Kenneth's blog 

 

December 2024

Freeland and St Machar's Ranfurly Church Kirk Sessions have agreed a basis of union and that will be
put to the congregations on the 23rd February.  I have been reflecting on the history of our little congregation!
In 1738 we took the decision to break away from the Church of Scotland because our forebears insisted that the congregation should be allowed to choose their own minister and not the local landowner. In 1742 we moved to Burntshields where we built the first church building- and no doubt appointed the first fabric convener! By the 1820's the church building was too small and it was decided to divide into three. One group formed what is now the Calder UF Church in Lochwinnoch, another what is now St. Paul's Church in Johnstone whilst the others came to Bridge of Weir and in 1826 began using the current church. It was the only church in the village at that point.
It was a Secession Church which continued to hold to the right of the congregation to choose it's own minister. In 1839 almost all of those churches ( including ours) decided to rejoin the Church of Scotland. This was because the Church of Scotland was now moving to do away with patronage (the right of the heritor's to  choose the minister).
However the government which had agreed to move an act in Parliament grew cold to the idea under political pressure at the time and in 1843 the Church of Scotland split into two factions- The Free Church and the Church of Scotland.
We became part of the Free Church and one of our members, a local millowner called Robert Freeland bought out the mortgage on the building. We remained Bridge of Weir Free Church until 1900 when a union took place
between The Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church. (That union ended up in the courts and in Acts of Parliament such was the unrest over it in some quarters!! We quietly got on with being Freeland Church!)  The UP church had a congregation in the village by then and when the two congregations became part of the United
Free Church they both had to find names fc themselves. We became Freeland in memory of Robert Freeland, the UP church became Ranfurly Church.
After the First World War there was a strong sense of trying to pull people together and the UF Church and the Church of Scotland entered into long running talks to come together in a single denomination and in 1929 Freeland joined the Church of Scotland for the second time in our history. This time it lasted for more than 4 years.
By now your eyes will be glazing over- however it does give us a flavour of how complicated our history is! That said there has been a pretty clear set of threads which have run through that history;
these include; a strong commitment to Biblical preaching, a social awareness, service to the community and embracing change.  These threads will continue to be at the heart of the new church in Bridge of Weir.
In 1839 Freeland became Bridge of Weir Parish Church; in the 1870's St Machar's was Bridge of Weir Parish Church and the two of us together will unite under that same name. of course that is up to us. We need to vote for it. I hope that we will- but I will say no more now until after the vote is taken.  My focus is going to be on Christmas and proclaiming the wonderful truth that God is with us. Kenneth

June 2024

"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a hear for wisdom"

Before we know it will be the school holidays.  Someone told me that the years pass more quickly as you get older. My reply was that does not apply to me yet!  In Psalm 90 the theme of passing time and generations is addressed in some depth.  The Psalmist begins by contrasting the unchanging nature and purpose of God with our own finite reality.  To make the point the Psalmist tells us that a 1000 years is like a day to God.  When the Psalmist was writing our lives were generally shorter and he sets the upper limit on our lifespan as 70 or 80! Many of us have beaten that!.  Yet the purpose of the Psalm is to make us think about our days; the key verse is in many ways verse 12.   "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a hear for wisdom"

As a child I spend my life wishing for the future - a birthday, Christmas, the holidays, an outing or even being an adult! As an adult I spend a lot of time looking back and reminiscing about the good old days!!!  

Numbering our days is about valuing each day and making the most of it.  I remember when I first came to the village and I would go round visiting people every day.  I was often told that my visit had helped to "put the day in".  If that is how we are thinking then we need to learn to seize the days and to number them aright; what have i achieved, learned, shared and done?  The days may be getting longer but they all last for 24 hours!!!  Kenneth

1. Over the summer we will be holding joint services with our friends from St Machar's Ranfurly Church
2. We will be in Freeland on the 30th June,7th July and 14th July. On the 21st and 28th July and 4th August we will be in St Machar's Ranfurly.
3. On the 11th August we are going to hold a joint outdoor service in the Freeland Car Park at 11.30am - note the change of time.  This will be followed by a light lunch.

At each of the summer services we will be looking at a different parable told by Jesus.  These parables will take us through some of the major themes of Jesus's ministry from the Parable of the sower, which looks at what kind of soil we are, for the gospel to growin through to the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, which asks whether we are willing to respond to God's invitation to follow him.

Each is a stand alone passage but the theme of being open to God and ready to serve him will follow through each of them.

On Sundays 7th and 14th July we will be holding services at 9.30am in the church.  This will be the first time we have ran the 9.30am service since the pandemic and we hope some people with young families will want to come and worship with us.  Kenneth 

November 2023

As we see the pictures of destruction in Gaza and read about the ongoing fighting it is hard to imagine why anyone would want to live there. Yet we know that land is precious to many people and tied up with their very existence.

This is true for the Jewish people who have come to live in Israel in their millions since the end of the Second World War and it is true of the people who have also lived there for centuries.

It is a hard circle to square and to those of us watching from outside it is much easier to put forward solutions. Any 'solution' which is found outside is unlikely to satisfy everyone inside!

As Christians our task is to pray for the people and for them to have changed hearts to each other.

Humanly speaking it seems an impossible request; but nothing is impossible for God. Kenneth

October 2023

Jesus tells us that there will be wars and rumours of war. Despite that we have led our lives thinking that wars are a

thing of the past.  In my lifetime I can think of two Gulf Wars,Civil war in Bosnia, Nigeria, Angola, Ethiopia and now

war in Ukraine and Israel. At the same time several African countries are in the midst of power struggles which look a

lot like war.

In the 1960's Peter, Paul and Mary sang the song ' Where have all the flowers gone'  it had the refrain ' O when will they ever learn'.

That was really an anti- Vietnam war song-however with so much going on the world at the moment,  we might well be asking the same question. Kenneth

I wonder how many passwords and number sequences you have?

I have a list of them at home and I sometimes forget what the different numbers and passwords are for!

It may partly be lack of interest,  possibly age!!, of that some of them are rarely used. 

Nevertheless when we want to get into an account or a website it is very frustrating to be denied access.

Yet there is no need to have a special code to get into heaven- which is after all a very special place- all we need to do is to accept that Jesus is Lord and to share that faith with others. Kenneth 

 

August/September 2023 

In our morning services during August and September we will be looking at the book of Proverbs.

Written mainly by King Solomon these proverbs cover almost every aspect of life and faith.

They speak about such things as laziness " Look to the ant you sluggard", faith " Trust the Lord with all your heart", causing trouble " For as churning the milk produces butter, so stirring up anger produces strife" ,friendship " A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother". However, the main theme is to seek wisdom above everything else. Today we often confuse progress, growth, and wealth with wisdom but they are not the same.

Wisdom is eternal truth which rests in an understanding that God is holy and unchanging. That wisdom doesn't conform itself to our human ideas or current accepted wisdom.

I believe that many of our problems are caused by forgetting wisdom and embracing the spirit of the age.   Kenneth

Over the next few weeks, we are looking at some of the Psalms ( 28-33) in the morning service and 2 Timothy in the evening. This is all happening as we look forward to the coronation of the King on the 6th of May. One verse from Psalm 33 seems to me to be especially relevant at the moment.

Psalm 33: 12;

" Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance."

 

Our country is going through something of a crisis at the moment.

There is the continuing economic impact of the war in Ukraine, Covid and inflation. The problem seems more acute because so many other countries are suffering in the same way; to a greater or lesser extent.

There is political turmoil in Scotland and an impasse in Northern Ireland.

There are clearly some issues within the Royal Family itself and we know that many families are suffering from division, hardship and discouragement.

We can add our own list of things which cause us sleepless nights and anxiety.

When the late Queen was crowned there was an altogether more optimistic spirit in the land. ( Although I don't remember it!)

So I simply ask the question; if God is not Lord in the nation what do we expect?

Easter

We will be working through Luke's Gospel. In the morning services we will be looking at incidents which all involve money in one way or another!

 It struck me as I was thinking about Easter that Luke has a whole series of events whether actions or stories which involve money. This will culminate on the Wednesday of Holy Week when we look at Judas agreeing to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

When Jesus speaks about money he does so in a fairly neutral way. In the parables he just accepts the existence of money and doesn't make any moral judgement about money- although it is clear that he understands the greed which money can generate in people.

In the use of money he is mainly involved with people who are giving it away or using it as a test of loyalty. In the case of Judas we see how cheaply human life can be valued.  Money itself is a neutral thing; just bits of paper or metal or figures on a statement. It is what money represents that matters to us. It can give us a sense of security or insecurity depending on how much or little of it we have. It can offer the opportunity to buy things which we want or to support work which we feel committed to. It can become a servant or a master.  It is this last point which will be at the centre of our studies. Our aim is to come to the point where we can answer the question " does it master me or me it" It is a proxy for the bigger question; does Jesus master me, or do I master him!"

UKRAINE

It just over a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. At first, we thought it only a matter of time before Ukraine would be defeated and forced to give in to the Russian demands. Our thoughts were of helping refugees and in our case the church in Lutsk. However, it doesn't seem to be turning out that way. Ukraine managed to repulse the initial attacks and whilst much of eastern Ukraine is still in Russian hands it is clear that the Russians are struggling to hold on. We don't know how things will finally resolve themselves, but it is clear that good can certainly hold its own against evil. Whilst our friends in the Resurrection Church are having to manage in very difficult circumstances, they too have found that God is at work and the pictures we have seen of people being baptised in the river are evidence of that.

For ourselves the challenge is to keep praying, keep supporting and to keep on giving to support the work of Victor and the team. I know how hard that is; we are all facing increasing demands on our time and resources. However, we need to stand with our friends right to the end. Kenneth 

December

In Scotland Christmas is often very mild and all the songs about bleakness, snow, frost and cold winds seem a little out of place. It looks very much as if this year will be an exception!

The news seems to be bleak, the weather is really cold and there is a general air of dissatisfaction. Some of that is due to the media who always seem to want to focus on bad news and it sometimes even seems that they deliberately go looking for bad news!

Media was in short supply two thousand years ago. There were no daily papers, no TV or radio and news could take months to arrive from one end of the Roman Empire to the other. It was to such a world that the angel came and said to the shepherds; " Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." Luke 2: 10

We believe that, that news is indeed for all people- everywhere and in every generation. If you are not in the habit of coming to church why not break the habit of a lifetime and come and join us- in person or online.

It may be that you are looking for good news at the moment; we believe that the gift of Jesus is the greatest news the world has ever received.  Have a Blessed Christmas.  Kenneth

Kenneth's summer blog

"As we move towards the summer we will be starting on a number of different series.

At the midweek meeting we will move from the Book of Daniel to looking at Psalms 100-109- that will take us to the beginning of September.

On the 12th of June we will take a break from our studies in Hebrews and begin a new study in Colossians. At the morning service we will look at the 7 letters to the churches in Revelation, we will begin on the 10th of July.  When we began our midweek meetings at the start of lockdown we looked at the psalms. They contain such a wide range of emotions; from fear to confidence, anxiety to hope, despair to confidence and from doubt to faith.

I heard that the metrical version of psalm 100 is one of the queen's favourite hymns; " All people that on earth do dwell"- it has at it's heart these words:" It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture."  There is something comforting in belonging; whether to a country or a group or an organisation. The psalmist tells us that we belong to God; we are his.  The trouble with sheep and people is that they go their own way!  Our challenge is to learn to walk in his way instead." Kenneth

Ukraine

The whole world is now thinking about Ukraine. It is a country which has suffered terribly over the years-it has largely been ruled by other countries and many wars have been fought on its territory. Perhaps for the first time it has been beginning to know some prosperity and feel itself becoming part of the world family of nations.  

It is heart-breaking to see the pictures of destruction as well as watch the millions of refugees making their way to other parts of Europe. There has been much support for them; sanctions against Russia, financial support, weapons provided to them and warm words and promises but ultimately they are fighting alone against a far larger enemy. We have been willing them on and rejoicing in their successes but they must be weary and worn down.As a church we have had an association with the Resurrection Church in Lutsk and so we feel the events in Ukraine personally.

What can we do? If we all resolve to spend a set time each day; say 10.00 am and for a minute just pray for our friends in Ukraine then we will all be involved and active. In Revelation 5 we read of the living creatures presenting golden bowls full of incense before the throne of God; these we are told are the prayers of the saints.  Kenneth 

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The poem " One solitary Life" is thought to have been written by James Francis Allen who was a Canadian minister who spent his life in churches in New York and California. The poem was written in the 1920's but became better known in the 1960's and seventies.

It is a poem which looks at the life of Jesus pointing out the humble and unseen nature of his life and contrasting that with his impact on the history of the world.

We will be using the poem to help frame our services over this Christmas.

None of us would describe our villages as obscure- but Jesus grew up in a village much like ours.

He probably worked in the family business and no doubt carried the orders and commissions to the customers. Who knows he may even have known about slow payers and bad debts!

When he was around 30 he set out on a public ministry in which he would engage directly with probably no more than 10,000 people.  He was betrayed by a friend, killed at the behest of a screaming mob and nailed to a cross by disinterested soldiers who gambled for his clothes.

His funeral was a race to get the body in the tomb before the Sabbath came or else it would have been too late.

Yet today that man stands above every other who has ever lived and unbeknown to many we use his words in our everyday speech.

This one solitary life began with the birth of a baby and we will be looking at that birth in the light of what the child became.  Poem attached here : One solitary life

 

We start a new series at the morning services on Sunday 13th January.

The overall title is " People God Called" Until the end of February we will be looking at 8 different people from the Old and New Testament including one who was called but refused! One of the underlying points will be that God hasn't stopped calling people.

Meanwhile our evening services continue to look at the early chapters of Johns Gospel.