MAC KIRK

 UNITY AS THE DEW AND HOLY OIL AND IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH PSALM 133 "There are two ways of being united -- one is by being frozen together, and the other is by being melted together. What Christians need is to be united in brotherly love, and then they may expect to have power. " Moody's Anecdotes, p. 53. The Result of Disagreement, "  Intending to raise cattle, a family from New York bought a ranch out West. When their friends visited and inquired about the ranch’s name, the would be rancher replied: “I wanted to name it the Bar-J. My wife favored Suzy-Q, one of our sons wanted the Flying-W, and the other liked the Lazy-Y. So we’re calling it the BAr-J-Suzy-Q-Flying-W-Lazy-Y.” “But where are all your cattle?” the friends asked. “None survived the branding.”  Source:Unknown "Playing Second Fiddle An Admirer once asked Leonard Bernstein, celebrated orchestra conductor, what was the hardest instrument to play. He replied without hesitation: “Second fiddle. I can

 SERVICE BUT HOW? 2 Sunday after Epiphany - Service but how? " There is a gospel according to you. A gospel is the good news of what God has done in and through Jesus Christ. What that means to us and how it is expressed through what we say and do is our gospel. It is being written in our attitudes, values, actions, and relationships. The people around us are reading our gospel every day." Life Without Limits-the Message of Mark's Gospel by Lloyd J. Ogilvie Today's Epistle reading Romans 12 , second half, is talking about the fact that we have as Christians is gifts of the grace of God. Members of one body we are all gifted by the Spirit of God , and should use our gifts for the body , as we are individually members of one another. A gift is obviously something we have been given. He mentions several: "teaching, service, generosity, showing mercy.." How these are to be exercised in the church is what got my attention...... Leading for example should be in ze

 EPIPHANY GIFTS WE RECEIVE FROM FOLLOWING CHRIST , THE STAR Gifts we can give to ourselves and others through Christ in the New Year” Epiphany Matthew 2:1-12 The Wise Men , magi are figures , kings perhaps, three of them , of those who are seeking wisdom and a divine Child.  They are representatives of ourselves , Gentiles who are engrafted into the  family of Christ through the wisdom that is presented to us, in the Child who is our Wisdom, our Righteousness and our Salvation.  " The imortant point is that these men were heathen and that they represent the first fruits of the Gentile nations.  They symbolize the truth that in the great world today there are countless hungry hearts yearning for a divine Saviour and ready to follow even faint and imperfect signs which may lead to His feet." Erdman in The Gospel of Matthew The Apostle says it this way in the Epistle, “ Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentile