MAC KIRK

Deuteronomy the Gospel of Love ( from Samuel Schultz) I have never forgotten that title from a book I got in seminary and it is true. " When we recognize that the Deuteronomic revelation provides the basis for the messages of the prophets, and that Jesus came to fulfill and complete God's revelation to mankind, then the Book of Deuteronomy becomes crucially signficant. Moses was the prophet par excellence in the OT. Jesus was the greater prophet of whom Moses spoke....A careful consideration of Deuteronomy provides today's God-fearing people with a better insight and understanding of life in its relationship to God and fellowmen..." from the book above. Deut below from ch. 4 "5Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 6Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all ...

Eph 5:15a Careful Walking What comes before this vs? " ( ESV-" Look carefully how you walk...") For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 11And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. 13But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. 14Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. 15See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise" A new book just came out on Caring for one another by Ed Welch ," Imagine . . . an interconnected group of people who entrust themselves to each other. You can speak of your pain, and someon...

Psalm 34 ----Promises Here! " Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivereth them out of all their troubles." vs. 19 We saw last reading in Ephesians that 4:24-25 we are to "put on the new man , that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth....Wherefore , putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor... for we are members of one another." 1. This is the righteousness of Christ and of God Himself. It is not the right ways of man which are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12, " There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; But the end thereof are the ways of death." In the NT we hear the Apostle echo this thought in I Corinthians 3: 14 , " Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him, because they are spiritually judged." Is it the truth we are hearing? We are to speak the truth because Jesus who is the Way, the Tr...

John 6 :24-35 The Bread of our every life "In our daily lives, we tend to expend an awful amount of effort and energy on not letting go. We constantly try to prove our worth by accomplishing things and being very busy. Or we spend a lot of energy judging other people, trying to prove our righteousness by focusing on the splinter in our neighbor’s eye. Or our effort can be spent jumping from one distraction to the next, avoiding any stillness. This last tactic is especially dangerous in our current culture of distraction, as technology promises to keep us endlessly (mindlessly) entertained — our attention held captive. But God’s invitation remains the same: Just rest. It’s so simple and so transformative. The radical practice of rest can help us to recognize in ourselves the very patterns of effort that consume our energy and our lives. It can help us to let go of these useless strategies and this relentless striving. Rest takes us to the lip of the well, and helps us to fa...