MAC KIRK

Message for Sunday July 30, Romans 8; Parable Matthew 13:44.. "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." — St. Augustine Today we continue thinking about the six marks of the Christian: " Loyalty, Courage, Patience, Humility, Freedom & Generosity" The quote above reminds us that being a Christian depends on God's call. Romans 8 says that in the Epistle lesson. God was loyal to us before we believed. We have been called to know Him. Salvation is of the LORD. God is loyal to us when we were in unbelief. Romans 4: 11 tells us that Abraham was reckoned as righteous when he was in uncircumcision. 4:10 Romans 8 talks about a calling through God's predestination. Whatever we think that says we know it is clearly teaching that God gives us eternal life. He foreknew that He would call us . We say this is God's work on our behalf even before we believed through the call of the Holy Spirit to know an

" Six Marks of a Christian"- Patience Gospel for today Matthew 13:24-30;34... gives us a parable about heaven. Wheat and tares look alike. They are so alike in the initial stages if you pluck you will take out wheat when you mean to take out the poisonous weeds, tares in KJV. The story goes we must not pluck out the weeds/tares because they grow along with the wheat and we may mistakenly take out wheat."Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn." Matthew 13:30 The harvest is the end of time when " The Son of Man shall send forth his angels..." Judgment will come. " There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" V. 43 " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." We should learn to be patient then as the account above seems to advise us.

Generosity ( or Charity or Sacrificial Love) 2nd Mark of the Christian We are looking at what are the characteristics or marks of the Christian. In Christ's presence we could know what they are all in a second. He is the example of our Christian life. There is not a better role model for what a Christian is than the Lord Himself. Often I have thought about how poorly we reflect that in our circumstances. We stress, we pout, we have people we cannot abide, and our patience is let us say frayed like the wires in an old electrical system. That are about ready to blow up. The Comfortable Words in the Older versions of the Prayer Book as we are about to receive Holy Communion suggest to us what these qualities of our Saviour are: " Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all who truly turn to him" " Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." Mt 11:28 Last week we mentioned one of the qua

Freedom. One of the Six Marks of a Christian Today's Letter to the Romans describes freedom. Romans 8:2- "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." What a positive statement that should govern our lives and our conduct. We know that freedom is not free. How often we have heard that. Yet because of the freedom we have in Christ's fulfillment of the law of God for us, we are able to live new lives. Another Scripture that talks about what this means is from Galatians 6:17," From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of our Lord Jesus Christ." What does it mean for the Christian to bear the marks of Jesus Christ? That is what the Apostle said after his long letter to the Galatians to live in the freedom that Christ had ransomed them into. Freedom in Christ is not freedom to do what we want any longer only. We are bound to Him by our love and our conduct in relation