MAC KIRK

  Holy Week. Palm Sunday . Matthew 27:42   Three groups of people abuse Jesus on the Cross , the ignorant sinners, the religious sinners and condemned sinners. 1. The ignorant sinners in vs. 39 " reviled Him, wagging their heads, and saying, ' Thou that destroyeth the temple, and build it in three days , save thyself.  If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." " The place of the Crucifixion was close to the great road which led from the North to Jerusalem.  On that Feast-Day , when there was no law to limit locomotion to a Sabbath day's journey, many would naturally be arrested by the spectacle of the three Crosses. ..." Edersheim, Jesus the Messiah. "Many of them knew nothing of Christ's case, but seeing him punished in company with the two malefactors, thought that he was doubtless guilty of the same crimes as they; others, perhaps, who had seen his miracles and heard something of his teaching, conceived the notion that one whom the pr

  The Gift of Inadequacy   2 Timothy 1:7    " I am inadequate to meet life's opportunities, but I will conquer my fear by becoming a riverbed for the flow of God's guidance, love and power." Lloyd Ogilvie Have you ever felt overwhelmed and underprepared?  We all do, and this is the point at which we can see that God provides in our inability and inadequacy to get His grow His kingdom.  Instead of giving up,  this gives a time to see our need for God's power to do His will . And we should feel that way!  ..." I'm convinced that unless we are attempting something we could not pull off on our own strength, we have surrendered to the fear of being inadequate...and we become timid and shrink back from attempting what we know we are called to do."  p. 97 Ogilvie How then and in what way? 2 Tim. 1:7 the Apostle says to his companion and fellow worker in the faith, Timothy,  " God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love , and of a

  Erasing our Fears.   I John 4:18   We have chatted the last few Sundays about our phobias , that is our fears.  What have we gotten from this series so far?  The list is here (table),  and can be helpful to us as we struggle with various things.  I have always liked the first one.  "My fear is really loneliness for God.  He will never leave me or forsake me.  I will claim His promise."  Last week's sticks with me too."  Secure in God's love, I will not surrender my self-worth to the opinions and judgments of others.  ...when I am hurt and rejected I will not retaliate.  I will allow God to heal me...."   We will look at resurrection and life as we journey to that Day of Easter with another fear statement about death and life.   I suppose my favorite of all is , " I will give up the vague idea that given time things work out.  Instead I will expectantly face the future knowing that God will work out all things for my good and His glory."  In the w

  Fear and Rejection.          We all suffer rejection.  Sometimes we even feel rejected by God.  He doesn't seem to hear our desires we think.   Our plans are not His, and we know that, but that does not satifsy us.  He is looking for us to see that without Him we can do nothing, and living in His presence is better than all the other things we think we need or want.  Today's lesson in the fear series is , " Secure in God's love, I will not surrender my self-worth to the opinions and judgments of others.  When I am rejected, I will not retaliate; when I am hurt, I will allow God to heal me.  And knowing the pain of rejection, I will seek to love those who suffer from its anguish."  Lloyd Ogilvie 12 Steps To Living Without Fear I learned that Psalm 27 breaks down in these three areas.  " The LORD is my light.  And my salvation.The LORD is the strength of my life.  Of whom shall I be afraid?"   " Let's face it.  We all need approval and acceptanc

 Fear of Losing Control  Luke 19:11-27 In our discussion of " Living Without Fear" we started with Step one, " My fear is really loneliness for God.  Therefore, I will claim His promise to never leave or forsake me." Hebrews 13:5 and Joshua 1:5. " I will never leave thee or forsake thee"  Our second message was " Fear and Forgiveness"  Our goal is and was to " let go of my hurting memories of the past.  I will not anticipate the repetition of past pain; I will accept forgiveness from the Lord and will forgive everything and everyone in the past---including myself.  "  p. 64  1-Forget the past by remembering the Lord. 2-We must specifically confess our failures and fears to God and those whom we have offended, and last week reviewed  Last week we chatted about Romans 8:28 and saw God is our future:" There's so much now I cannot see, My eyesight's far too dim  But come what may, I'll surely trust And leave it all to Him.