MAC KIRK

  A Meditation on the Transfiguration---Sunday before the 40 days to Easter   This week we are led up to a mountain , secluded, snowy ---  probably Mount Hermon with Jesus and His disciples to pray.  He had just spoken words of suffering and death ." Luke :23--- "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 25For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away."   The Disciples had been called, and had seen the miracle of feeding the many people about 5, 000.  What was happening now on the Mountain?  He shows Himself to them, white and glistering .  His face was changed. They saw His glory.     We too have mountains in our lives where we stop and rest and pray.  It can be a place that we know, or a place we imagine in o...

  That Love Thing -Luke 6:27-38  "How am I to ascertain whether or not a company of professing Christians, whether in a church, a Bible Institute or anywhere else, will truly help or hinder me? In this way: Does their teaching and influence make my conscience more tender or more callous? Does it emphasize the loftiness of the holy standard God has set before me and make me realize how far, far short I come of it, or does it make me pleased with myself? Does it foster pride or humiliation?" ~ Arthur Pink, "Letter to Lowell Green, June 3 1934" This quote is very helpful to our Christian growth I believe.  Where we go to Church, if we go, and we should if possible is important. Today's Sermon is more of a meditation, than a sermon with points....  Today's reading is from the Sermon on the Plain again, and it hits home for a lot of us of course who listen.  Luke 6 : "27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28 Ble...

  The Sixth Sunday of Epiphany Jer 17:5-10 Ps 1 1 Cor 15:12-20 Luke 6:17-26 ( and the 70 Days before Easter- Septuagesima) " Count Your Blessings"   ---Why is it that disasters and bad things seem to highlight the news and our lives?  We pay attention !  But the good things are not so important it seems at least .  The hymn " Count Your Blessings"  Rev. Oatman Johnson wrote over 3000 hymns. This one is well -known.  It says so much.  Today's Gospel has many positive and blessed thoughts from our Lord. It is a Beatitude on the plain .  Matthew has it on the mount.◄ Luke 6:17 ► "And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases" He had just called the  12 Disciples/ Apostles . He spent the night praying before He did it.  He heals the...

  The Fifth Sunday of Epiphany Judg 6:11-24 Ps 85 1 Cor 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11  "The Call" "Little Transmitters In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe "Pioneer 10." Its main mission was to reach Jupiter and send back information about that planet. It was a bold plan because at that time no satellite had gone beyond Mars. Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and so much more. It swung past Jupiter in November, 1973, then passed Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. By 1997, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. Despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to earth. The most remarkable thing was that those signals were powered by an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light. Not even the most optimistic scientist could have ever imagined what that little 8-watt transmitter could do. So it is when you and I offer ourselves to God in faithful obedience. It’s just incr...