Kilbride Presbyterian Church

Church Ski Trip 2020
Option 1 - 16th Feb - Sierra Nevada
Option 2 - 11th April - Les Menuires
... Option 3 - 12th April - Sierra Nevada
Please check your email. Thanks Richard
See More

Church ski trip 2020
For anyone who has signed up to the church ski trip, please check your email for departure date survey. Resort options will be uploaded later this evening, please have a look and choose a preference.
Need to have a meeting after church this Sunday 12th May, to decide, as availability is limited. Thanks Richard

Kilbride CE Trip - Jungle NI
Saturday 11th May Leaving church car park at 10am and arriving back at 17:15 approx. Could all kids going bring a pack lunch. ... Trainers and clothes suitable for outdoor games (including rain coat)
Any queries, please contact Richard or Jayne
See More

Lent Devotional: SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2019
The Rev. Joseph Hedden Jr. ’97, President, Alumnae/i Council, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary / Pastor, Emmanuel Reformed (Hill’s) Church of the United Church of Christ, Export, Pa.
SCRIPTURE
... Isaiah 51:9-11
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!
Awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago!
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?
10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep;
who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to cross over?


11 So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
DEVOTIONAL
For those of us who have learned to pray carefully crafted petitions, the rawness of the prophet’s appeal is shocking. Throwing out courtesy and convention, the prophet pleads with the Lord to awaken! To act! To rescue! To save! The unspoken implication is that, throughout the awful night of the Babylonian exile and trouble, the Lord has been asleep.
Yes, in bygone days the Lord did act in mighty ways at the Red Sea. But today? “Awake, Lord, Awake!” Surrounded by lilies, a full choir, and Easter joy, can any of us imagine begging the Lord to wake up as the pastor approaches the pulpit to lead worship? Surely we preachers will want to move on quickly to verse 11 and its future day and future hope.
But not so fast. Perhaps the prophet is struggling to identify and name a reality deep within the human soul. There are times when we live in the shadow of the cross—and not the triumphant and gleaming bronze cross of the Easter sanctuary but, rather, Calvary’s wooden cross of injustice, pain, and death. We know moments when words cleave to the tongue and all we can ask the Lord is, “Where are you?” The prophet’s appeal to the Lord may not be pretty, but it is real. “Awake, awake, arm of the Lord” is the unadorned prayer of struggle clawing toward hope. It is the prayer we pray at bedsides and late at night in the half-empty Intensive Care lounge. “Awake, arm of the Lord” is the doubtful prayer of faith and the faithful prayer of doubt. Perhaps “Awake, arm of the Lord” is the appropriate prayer of sorrow and loss on a dark and misty pre-dawn journey to a tomb in Jerusalem—a journey at the end of which we discover that the Lord is, indeed, awake!
PRAYER
Awake, arm of the Lord! We remember your deeds of love and grace and ask you to make them real to us today. See us here in our struggles; our wrestling with doubt, our passion for justice, and our search for healing. May you provide the words and memories when they fail us. May your strong arm remind us of the hope of the empty tomb, which turns our world on its head. We pray in the name of the resurrected Christ. Amen.
See More

Preparing for Easter - Kids Devotional

Preparing for Easter - Kids Devotional

Lent Devotional: SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2019
The Rev. Carolyn Cranston ’99, Director of Alumnae/i and Church Relations, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary / Co-pastor, Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pa.
SCRIPTURE
...Continue Reading

Lent Devotional: FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2019
The Rev. Dr. John Welch ’02, Vice President for Student Services and Community Engagement and Dean of Students, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary / Minister of Music, Bidwell Street United Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pa.
SCRIPTURE
... John 13:36-38
36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward.” 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.”
DEVOTIONAL
In reflecting on our Christian journey, is it possible to ask whether or not our zeal has created a falsehood that to the eyes of the uninformed and unsaved could easily be interpreted as hypocritical? Is it possible that the words of our mouths and the mediations of our hearts are out of sync and not in proper alignment? As with the Pharisees, whom Jesus chided with the words, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34 et al.), can it be that we suffer from a spiritual form of heart arrhythmia? The words of a famous hymn state, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.” With fervor and excitement we sing these words without knowing to what extent our faith will be tested.
In John 13:37, Peter unknowingly tells Jesus a modest falsehood, “a fib,” because his heart is suffering from a form of spiritual “AFib” (atrial fibrillation), which happens when the heart is in an unhealthy rhythm. A spiritually unhealthy rhythm of the heart can lead to spoken intentions that are shallow and short on follow-through. Peter was affected by this condition and Jesus diagnosed it. Peter’s heart was moving too quickly and was therefore out of step. While Peter, in his zeal and affection, wasn’t aware that his faith had not yet been tested and his heart was still unhealthy, Jesus knew what was coming. He warned Peter that his heart would undergo a shock when he’d soon deny the Lord three times.
So also we, in our haste to want to say and do the right things in the company of others, may find ourselves out of step because our fleshly desires put our hearts out of rhythm.
PRAYER
Most Holy God, You, who established truth, diagnosed the sinful condition of the world in eternity past and even now—You are able to diagnose the sinful condition of our hearts. Search us and know our hearts, try us and know our anxieties, and when we are apt to fall short of the holiness you require, lead us in the way everlasting. In the name of Jesus, Your Son and our Savior, amen.
See More

Preparing for Easter - Kids Devotional

Lent Devotional: THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019
Joel Peterson, M.Div. ’18 / Pastor, Eldersville United Methodist Church, Burgettstown, Pa.
SCRIPTURE
...Continue Reading

Lent Devotional: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2019
Robert V. Ellson, M.Div. ’18 / Pastor, The United Methodist Church of Mt. Pleasant, Mt. Pleasant, Pa.
SCRIPTURE
...Continue Reading

Lent Devotional: TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019
The Rev. Joshua Fisher, Church Planting and Revitalization Certificate ’18 (and M.Div. ’14) / Co-Pastor, Lincoln Place Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pa.
SCRIPTURE
...Continue Reading

Lent Devotional: MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2019
Fr. Jim D. King, D.Min., Eastern Christian Focus ’18 / Pastor of Youth and Outreach Ministry, Antiochian Orthodox Basilica of St. Mary, Livonia, Mich.
SCRIPTURE
...Continue Reading

Lent Devotional: SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2019
Ciera (Cici) James / Secretary, PTS Student Association
SCRIPTURE
... Psalm 42
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help 6and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?” 10 As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
DEVOTIONAL
As we walk through this season of Lent we are reminded of our need for God. In our penitence we are reminded not only of God’s faithfulness but also of our dependence on God. Yet sometimes we feel alone—sometimes as we face our struggles God seems absent. They ask, “Where is your God?” We cry out in despair from yearning to feel the presence of the Lord again, from knowing our need for our rock. We ask ourselves, “Where is my God?” In our longing, we know God is constant. In our anguish, we know the day will come when we will again rejoice in the Lord. “Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my help and my God.” Our souls long for healing, peace, and comfort from the Lord—our rock in our distress. Because we know, in truth, that a time is coming when we will again praise the Lord, we can have hope in God even in the midst of our despair.
PRAYER
Lord, you are our rock. You are our foundation in times of darkness, and we know we can trust in you. Yet sometimes we cannot feel your presence. Give us strength to praise you and hope in you when we do not have the strength on our own. Meet us in our despair, gracious God, and hear us when we cry out. You are the one our souls long for. We praise and pray to you now in your Holy name. Amen.
See More

Lent Devotional: SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2019
Joanne Spence, M.A. ’18 / Director of Therapeutic Yoga, Urban Oasis Pittsburgh / Executive Director, Yoga in Schools / Private-practice Yoga therapist, civilian care and VA Health System, Pittsburgh, Pa.
... SCRIPTURE
Psalm 149
1 Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
2 Let Israel be glad in its Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre. 4 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with victory.
5 Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their couches.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters
and their nobles with chains of iron,
9 to execute on them the judgment decreed.
This is glory for all his faithful ones.
Praise the Lord!
DEVOTIONAL
The poems in the Psalter reflect the gamut of human emotions in their expressions of crying out to God for forgiveness and mercy, lamenting pain and our own sinfulness, praising God’s majestic nature and all his creation, and much more. Psalm 149, the compendium’s penultimate song, invites us to praise the Lord in a “new song.” Verse 3 tells us to “praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre”—in other words, to praise God with our whole body. Thus Psalm 149 acknowledges our humanity.
For many of us, Lent is a time when we think of our bodies often—particularly if we are practicing daily fasting from food. At such times, we become more aware of our body’s limits and needs. Being human is part of how God created us. He made us in his image, yet human, and he declared us good. How often do we exist disconnected from and disappointed with our bodies? A friend and mentor of mine notes, “We don’t just have bodies, we are bodies.” The body is the primary and only vessel in which to live one’s life. We are not “brains-on-a-stick.” Could acknowledging our finite and limited existence be the point at which we find true freedom to “sing a new song”—sing it in just the same way the psalmist charges us to praise and thus please the Lord?

PRAYER
Lord, we are yours, and you are ours. Help us to sing a new song. Let us worship you with the entirety of our bodies, thus bearing witness to the Incarnated One. We pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
See More

Lent Devotional: FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019
The Rev. Marty Neal, M.Div. ’18 / Pastor, Appleby Manor Memorial Presbyterian and Crooked Creek Presbyterian Churches, Ford City, Pa.
SCRIPTURE
...Continue Reading

Lent Devotional: THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019
The Rev. Brenda Barnes, D.Min. – Reformed Theology ’18 (and M.Div. ’07) / Pastor, NuValley Presbyterian Church, Rural Valley, Pa.
SCRIPTURE
...Continue Reading

Lent Devotional: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2019
Sr. Moonkyung Park, M.Div. ’18 / Chaplain, Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center (Catholic Health Services of Long Island), West Islip, N.Y.
SCRIPTURES
...Continue Reading