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If calling the church office and no answer, please always leave a complete message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
PRESBYTERY UPDATES!! Information can be found on the Ministries page. The 2025 per capita is $46.10 per each active role member.
Cropwalk Sunday, Sept. 21ST If you can’t join the walk – you can still make a donation. Give donations to Barbara Keller or place in offering plate, in an envelope marked CROPWALK - checks made payable to: Church World Service-Cropwalk A portion of our donations support our local food pantries. CROP stands for Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty. The CROP Hunger Walk is a nationwide movement sponsored by Church World Service to raise funds to end hunger and poverty in the U.S. and around the world.
Patriot Day is a national day of remembrance that commemorates the victims of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. Established by a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in December 2001, Patriot Day serves as a reminder of the impact of that day on the nation and the world. It is a day for Americans to honor the memories of those who perished, to pay tribute to the bravery of the first responders, and to reflect on the values of freedom, democracy, and resilience. Dear Loving Father, We pause to remember the great losses and courageous acts of September 11th. We lift up those who are still affected -- families of the victims, police officers, firemen, first responders, and all who were involved. We pray for the light of Christ to flood the hearts of people everywhere. We believe You desire to redeem Your creation, and we trust that beauty will continue to come from the ashes of those dark days. Surround us with Your mighty angels of protection, give us compassion for one another in all of life’s circumstances, and instill in us the courage to answer Your call. Amen.
Arts at First Presbyterian on Sept. 14 at 4 PM First Presbyterian Church Clarks Summit, A salute to Duke Ellington with the internationally-acclaimed Bloom/Funkhouser Duo -- Peter H. Bloom, flute, and John Funkhouser, piano). All concerts are held at First Presbyterian Church, 300 School Street, Clarks Summit. Concerts are open to the public and free of charge, but a free-will offering is taken to help defray the costs of the event.
What if your mindset is the key to more peace, strength, and joy? Dr. Norman Vincent Peale believed that positive thinking is a practical act of faith. Here are 4 tips to help you start thinking more positively today:
Even in tough times, there’s always something good. Train your mind to find it.
Your attitude is more powerful than your circumstances. With God’s help, you can handle it.
Start thinking upward. New hope and ideas follow forward-thinking faith.
Sweep out the shadows by focusing on His light. He’ll help you clear your mind and heart. Positive thinking won’t erase every problem, but it can change the way you face them—with strength, joy, and trust in God.
IN GOOD HANDS As Jesus prepared his disciples for his departure, they were full of questions — “Where are you going? How will we know the way there? Would you please just show us the Father?” — and not very satisfied with his answers. So Jesus promised to send them “another Helper” (John 14:16, ESV). And we can almost hear them protesting, like kids bemoaning a favorite coach’s retirement or church members grieving a beloved pastor’s call to serve elsewhere: “Oh, great. Someone new for us to get to know. It won’t be the same. It won’t be you.” Decisions Matter Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible. —C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Do Your Part at Church Volunteer to do the job most people shun. After most people have left a church dinner, remain behind to help clean up and put things in order. When a campaign is held to raise funds for a church project, be among the first to give time, talent and resources to show your support and enthusiasm. Occasionally give something or do something anonymously. If it's spectacular enough, the church will go "bananas" trying to figure out who did it.
It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely help another without helping himself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Albert Schweitzer, a pastor, musicologist, physician and more, said, “Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter — to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way, as if we were sitting by a mountain lake and contemplating hills and woods and clouds in the tranquil and fathomless water.”
Redeeming ‘wasted’ time In Just Like Jesus, Max Lucado writes that the average American spends a total of six months waiting at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, 18 months looking for items we’ve lost and five years standing in line. All the while, many of us grumble: “What a waste of time! I could be doing something much more important! Where are my keys?” But Lucado suggests that we give these moments to God. Rather than whispering to ourselves, we can speak to God in prayer. “Simple phrases such as ‘Thank you, Father,’
‘Be sovereign in this hour, O Lord,’ ‘You are my resting place, Jesus’ can turn a commute into a pilgrimage,” he writes. “You needn’t leave your office or kneel in your kitchen. Just pray where you are. Let the kitchen become a cathedral or the classroom a chapel. Give God your whispering thoughts.” When we do this, “the common becomes uncommon,” Lucado adds. What’s more, “wasted” time becomes valuable; boring waits become meditative; the lost — your time, if not also your keys — is redeemed.
A POSITIVE PRAYER “Please help me with NOTS that are in my mind, my heart and my life. Remove the have nots, the can nots and the do nots… erase the will nots, may nots, might nots that may find a home in my heart. And most of all, Dear God, I ask that you remove from my mind, my heart and my life, all of the AM nots that I have allowed to hold me back… especially the thought that I am not good enough.” Author Unknown
Would you not agree that NOT is not a word we should choose to employ… unless utterly necessary? May every positive prayer be answered this week, Godwink, after Godwink, after Godwink!
Both the regular and large print editions of Our Daily Bread are now available – if you you would like one, contact the office and we will be sure you receive it.
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