MAC KIRK

Trinity 13. " But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." Galatians 3:22 There are some key words here we should think about in this short text from the Apostle's letter to the Galatians: "the scripture" "all under sin" "promise by faith of Jesus Christ" "given" "to them that believe" First of all the Scripture . Who believes that the Scriptures are the Word of God and of Christ? Jesus did. He accepted the Old Testament of the Jewish people as God -breathed Scripture. He constantly quoted the Scripture to the leaders of the church /synagogue at that time. It was the Scriptures that Jesus referred to on that walk on Resurrection Evening to Cleopas and his companion. " And beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:27 The Scrip

12th S. after Trinity 2 Corinthians 3:4 God has made us sufficient and competent to do His work. " Our sufficiency is of God", the Apostle says. " All morning an instructor had been explaining leadership to a class of police recruits. Calling a man to the front of the class he handed him a piece of paper on which was written, ' You are in charge. Get everyone out of the room without causing a panic.' The recruit was at a loss for words and returned to his seat. The second man summoned tried, ' Everybody outside. Go!' No one moved. A third man glanced at the insructions, smiled and said, ' All right , men. Break for lunch.' The room emptied in seconds." sermonillustrations.com As Christians we are equipped to do God's work because we have His Spirit. Our confidence and competency comes from Christ . I Timothy 1:15 says it this way ," And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me....and the grace of o

11th after Trinity Old Testament Lesson- Genesis 37:3-4,12-35 Trusting in the Fruits - from Henri Nouwen's Bread for the Journey "We belong to a generation that wants to see the results of our work. We want to be productive and see with our own eyes what we have made. But that is not the way of God's Kingdom. Often our witness for God does not lead to tangible results. Jesus himself died as a failure on a cross. There was no success there to be proud of. Still, the fruitfulness of Jesus' life is beyond any human measure. As faithful witnesses of Jesus we have to trust that our lives too will be fruitful, even though we cannot see their fruit. The fruit of our lives may be visible only to those who live after us. What is important is how well we love. God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not." As I reflected again on the life of Joseph from its inception in Genesis 37, I thought of the above quote. Often it does not appear th