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Thank you to Eric and Kevin for leading us in worship and song this morning. Thank you to Yvonne, the Band, the Caroler's and You the Congregation for sharing your gift of music! Hymn : SOMEBODY TOUCHED ME BOB DYLAN Glory, glory, glory, somebody touched me, Must have been the hand of the lord. While I was praying, somebody touched me, While I was praying, somebody touched me, While I was praying, somebody touched me, Must have been the hand of the lord. Glory, glory, glory, somebody touched me, Glory, glory, glory, somebody touched me, Glory, glory, glory, somebody touched me, Must have been the hand of the lord. Well, it was on a Sunday, somebody touched me, It was on a Sunday, somebody touched me, It was on a Sunday, somebody touched me, Must have been the hand of the lord. Glory, glory, glory, somebody touched me, Glory, glory, glory, somebody touched me, Glory, glory, glory, somebody touched me, Must have been the hand of the lord. Yvonne sings for us : (makes you think of the Chateauguay Valley!) Pussywillows, Cattails Gordon Lightfoot Pussywillows cat-tails soft winds and roses Rainpools in the woodland water to my knees Shivering quivering the warm breath of spring Pussywillows cat-tails soft winds and roses Catbirds and cornfields daydreams together Riding on the roadside the dust gets in your eyes Reveling, disheveling the summer nights can bring Pussywillows cat-tails soft winds and roses Slanted rays and colored days stark blue horizons Naked limbs and wheat bins hazy afternoons Voicing rejoicing the wine cups do bring Pussywillows cat-tails soft winds and roses Harsh nights and candlelights wood fires a-blazin’ Soft lips and fingertips resting in my soul Treasuring remembering the promise of spring Pussywillows cat-tails soft winds and roses Hymn : Led by Norm Wings of a Dove Ferlin Husky On the wings of a snow-white dove He sends His pure sweet love A sign from above (sign from above) On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove) When troubles surround us, when evils come The body grows weak (body grows weak) The spirit grows numb (spirit grows numb) When these things beset us, He doesn't forget us He sends down His love (sends down His love) On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove) On the wings of a snow-white dove He sends His pure sweet love A sign from above (sign from above) On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove) When Noah had drifted on the flood many days He searched for land (he searched for land) In various ways (various ways) Troubles, he had some but wasn't forgotten He sent him His love (sent him His love) On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove) On the wings of a snow-white dove He sends His pure sweet love A sign from above (sign from above) On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove) On the wings of a snow-white dove He sends His pure sweet love A sign from above (sign from above) On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove) On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove) On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove) On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove) Hymn: "I'll Fly Away" ALISON KRAUSS Some bright morning when this life is over I'll fly away To that home on Gods celestial shore I'll fly away I'll fly away, oh glory I'll fly away in the morning When I die hallelujah by and by I'll fly away When the shadows of this life have gone I'll fly away Like a bird from these prison walls I'll fly I'll fly away I'll fly away, oh glory I'll fly away in the morning When I die hallelujah by and by I'll fly away Oh how glad and happy when we meet I'll fly away No more cold iron shackles on my feet I'll fly away I'll fly away oh glory I'll fly away in the morning When I die hallelujah by and by I'll fly away I'll fly away oh glory I'll fly away in the morning When I die hallelujah by and by I'll fly away Just a few more weary days and then I'll fly away To a land where joys will never end I'll fly away I'll fly away oh glory I'll fly away in the morning When I die hallelujah by and by I'll fly away I'll fly away Trouble is Gonna Come  Ref : readings
Proverbs 3:1-13New International Version (NIV) Wisdom Bestows Well-Being 3 My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, 2 for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity. 3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. 9 Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. 11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. 13 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, 1 Peter 4:12-19 New International Version (NIV) Suffering for Being a Christian 12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. Trouble is gonna come and trouble comes. What or Who are we going to lean on! Trouble is coming, from within and without... for example :
What are you going to do when trouble comes? How does anybody handle it? How you react will depend on your understanding of :
***For example the " Prosperity Gospel Teaching" Name it and Claim it! If you are sick...all this kind of stuff is dangerous Christ came to suffer and die "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." ***In our Modern word ---- gratification...instant gratification--- Lazy---Entitled----wusses... We are pampered. Most of them are hungry, hurting.. I do not mean to say that we should be super grateful. ***How does our view of God line up with the scriptures We need to have a foundation Here is something that helps me, If you are over 45, you will remember the song: "I never promised you a rose garden" No 1 lesson, Young folks... LIFE IS NOT FAIR! God does not promise us a rose garden -promises trouble for those who are half committed,he challenges them : if you come with me - you do not get peace. you will get in trouble The birds have the trees, the fox has his holes, the Son of God has nowhere. If you count the cost, is it worth it? To those who believe, who truly believe An Eternal life with our Lord, Adventures beyond imagination.. No Club med---Joy,Peace,Love now. Proverbs 3:5-6 New International Version (NIV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. With regards to "Those who truly believe" I would like to clarify... Because I remember being perplexed, questioning when I heard that... Let me ask a question about faith from Dr David Jeremiah June 30th The story about the ice, who has greater faith? Kids skating on the lake. The ice is thin in places. Who has the greater faith? The one who walks and skates on 2 inches of ice or the one who skates on 2 feet of ice ? What ice would you go on? Not on 2 inches it breaks!!!! Shallow faith or understanding the books prophecies the coming of Christ..Nothing new it is all in the Old Testament... right or wrong etc... Christ came , did those miracles. Peter is a good example... In/out Jesus said to him, 'Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.' Peter said to Him, 'Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!'" (Matt. 26:31-35) They all ran away. The woman of the Bible are strong. It was a sexist world but the bible is not a sexist book. Women were first at the grave. Read it, pray, believe it, do a little study, find the context. The book is thick ---skating on 2 feet of ice. Historical document, Great Holy Scripture death, poetry, history, wisdom. I can trust in God. 1 Peter 4;12-19 (see above) is saying God loves you Trust in the Lord with all you heart. He is there for you God bless us with faith. What is the object of you faith? Faith in what? Dont be Flaky! Answer " On what God said" His Word that is : His prophecy, History, Archaeology, Personal Death prayer, Resurrection of Christ... Testimony. That I can sink my teeth into. Trouble is coming. When it comes Who you gonna lean on? ------------------------------------------------------ excerpt from a little bit of Faith : Our Pastor (David Jeremiah) asked an interesting question yesterday. Suppose you were invited to go ice fishing. Would you rather have a lot of faith and have two inches of ice, or a little bit of faith and two feet of ice? Think about it. Most people choose a little bit of faith and 2 inches of ice. The problem with that is that two inches of ice is not safe; it will crack and break under your weight and you will fall into the water and drown. If you only have a little bit of faith and you are standing on two feet of ice, the ice is stronger, safer, much less likely to break. What does this teach us? It is important to have faith, but the object of our faith is what is important. Who or what do you have faith in? Do you have faith in the goodness of man? Do you have faith that everything in life is going to be okay? Do you have faith in a person? Put your faith in God. It does not take a huge amount of faith to trust in Jesus. It is simple to believe He died, rose again, and is seated at the right hand of God. There were eyewitness accounts. Hundreds of people saw Jesus after He rose again; it is recorded in the Bible. It is easy to pray and ask Jesus to forgive your sin and be your Lord and Savior. You only need a little bit of faith to trust God for day to day living. The Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Reading the Bible, listening to good preaching, listening to oher Christians talk about the Lord are all ways we can increase our faith. We also grow in the faith by going through trials. After God has brought us through a trial, we see the goodness of God and we trust Him to get us through the next trial. So put your trust in Jesus today. He is safe. he is strong. He knows exactly what you are going through. He loves you. You can rely on Him.http://terrikos.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/a-little-bit-of-faith/        Prelude: “The Franklin Ensemble” Processional: # 115 “Thy Word is a Lamp Unto My Feet” Call to Worship: (in unison the words in bold) “To live our praise to Thee.” That is our deepest desire, O God. Take these words we speak this day, these songs we sing, the gifts we offer; our inner thoughts, our outer expressions – take them all, and make them into a living praise that will not end with the final note of the postlude, but go with us beyond this place into our world. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen Words of WelcomeGood Morning and Welcome to the Rockburn Presbyterian Church this beautiful Sunny Sunday morning. We are so very pleased to have the Franklin Ensemble lead us in a Hymn Sing today. A Heartfelt Thank you to you All.It is wonderful to praise the Lord in Song…..you know the old saying Music is good for the soul…..well I must agree. Let us begin by choosing our first song from Mary’s Songbook…….any requests? Now a little humour about church & children Adam’s Ribs At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down in the grass as though he were ill, and she said, ‘Johnny, what is the matter?’ Little Johnny responded, ‘I have pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife.’ Selections from Mary’s Song book Pastoral Prayer & The Lord’s Prayer Shall we now bow our heads in prayer Thank you, God, for the ability to sing out our faith. Accept our praise, from each and every tongue united in Jesus Christ. We know that all our voices together cannot begin to convey the wonder and glory and majesty of who you are. You put a new song in our mouths You set us free to sing! Receive the praise of these joy-filled hearts in Jesus name Amen Let us now join together in Unison praying the prayer he taught us to pray Our Father who art in heaven…. ANNOUCEMENTS, BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES Selections from Mary’s Song book Scripture Readings: Mark 12: 30,31 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' 31"The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." John 4:20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.  A Story to Think About: “You Reap What You Sow”
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERING The Offering Received: The Offertory Hymn: Praise God from who all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below: Praise him above ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost The Offertory Prayer Remind us that you call us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us, God, to exhibit the characteristics of gentleness, joy, generosity, and self-control. Bless this offering which supports those various ministries that enable people to live by the Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen Selections from Mary’s Song book Benediction & Three fold Amen Grace & peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord Amen 
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” These words from Psalm 22:1. were spoken many centuries ago and have been on the lips of countless millions of perplexed men and women as years have gone by. An intensely human question and we are startled to find it on the lips of Jesus as he hung from the cross. Today, tragedies destroy so many lives and cause so much suffering; we to cry out “My God, My God why have you forsaken us?” We ask ourselves “where is this God of love?” We wonder “is God in control?” We wonder “What is God’s plan? or what was God thinking to allow this?” Don’t you ever wish we could whisper in God’s ears, “Why don’t you make it a little more obvious that you are in charge!” So, it might be a good time to shore up our understanding of God’s plan, to see if we can understand God’s role in helping us face so many tragedies. According to Genesis, in the beginning God looked over everything SHE had made and was pleased and it was GOOD. But notice God didn’t offer us protection from pain, suffering, death or natural disasters, but she told us her “GREAT DESIGN” was good right from the start. The DESIGN is simple and compassionate (1)“God’s will always love us and (2) wants everyone, to live together in peace and harmony. We all witness natural disasters that are far too big for us to understand-- Earthquakes, tornados, tsunamis, flooding , --The disastrous forest fires that plaque the U.S and Canada’s north. The flooding in Calgary, Toronto destroying thousands of homes and wrecking the health of people. . The complexities of these tragedies are beyond us, we have to admit we will never understand why. All we can say is “they must go with the PRIVILEGE and JOY of living in such a dynamic and beautiful world as ours.” We all know the saying “ they come with the territory.” But natural disasters are only one side of the coin! There are many tragedies are brought on by humans: Where does God fit in these? --We ask ourselves “why has God permitted this wrong, this sickness, this accident, this savage crime-- all which tear apart our happiness?” We ask for help and understanding as written in Psalm 25:4-5; “Make me know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me.” - Last month a tragedy hit us right in our own backyard in Lac Magantic taking the lives of 50 men and women -- more recently the train derailment in Spain 78 people dead. We cry out in our grief, “Where was God? This morning, scripture gives us a clue “ God resides in all Her people,” It seems we can best describe God’s as a PRESENCE inside each one of us sharing the good times and the bad times. God is there in Lac Magantic and Spain suffering with Her people; giving love and comfort. It is God’s Presence in each of us that encourages everyone to give a loving, helping hand. We see people of all provinces volunteering, donating money, food, clothing and medical help to these unfortunate people get their lives back to some form of normalcy. But the question still haunts us, “Whose is responsible?” -If someone forgot to lock the train brakes in Lac Magantic. -If the train engineer didn’t slow down on a dangerous curve in Spain. -If a youngster drowns in a swimming pool -If someone drinks and drives and causes death -This week a 6 year old girl was killed in WalMart parking lot. The list goes on and on. A good many people have a fixed idea that God is directly behind all that comes our way, the good and the bad. They say; "It is just God's will. You will have to accept it." "God never puts on anyone more than he or she can bear." "If you had enough faith you could get out of this mess." "I know how you feel." These statements are cruel and far beyond the truth as we know. We need to be more compassionate to those suffering through a loss. We need to show FAITH that God was right there in the midst of our bad situations consoling those suffering. During creation, God gave us, the responsibility over all the inhabitants in the world and I’m sad to report WE ARE NOT DOING SO GOOD. The United Nations report: “29,000 children die every single day” as a result of “avoidable diseases and malnutrition.” It’s hard to imagine, but our governments, businesses and social systems has made all this suffering possible, suffering far, far in excess of all the suffering caused natural disasters. All this suffering is happening while the wealthiest people enjoy excess food-- worry about losing weight—drive fancy cars --indulge in lotos tickets and casinos—diverted farmer’s crops to produce ethanol instead of food. When these things happen they are opposite God’s will. They are not God’s original way—not part of Her plan and if only we can grasp this. In the Bible we find many examples of how God took personal tragedies and gave them responsibility to further her plan: - Joseph (4000 years ago) -sold into slavery slave-ended as PM. of Egypt -forgave his brothers—saved Egypt from famine. -King David—murdered his army captain wanted his wife -repented—became Israel’s greatest king -Apostle Paul (persecuted followers of Jesus) Converted—greatest Apostle—3 shipwrecks--flung into prison-writes letters - N.T. is mostly Paul’s letters. Today God is still acting in people’s lives, using a bad turn of events to help us on our quest for peace. Nelson Mandela -branded a terrorist-imprisoned for 25 years -becomes P.M. of S. Africa-ended Apartheid. Terry Fox.-disabled by cancer. -started a run for cancer before he died -now yearly runs -raised millions of $$$ Malala Yousafzai 16 yrs. Old--Pakistan—survived Taliban assassination—spoke at UN-pen & books powerful weapons. - —Martin Luther King Jr. and many other average citizens who after a tragedy have gone to help make the world a better place. God is using these people and Adapting their situation to advance love, peace and harmony.! IT’S ALL ABOUT LOVE: There are times when it’s hard for us to fathom God’s love in our ever changing world. The bible tells us that there is no end to God’s love. -a love so great God loved us before we loved Her, -a love that is a gift and can’t be earned, -A love that will not forsake us; - A God who will search for the good in all people. The greatest example of God in action was the “EXECUTION OF JESUS ON THE CROSS I don’t think it was God’s will that men should crucify Jesus. I believe “GOD’S WAS IN AGONY,” God suffered on that cross with that Jesus, as with each of us who suffer. Yet, this tragic event became a victory of love, the unmerited love of God. God took the cruelty of men and adapted what they did to Jesus on that cross to be the vehicle by which she could spread the message of love around the world. The cross cemented God’s Plan. Psalm 24:1 tells us “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it; the world and those who live in it.” The question is, “Do we trust God or not?” Ultimately that is the answer to all of life through good times and bad. Do we trust God? If we trust God, all the rest of life will fall in place. We may walk through the valley, as written in the 23rd. Psalm. BUT WE KNOW WE DO NOT WALK ALONE. Thanks be to God. AMEN 
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