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From the 1st of March we will be having lunch together after church on the first Sunday of every month. We will make sure and have enough food for any visitors!
The photos below are from lunch at the Frasers’ house last Sunday, when we had a great afternoon of fellowship together.
Although the RP Church of Scotland is a small denomination, one of our great advantages is that we’re part of a body of believers that spans the globe. Recently Stephen represented the RPCS at two days of meetings of the RP Global Alliance.
Having previously met in Ottawa in 2018, this time the meetings were held in Belfast. Also present were delegates from the RP Churches of North America (which has a Presbytery in Japan and mission churches in Central & Southern America and Asia), Ireland (currently overseeing mission work in France and Spain) and Australia.
One very practical benefit of meeting face to face is having men from other countries preach in each other’s pulpits - such as Kyle Borg preaching in Stranraer.
You can keep up-to-date with news from RP Churches around the world on the RP Global Alliance website.
Hannah and Daniel recently attended Girls’ Adventure Camp & Boys’ Discovery Camp reunions. They answered some questions about the highlights of their weekends for the RPCS website. You can read their answers below:
What were the talks on at GAC reunion? What was something you learned from the talks?
The talks at reunion were on Luke chapter 10 about Mary and Martha. I learnt about how Mary took the good portion and spent time with Jesus when Martha didn’t.
What was your favourite activity?
My favourite activity was the ice skating which was very good.
What was your favourite thing overall about GAC reunion this year?
My favourite thing from GAC reunion was seeing everybody from camp again and the talks throughout the weekend.
What were the talks on? What was something you learned from the talks?
The talks at reunion were on the creation in Genesis. I learnt that God made everything, and we can’t make or do anything without him.
What was your favourite activity?
My favourite activity was swimming because it was fun.
What was the best thing overall about Camp Reunion?
The best thing was getting to see all my friends.
Last Lord’s Day we had a lunch after church to welcome the Fraser family to Stranraer. After lunch the boys were presented with toys, Katie with flowers and James with some books. A special cake was also made to mark the occasion! We are delighted to have them in Stranraer and are continuing to pray for them as they settle in to the church and the community.
We have recently begun a new sermon series on Sunday mornings on Psalms 18-24, with Stephen previously having preached on the first 17 psalms (as well as 89 and 107) during evening services.
As we come to the Psalms, it is helpful to remember that they are ultimately The Songs of Jesus - breathed out by the Spirit of Christ, they speak about him, were sung by him on earth, and he still speaks through them today.
As O. Palmer Robertson asserts in his recent book on the psalms: ‘To understand these psalms in their fullest significance for the individual, they must first be appreciated for their role in speaking for God’s anointed servant, the messianic king’.
In his sermon on Psalm 18, Stephen noted that the Psalms actually shed light on the New Testament - a point made in the video clip below by Rev. Kenneth Stewart, who is currently our minister in Glasgow:
Therefore to focus largely on the situation of the human author of the Psalms is to miss the point. As Andrew Bonar comments on Psalm 18: ‘David’s circumstances, that made him suitable to be the vehicle of this divine communication, have moulded the language; but we are not to carry the allusion to his history too far’. Or in the words of Henry Law: ‘David soon disappears. Jesus Himself strides forth’. This is true whether the psalm is quoted in the New Testament and applied to Jesus or not. As Charles Spurgeon comments on Psalm 20: ‘It needs but a moment's reflection to perceive that this hymn of prayer is prophetical of our Lord Jesus’.
This point is well argued (contrary to some modern voices such as Don Carson and even the great Old Testament commentator Dale Ralph Davis) in a 2012 talk by Union Theological College Professor Michael McClenahan, summarised and linked to here.
