MAC KIRK

Luke 6 :27-38 " Is there anything known to us that is more discouraging than the Sermon on the Mount? ...the moment we face the actual demands , we see that they are quite impossible to the natural man. " D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones And that is the whole point as we looked at last week. Without a change of heart, there is no possibility of doing anything pleasing to God. We need His grace inclining us to do what we cannot do. One verse summarizes the difficulty, " And if ye do good to them that do good to you, what thank have ye? for even sinners love those that love them." 6:33 The word for thank for ESV is benefit. The RSV says ," and what credit is that to you?" The original word is grace or charis...."God freely extending Himself (His favor, grace), reaching (inclining) to people because He is disposed to bless (be near) them." If we have received His grace, His grace will then enable us to extend that as God does. That is the whole

Sermon on the Mount Luke 6 As we approach this section of Holy Scripture I find this insight from Bishop Fitzsimons Allison , ret. Bishop Episcopal, now ACNA Diocese of S. Carolina worthy of our thought and note ( in the recent edition of the " Angican Way", magazine of the Prayer Book Society)---he introduces his thought on repentance and change of heart with this illustration from Mark Twain, " giving up smoking was the easiest thing in the world. ..I've done it a thousand times." We find repentance a very difficult thing as Twain notes. But we need to see what Bishop Allison discovered , the greek word for repentance is mis-translated from the greek. It is not a change of mind as the greeks taught for they believe virtue was about education and knowledge and if you have that you can change. No, the greek word metanoien is not change of mind, but change of heart. " Repentance is not mere remorse and regret and wishing for more will-power. It is

Luke 5. The Catch of Fish I am not a fisherman. I only went one time with my grandfather in California, and never did it again. My guess is that fishing is not so easy. Timing , the right bait, the right equipment, the right place...etc...Fishing is not so easy, is it? But if want to eat fish we have to be patient and listen to the wisdom of other fisherman who can tell us how to do it properly. Peter and his partners, James & John , the sons of Zebedee were rather exhausted I imagine after doing they thought all the right fishing thing. They fished at night ( the preferred time for fishing), but " took nothing." 5:5 They had just listened to the Lord teach from the boat , sitting, as the teacher's position vs 4, along with the crowd who were " pressing in on Him to hear the Word of God" ( an aside here....how great to see people really want to hear the Word of God instead of the Word of ______?----if we believe it is God's Word, w

The End of the Christmas Season Luke 2 Today we certainly are at the end of the Christmas Season. It is Candlemas or Purification of the Virgin Mary. ( 40 days after the birth of Jesus) " The light was the inspiration for the celebration with candles. It was and still remains to this day a Christian celebration of the purification of Mother Mary and the first appearance of Jesus in the Temple. During the early years, people would place their candles outside the church in order to be blessed. They would then carry them in a procession to church in order to imitate the appearance of Jesus in the Temple." from holidaycalendar.com in England. I would like to focus on some of the persons who did just that, celebrate the Christ child in the Temple. One was Simeon---famous for the Nunc Dimittis " Now Lettest Thou Depart" ( Latin) He was a faithful watchman , and the " Holy Spirit was upon him" As we focus on others who welcomed Christ, that is th