Each day during Advent (weekends included) there will be a new devotional video here on the Church Blog, also Advent music to listen to, topics for prayer, articles to read and a Jigsaw puzzle.
There are also links below to the previous Blogs this week, so that you and catch up on any that you have missed.
We will be taking a break after Christmas Day and returning in the New Year - Monday 6th January 2024
Each Blog is based on a chapter from the Advent Devotional - Sing In Exultation by Jonathan Landry Cruse.
You can listen to a Playlist of all the Songs on Spotify here -
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1KkX41ONybbMQnmq5y5C1Y?si=96759c2a44164e7c
See below for today’s song on Youtube.
Read Sunday’s Blog Here
Read Monday’s Blog Here
Read Tuesday’s Blog Here
Read Wednesday’s Blog Here
Read Thursday’s Blog Here
Read Friday’s Blog Here
Beside The Burn
A short devotional video (Above) to watch each day.
Or listen to via the Podcast software on your phone https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/burnside
Let’s Pray For General Council
As Christmas Day approaches, pray that ministers, elders and members throughout the congregations of PCI might know special times of worship in our church families as well as a time of refreshment and rest.
Training in Ministry
Give thanks for the completion of another term at Union College, and pray for students and staff - that they would be blessed with rest and refreshment over the Christmas break. Pray too for those in congregational placements - that they would benefit from being part of the church family that they are placed in – both for their own walk with the Lord, and their preparation for ministry.
Word For Today
You may well have the printed copy of the Word For Today but you can also read it at the link below.
https://www.ucbireland.ie/word-for-today/todays-word-for-today/
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Please note that there could be some additional articles or videos after the Jigsaw.
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Jigsaw
Best Times For Yesterday’s Puzzle:
Great use of the word dissectologists by Eddie in the comments yesterday.
How many people had to look up what it means?
Thank you for all your Christmas Wishes and I return the same to everyone dissectologists or not.
Lovely to have a comment from Dr. Cameron on yesterday’s Blog.
Derek 11:15
Jean 11:42
Eddie 12:56
Play the "Bann Saturday" puzzle!
https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=19807d9d4ee1
In his Christmas Message, Presbyterian Moderator, Right Reverend Dr Richard Murray, writes of two ancient cities, the City of David, known as Bethlehem, and Kraków in Poland, were he visited this month. He laments how unlike the famous Christmas carol; Bethlehem, and the Middle East, do not lie ‘still’ and at peace today.
Yet in Kraków, Dr Murray (centre, pictured with Rev Sashko Nezamutdinov (left) lead pastor of Christ the Saviour and PCI's Rev Uel Marrs, Secretary to the Council for Global Mission) found the light of Christ and the hope of salvation that came from Bethlehem. It was burning brightly in a new fledgling denomination he visited, contrasting this with the utter darkness he found on a tour of Auschwitz.
Dr Murray said, “the message of Christmas is about hope, and the arrival of the Light of the World, The Prince of Peace Himself, who came and preached peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near.
“In an uncertain world, where so many are at war with each other, and so many are at war with God, the gracious invitation of God is to take refuge in Jesus Christ and trust Him to be the Saviour of our soul…”
The minister of Drumreagh Presbyterian Church near Ballymoney in County Antrim continued, “In a world full of trouble and sorrow, we give thanks that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”, for if you rest in the finished work of Christ, you too will know the peace of God that passes understanding.”
Dr Murray concludes by saying, “My prayer is that the God of peace will bless you with that peace over Christmas, and that His ‘Shalom’, peace in its deepest wholeness and entirety, will be your shalom today and forevermore.”
Full text of the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s CLICK HERE