up men and women to reach the lost, and that ministers would live in sustainably sacrificial ways to preach, pastor, and pray.

Blessings, 
Scott H

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We want to support the Govan Free Church Food Bank and one obvious way to do that is dontae things that can be taken down to Govan each week.
There will be a bag at the back of the hall where you can donate foodstuffs for taking to the Food Bank. We will have details of the sort of goods which are looked for most of all. Typically cans of soup, or pasta etc are popular. Bags of rice and dry pasta. Sugar, coffee and tea bags are opened and split into smaller bags so if you see deals on larger quantities that can still be used.
Speak with Sue A or Martin B for more details.

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Could you explain the Gospel?

Since the start of the year  we have been asking the question 'Would you be able to explain the Gospel to someone?'  What would you want to include, what would you want to focus on...and where to start? The young people are working through the 2 Ways to Live Gospel outline to see how they can share the Gospel and we are following their progress...
IMAGE 4
God loves the world he created, and he loves us. He didn’t leave us to suffer the consequences of our rebellion. He sent his own divine Son into the world to save us: the man Jesus Christ.

Look at the image - it's conveying Jesus willingness to always live under God’s rule, giving honour and thanks to him, and obeying him in everything. Compare it with image 1 and 2. That is very unlike all of us and so, unlike us, He didn’t deserve God’s judgment in any way. He didn’t deserve to die.

The extraordinary news is that Jesus died as a substitute for rebels like us. He took upon himself the judgment and punishment that we deserved, by dying on the cross in our place. Death is the punishment for rebellion, and he died our death.

God sent his Son into the world: the man Jesus Christ.
Jesus always lived under God’s rule.
But Jesus took our punishment by dying in our place.But that’s not all.

  (If you want to read more about this image and the rest of the  2 Ways to Live course  take a look here)

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This week's focus for the prayer (using the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) as a framework for prayer) is Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day. You can read the prayer here.
Last week's magazine 'Tea Break' had a link to an article about how we view a Sabbath each week. You can read it here.
This week in the Unseen Podcast, Sinclair Ferguson encourages listeners to think about what worship means - you can see the links below.

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Ladybird Book of Mearns Free Church

 

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Our Easter family funday will be on 
Saturday 28th March, 11-2pm
and is an ideal opportunity to bring together friends and families within our community.
You can see on the flyer a selection of what will be going on.
If you would be able to help with this event please get in touch with Fiona Waugh on 07795361752.

We would also be grateful for any donations towards various stalls and competitions:

• Nearly New Toy Stall - please speak to Susan Little if you have toys in good condition you wish to donate.
• Home Baking - all donations will be greatly appreciated and we will give you a date nearer the time for donations to be handed in.
• Various Prizes - any unwanted gifts you may have received but will not use eg. toiletries, chocolates, sweets etc There will be a bag at the hall entrance on Sundays for any donations.

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This week's Unseen podcasts, 2-6 Feb( each about 5 mins long) focus on Worship.
This ties in well with Scott's WCF prayer focus above.

He starts with words which he (and perhaps you) heard growing up on Glasgow, Sunday by Sunday as the church service started - 'Let us worship God...'  These short podcasts are worth giving some time to - about 5 min each.  FInd them here. Or on Spotify.

• Let Us Worship God
• The Quality of Our Worship
• Bowed Down in the Presence of God
• Principles for Worship
• Cleansed and Renewed

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Costumes for Bible Alive

We are looking for a couple of basic easy to put on Bible times tunic style outfits which will better fit P5/6 pupils. Our current outfits are either far too small or far too giant. We almost lost a pupil inside one last week!
Is anyone handy with a sewing machine and could make something and does anyone have any plain coloured material (preferably not white/cream) that could be used?
Pauline

‘Left to Their Own Devices’
- A Care for the Family Meeting

Parenting support event to Glasgow on the 19 May,
Newton Mearns Baptist Church at 7.30pm.
great event for parents of children aged 8+

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