MAC KIRK

  John 16:16-22  …”  A Little While and You shall see Me” EASTER Comfort 16:22 is my text. " 22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you."  Sorrow here is - lýpē – properly, distress, vexation; (figuratively) physical or emotional pain; heavy, heart-sorrow (grief) that brings a person down.  Biblehub.com  Joy is grace, charis in the greek which is the same word for God's grace.  This is  good because all good things come from God alone actually.      As Christians we have the hope based on the certainty of the record of Holy Scripture that Easter is true.  But we do not live that way, do we?  We live more as the world where our lives seem empty, hopeless and bereft of the comfort of God.  We seek those things that can never give us what we need.  The things of this world are temporal but th...

  Good Shepherd Sunday.   John 10 ; I Peter 2  Thoughts    I remember one Sunday in the Army Chaplaincy helping out in Anglican services and the higher ranking Chaplain , Major, Bill, asked me, " You have not heard of Good Shepherd Sunday?" I said, " no" .  He couldn't believe I had not.  But I came from an older group that did not have that.  Now I am glad I have been adopted by it.   "  11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.  12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.  13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.  14 I am the good shepherd, and know my  sheep , and am known of mine.  15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. ...

  Easter from the Colossians 3 Reading " We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are travelling and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace, and therefore in that sense we have arrived and are dwelling in the light." Thomas Merton I like this quote for several reasons .  It is positive and reflects our Christian life that should be light here while we live to others.  God's grace should be evident in our Christian practice.  Words are good, but not sufficient.   Somehow if we were honest we would say that our lives are not that full of goodness and truth .  This happens to us just as it did in the time when the Apostle wrote his letter to the Christians in Colossae. Our walk does not imitate our talk for sure.  We are guilty in this area . Some gnostic ( knowledge only is salvation and not our behaviour....from the Greek word gnosis or knowledge) heresies / false teaching had crept in to the chur...