MAC KIRK

Prayer and Action-Luke 11:13        I read of a lady who went on a retreat .   They were gathered and the retreat leader asked,” What is your image of God?”   Some said, “ Saviour”. Others said “ Defender” or “ Ruler” but she said, “ Friend”.   Certainly a good answer!   I wonder how many of us would say that.   What is a friend?   “ Friends Are Kind and Act As a Positive Influence in Your Life It should go without saying that real friends make you feel good, as opposed to bring you down. People who are genuinely your friend put your relationship above being right or trying to feel superior. If someone constantly puts you down, he or she is not a real friend.” ( about.comfriendship)         This week a good friend of mine died in California.   I had known him since I was stationed in Ca in 1989.   He was the asst pastor at the church we attended when we could as I was also doing s...

This may be a good way to pray: “ O GOD, let us never seek beyond thee what we can only find in thee, peace and rest, joy and blessedness.   Lift our souls above the round of harassing thoughts to the Eternal Presence, the pure bright atmosphere in which thou art, that there we may breathe freely, there be at rest from ourselves, and from all things that weary us; and thence return, with thy peace within us, to do and to bear whatsoever pleases thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Amen.    Free Church Book of Common Prayer, 1929

Luke 10:38-42   As I was meditating on this text for this week this reminded me of the “ Five stages of grief” by Kubler-Ross: “ Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance The stages have evolved since their introduction and they have been very misunderstood over the past three decades. They were never meant to help tuck messy emotions into neat packages. They are responses to loss that many people have, but there is not a typical response to loss as there is no typical loss. Our grief is as individual as our lives. The five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. Not everyone goes through all of them or in a prescribed order. Our hope is that with these stages comes the knowledge of grief ‘s terrain, making us better equipped ...

“Pleasing God”   Colossians 1:10-11   In   July 1924 Eric Liddell won the Olympic 400 meter in Paris. Remember this happened after he refused to run in the 100 meter because the race was on Sunday. His principles may seem strange to many today. But his motive was to please the Lord.   Here is the account from his biographer John W. Keddie, Running the Race:   “When Eric became aware of this he made it perfectly clear that he would take no part in any events scheduled for the Lord’s day, the Christian Sabbath. As far as he was concerned, that was a day of rest and worship in terms of the Fourth Commandment. It was, for him, not a day for recreation or work, apart from such works as were of necessity or mercy. The theology of the Lord’s day as Christian Sabbath to which Eric Liddell subscribed held that the Sabbath principle was preserved though the day was changed from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week. Most evangelical Chris...

  “ Rejoice in ..? or What?”   Luke 10:20        “ yet in this rejoice not, that the spirits to you are subjected, but rejoice rather that your names are written in the heavens.”   It is hard for us to rejoice in the things that matter.   What our Lord is saying to His disciples as He sent them out is that the work is important but they should not rely on that.   They should in fact rely on His unchanging love for them and that their destination is already decided.   Their names are written in the heavens.   We have this problem .   We think that our jobs, and our occupations are more important than anything else.   But they are not.     For we are already a forgiven reconciled person in Christ and our self-image does not depend on what other think of us or what we do for them.   Jesus tells His disciples that they had be given power “ to tread on serpents and scorpions”, and “ not...