MAC KIRK

Mark 6: 45-52 Living in fear of what life brings is where some of us live from time to time. And, today we hear another sea story for summer. There is something about the ocean that gives us a feeling of relief and assurance. But these are not always calm days at the beach. " And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. " 6:48 If we were to ask to look inside our hearts , it may be overwhelming to us to see what He finds there. It is the things that rile us that test us to see what we truly believe. Family members may be ill or a tragedy of some kind strike that we never thought possible. Or we can be isolated in some way that we are not feeling well enough to speak about what is really hurting and bothering us. In the reading from Ephesians the Apostle prays, " ...that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.." To have a foundation that is not s...

Rest Yourselves! Mark 6:30 Coming Home “ Mark 6:30-34;53-56 Familiar places are just that. Familiar. And warm and comfortable as well. Coming home is a treat in so many ways. We know where to turn. We do not have to look for the road signs. We know the area . We are at rest because we do not have to deal with unexpected things usually. We come home to our own bed and our dog greets us with a warm hello or a crazy one in my case. Jack jumps all over the house when we come home. He speaks in loud barks a long time and is so happy to see us, that sometimes I have to get on the floor and touch lay with him and touch him, even before my wife. Yes, coming home is a delight. The disciples had just witnessed the death of John the Baptist at the hand of King Herod. They could have been obviously sad and forlorn. Their activities had dominated the weeks before. And now they came to report to Jesus what they had seen and done. “ And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, ...

Mark 6:7-13 " Gleanings from the calling and sending" We need a more simpler life. As we look at the news, the world and our communities , it is not. What are we doing to help ourselves to make a simpler life happen? Too many choices is the problem and that can lead to disaster. The battle is in the mind. We heard last week of performers and others we end up dead way before their time. We wonder if money can buy happiness , and would like to try it if we had enough. We should make a simple choice as Matthew Henry says that our lives should reflect , " a new heart and a new way." The message of a simple life in God can be obscured. Mark is a great place to begin for simplicity and directness. He wrote to the Roman people mostly, but in direct sentences. It seems that many were just interested in what Jesus could do for them, but not in what He said. What He said is the essence and kernal of the gospel message for all. Mark tells about the works ...

2 Corinthians 12 " Boasting" " Boasting?" " In what?" Great CS Lewis quote for those of us who are struggling which is everyone....“In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble--because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out." - Mere Christianity” ― C.S. Lewis As we go about we know many are struggling....We learned about the stats about the suicide rate in the us that grew so much over the last couple of years. We heard about Anthony Bourdain, dead at 61. We heard about Kate Spade, dead at 55. Both died by suicide. The Christian lives in the world and has trouble. The Church has trouble. But if we know in whom we have believed we know that He is able to keep that which we have entrusted to Him...2 Timothy 1:12...

Jairus' Daughter Mark 5 Mark shows that Jesus is Lord of nature ( storm on the Sea), Lord of all in bondage ( casts out the demons) & today Lord of life ( the daughter of Jairus). In all of these I note that all wished to be healed, saved from destruction , and came and worshipped at the feet of Jesus . Mark 5:6 says that was what the man with the demons did. Of course the disciples did that with the storm when they woke Jesus as the waves were filling the boat. Jairus did the same thing. He came 5:22, " He fell at his feet, and beseecheth Him much saying, ' My little daughter is at the point of death: I pray thee, that thou come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be made whole, and live." The first thing we see is that Jairus was though wealthy, and a ruler of the synagogue, came to Jesus for what he thought He may do for his daughter who was dying. This is what all need----to come to Jesus, but it depends on the person and the situation when they co...

Mark 4:35-41 " The Questions in the Storm" Today's first half of the Gospel is a sea story, full of drama, and questions of life and death. ( also in Luke 8 & Mt 8) It happens on the Sea of Galilee , 700 feet below sea level, where the wind, and cold wind comes off the mountains and whips up the seas. In the middle of the windstorm the disciples asked, " Teacher, do you do not care that we are perishing?" The Lord responds with questions, " Why are you so fearful?" " Have ye not yet faith?" Then they conclude with a question, " Who then is this , that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" We don't begin to ask questions either sometimes until the storms come. Annie Dillard in Holy the Firm said , " You can get caught holding one end of a love, when your father drops, and your mother; when a land is lost, or a time, and your friend is blotted out, gone, your brother's body spoiled, and cold, your infant ...

Parables about kingdom growth and power Mark 4:26-34 Remaining silent and speaking when no one else will are both hard to do. There is a time " to keep silence , and a time to speak.." Eccles 3 ...As well as in Esther---Esther 4:14 “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?". "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms: it means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." - Gilbert K. Chesterton. 1. First silence and patience..In today's parable about the kingdom the man plants the seed but it does not come up right away. " And (he) should sleep, and rise night and day and the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how." 4:27 Mark This is hard for us to do, to wait for God to bring the harvest when we have planted. ...