MAC KIRK

Peter's Encouragement to Live the Christian Life  I Peter 2    Peter reminds us  as the hymn we sing " Because He Lives" conveys tells us that we have a " living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" 1:3 and that our inheritance and future is " uncorruptible , undefiled, and unfading reserved in the heavens for us" 1:4 .  Life is worth the living just " because He lives".  He writes his letter to encourage the believers as they go through various trials, perhaps at the time of the Emperor Nero, to be holy 1:16 because they have been redeemed out of their sin and selves " by the precious blood of Christ".      Their suffering is real " various trials" 1:6 but the suffering they endure is for a reason and he lists three reasons why they should not give up but perservere in their Christian faith.  They are not to return to their former lives of lust, desire for the pleasures of this life as their ...

Good Shepherd Sunday Chiseled on the doorway to the parish Church of Staunton Harold in Leicestershire, England are these remarkable words: "  In the year 1653    When all things sacred were throughout the Nation     either demolished or profaned,     Sir Robert Shirley Barronet     founded this Church,     Whose singular praise it is      to have done the best things in the worst times and      to have hoped them in the most calamitous." To hope " in the most calamitous"---that is our calling. Hope in what, where or who?  Some hope in their standing in life...financial success means hope to them.  Some hope in their families.  If your family is successful, then you have hope.  Or we hope in the church---if it is growing and "successful" and " full", then we can say we have hope.  Can hope be disappointed?  Obviously , if w...

" A Crisis of Choice " I John 5:10 Have you ever had a crisis on your hands?  The word crisis comes from the Greek krisis which means to separate, in other words a change is coming either for better or worse.  It has been used in medicine as to which way the person is going in his health.  It is a time of danger or trouble.  Have you ever been in the ditch?  Hopefully you are not stuck and  cannot get out...or is the furnace out?  Being out of work is a crisis.  In I John 5:10 we read about a person in crisis because of a past action of choice.  " The one who does not believe ( present tense) God has made him a liar, BECAUSE HE HAS NOT BELIEVED ( perfect tense here indicating a past crisis of choice ) in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son."  A crisis because of a past action of choice says the Greek scholar Wescott. John Stott ( the evangelical Anglican and former rector of All Souls Church in London )said in his c...

Witnesses to the Resurrection” On this Easter Day we are vividly reminded of the people who saw the empty tomb and the Lord Himself raised from the dead. The evidence of the resurrection is seen in the people who saw Jesus and told about it. If we can demonstrate this through the witnesses , then we are giving weighty evidence to those who are struggling with unbelief, doubt and despair. These are myths some say. They are not able to be proved. Today people want others to share with them what has happened and the reality of what Jesus did, is and who He proves to be is seen in the witnesses to the resurrection. We do not live in an age that enjoys the printed page so much…. People communicate thru phones, texts, and tweets , and movies, dvds and videos. People speaking to people is more powerful to our culture than a manuscript in today’s thinking at least…..   After 6 pm on Saturday, Mary Magdalene ( from Magdala—Luke tells us she ministered out of her wealth 8:2 to Jesus al...

A  Night of Passover     This week some of us took a journey to Boerne and took part in a Jewish Pesach (Passover )or Haggadah ( telling) put on by the Boerne Anglican Church and DR Samuelson , a Holocaust Survivor, who is Jewish himself.  We learned about what Jesus Himself experienced as a child ( Luke 2:42) and what He certainly did with His disciples , Mark 14:12 “ And the first day of unleavened bread , when they killed the Passover…Where is the guestchamber , where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?”  We know this as Christians as the Eucharist or Holy Communion on which Jesus took the bread and blessed it and brake it, and “gave it to them, and said, Take eat, this is my body.” 14:22     The Passover was instituted by God for the people of Israel in Exodus 12.” And you shall eat of it [the roasted lamb] this way, with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall   eat it...