Elphin and Snow Road Presbyterian Churches

05/26/2026

May 26, 2026 Freedom to listen and choose
Dogmatic statements, ultimatums, or veiled threats are not good ways to have or encourage meaningful communication. They soon backfire. They are even a worse way to do life. I hear some folks speak the Gospel message using ultimatums, “Do this or…” “Believe this or …” In reading how Jesus spoke to people, he really only spoke in pointed ultimatums and judgements to those who thought they knew more about God than God did about Himself. The idea that Jesus may have been who he said he was, God in the flesh, didn’t dissuade them that they new God better than Jesus did. Jesus gave his listeners freedom. Those listening to his stories, invitations, and even commands were under no compulsion, coercion or obligation. He knew that those who were listening had the right to listen, seek and choose. “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2). In more than one way, God is still not denying us the dignity of this freedom to choose.

I wonder if it would have been much easier for us if Jesus would have clearly stated for it to be written, “Thou shalt not … cut your hair, have drums in church, play sports on Sundays, wear red, drink wine, play cards, bet on horses, smoke … (fill in your favourite ‘Christian no-no). But he didn’t. Of course, the Bible is used to defend almost all imaginable views of life with chapter and verse, but is that really allowing the listener freedom to listen, seek and choose?

Stories, parables are what Jesus used to teach us about God, God’s Kingdom, and most of these also teach us about ourselves in ways few others things can. Stories linger in our imagination and shape our thinking long after we’ve heard them and sometimes long before we understand their full meaning, (if the full meaning can really ever be fully understood).

Listen to the stories and parables.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_zI1Iy5_EQ
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mario daniel sassi

Lyric video for the song "God Is In This Story" by Katy Nichole & Big Daddy Weave. From her EP "Katy Nichole".Follow Katy Nichole:https://www.instagram.com/k...

05/12/2026

May 12, 2026 Don’t …

Angry people tire me, especially those who vent their anger under the guise of God’s work. I grew up hearing some angry preachers, their mantra being, “Things are so bad we will have to fight, fight, fight,” and “These are end times, it’s war to get peace.” All of them eventually died, angry, for what? They weren’t sure. If following Christ is fuelled by anger against, (name it), then we will be consumed by anger because there is no end to things to be angry at or against.

A gentleman running for office was recently verbally accosted by a prominent pastor. The pastor said that the candidate should be crucified like Jesus. Upon learning this, the candidate had a wonderful response, “You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you … I love you more than you could ever hate me.” The pastor almost dislocated every bone that made his jaws work trying to say he was misquoted. He explained that his desire was for the candidate to have a religious experience with Jesus.

I am shocked that those words coming from a pastor did NOT shock me.

You see when love runs out, anger remains the driving force that skews all perspective. You see, where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds. But where grace abounds, forgiveness grows. How many of us have at one time or another continued to clutch onto something long after we knew it to be wrong?

I understand there is a place for anger; but there is no place to commit evil for the sake of righteousness. “Be angry, but sin not,” are not just nice words but incredibly important because unchecked anger gives the devil opportunity, a place to establish a foothold … (Ephesians 4:26,27)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcllvo5pLhQ

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mario daniel sassi

👉 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel ► https://www.youtube.com/vineyardworship?sub_confirmation=1Follow Vineyard Worship USA:Website 🇺🇸 ► http://www.vineyar...

05/05/2026

May 5, 2026 Fixing our eyes on …

“…Laying aside the distractions, sins, let us run with perseverance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…” Hebrews 12:1,2

While ‘camping’ a few years ago I excitedly took out my recently acquired telescope, (a fairly consequential item I thought would be simple to operate). HA! Having an on-off fascination with astronomy, I wanted to focus in on a star I had read about. When darkness had settled in the sky exploded with stars … and the air with mosquitoes. As much as I tried, while swatting bugs everywhere, I simply couldn’t bring the particular star I wanted into telescopic sight.

I learned later that using that kind of telescope was not just a “plink-plunk there’s the star” process. Oh no, it involved familiarization with the instrument, aligning the proper scopes, scanning, tracking, … you get the picture. I would have if I had read the instruction booklet. Instead my excitement to see quickly, this new telescope, distracted me from properly preparing. The star was there, but I wasn’t prepared or equipped to see, as much as I thought I was.

Sometimes we approach the Bible looking for answers like I approached the telescope looking for that star. Looking for quick answers we open the Bible hoping it opens to the right passage for our need. Not the best way to grow in faith. Time comes when all of us will want to hear God and discover we may not be able to recognize his voice.

Psalm 1 is about preparing, learning, growing … places to be and not be, things to do and not do so our lives are more like trees planted by sources of nourishment rather than people distracted by everything around us. Sound advice from the writer of Hebrews, “…Laying aside the distractions, sins, let us run with perseverance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…” Hebrews 12:1,2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0-a9NQvgU8

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mario daniel sassi

31 likes. "Fix Your Eyes On Christ | Brad Nix"

04/26/2026

MARK YOUR CALENDARS WITH THESE IMPORTANT DATES COMING UP!!!!
Elphin Presbyterian Church Anniversary - Special Music by Jenny Whitely and Joey Wright, Sunday June 28th @ 11AM followed by lunch and Crawford's Cemetery Decoration Service @ 2PM
Knox Presbyterian Church Anniversary, McDonald's Corners, Sunday, July 19. Special Music by River of Life Choir @ 11AM followed by lunch and Highland Line Cemetery Decoration Service @ 2PM
Snow Road Presbyterian Church Anniversary, Sunday August 16th- Special Music by four generations of the Abrams Family @ 11AM followed by lunch at the Snow Road Community Centre. EVERYONE IS WELCOME.
Our wonderful minister Mario Sassi is the speaker at all three services and cemetery services. A FREE WILL OFFERING WILL BE TAKEN UP, and a small charge for lunch.
AGAIN EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO ATTEND

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Send a message to learn more

04/26/2026

This morning’s service is at Elphin at 10:30AM.

04/21/2026

April 21, 2026 You do not walk alone

How often has this happened to you?

“I THINK OF A PERSON I haven't seen or thought of for years, and ten minutes later I see her crossing the street. I turn on the radio to hear a voice reading the biblical story of Jael, which is the story that I have spent the morning writing about. A car passes me on the road, and its license plate consists of my wife's and my initials side by side. When you tell people stories like that, their usual reaction is to laugh. One wonders why.

I believe that people laugh at coincidence as a way of relegating it to the realm of the absurd and of therefore not having to take seriously the possibility that there is a lot more going on in our lives than we either know or care to know. Who can say what it is that's going on? But I suspect that part of it, anyway, is that every once and so often we hear a whisper from the wings that goes something like this: "You've turned up in the right place at the right time. You're doing fine. Don't ever think that you've been forgotten.” (Frederick Buechner in Wishful Thinking and Beyond Words)

As much and as often as I have chalked that up to just that, coincidence, just as often I have wondered what it was that ‘coincident’ meant. Is it just possible something, someone, is trying to tell me something I need to hear?

I cannot help but wonder what sort of things God whispered to His son in all the times Jesus went out alone to pray.

To Jesus, “…and angels came and attended him.” Matthew 4:11
To Elijah, “…And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” 1 Kings 19:12
To us, gently coming alongside and within us to interpret our aching groanings which we cannot find words for, and translates them into words to the Father, Romans 8:26, 27, who promised he would never leave us. Deuteronomy 31:6

Do not harden yourself to think it’s just, ‘coincidence’. It may be God coming alongside letting you know you are not alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNCj2KW-JFk

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mario daniel sassi

"You Do Not Walk Alone" traditional Irish blessingOriginal music by Elaine Hagenberghttps://www.elainehagenberg.com/you-do-not-walk-alone-satbMay you see God...

04/14/2026

April 14, 2026 Colourful bottles

As I was reading one morning a rather perturbing incident came to mind, one we’ve recounted as a family and had some good laughs; but we certainly were not laughing when it happened.

One day shopping at Northland Mall, a small strip mall near our home, my wife and I each had places we wanted to go. Since I was headed to the book store, likely to be there for a while, we decided that I should take our child with me. The bookstore had a rather small inadequate children’s place for her to play at and it would be easier than carting her around to the shops my wife wanted to visit. So I took her with me and headed into the bookstore. She was no more than 2 yrs old. You can see what’s coming right?

I was lost in a world of books when I see my wife arrive, and ask, “Where’s Andrea?” I was in a fog of book war, and automatically said what I thought was true, “Isn’t she with you?” Do I need to write what ensued?

The mall security office was alerted, the mall was locked down and everybody in the mall immediately was deputized as a search party. The fact that at that time in the city we lived, there had been some child abductions didn’t help. We searched frantically, voices everywhere calling out, “A-n-d-r-e-a…!” It was not the best day of our lives. Needless to say, with every call of her name the anguish, the anger with myself, and anxiety was very real. I cannot begin to tell you the things going through our hearts and minds.

This went on for a few minutes, the longest of our lives to that point in time. I returned to the starting point of the search for a more thorough search. Across from the bookshop, was a liquor store with bottles of every color, shape and size and as I desperately checked again I noticed a tiny tuque bobbing up and down in one of the corner aisles intently gazing at all the colors, shapes and sizes … but not yet touching, thankfully. There she was, hands in front of her, totally mesmerized by the booze and and bottles, just as I had been minutes earlier with the books in the shop across the corridor.

Leslie Newbigin writes, “A terrible cry echoes through the garden [Eden], ‘Adam, where are you?’ It is the cry of a mother [and father] who child has [drifted] away in a crowded supermarket, a cry of anguish, a cry of wrath and love; it’s a cry that echoes right through the Bible as this loving and holy God seeks the children … who have run away because they thought they could find out for themselves better than God could tell them. And right through the Bible runs the anguish of God as he seeks his foolish people. And it finally is echoed in that terrible cry from the cross when the Son of God puts himself in the place of rebellious Adam, in our place who have run away from God … God will not leave us until he has won us back to be his children.” (A Walk through the Bible)

In those moments of reading, I can almost feel the heart of God for this planets inhabitants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ldmgJbNFhI
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mario daniel sassi

Provided to YouTube by Brentwood MusicI've Never Been Out of His Care · Dallas HolmEarly Works℗ 1991 Benson RecordsReleased on: 2004-08-24Composer, Lyricist:...