MAC KIRK

This is the 1st Sunday in Lent. I am praying for a revival among our people that the church would be full during this season as we prepare for the resurrection of our Lord on EASTER. The sermon today is from Genesis which covers the early temptations of Adam and Eve in the garden and our fall from grace. Because of this we need a Redeemer, even Jesus our Lord. Without His intervention thru the Spirit we could not escape original sin and death and judgment. Thanks for the Gospel even in the Old Testament today, Genesis 3:15, the First Gospel which tells of the wounding of the seed of the woman but the victory over the Serpent ! Have a great Sunday!

Marching Orders for the Journey- Exodus 24:12-18 2 Peter 1:16-21 Matthew 17:1-9 Dr Lloyd Martyn Jones talks about being ill and not being able to preach at Westminster Chapel in London for six months. In this time he visited other churches and said this about his experience, “ It is a great thing to be a listener. You want something for your soul, you want help. I don’t want a great sermon. I want to feel the presence of God---that I am worshipping Him, and considering something great and glorious.” Banner of Truth, March 2011. That is probably most of our wish as well. We go along as it were through our lives doing what we think we need to be doing and most of life seems rather ordinary. We want our lives to mean something. We want to contribute and find that even in the little things we do in and out every day that these things too have meaning. Jesus takes three of the disciples up into a high mountain . Peter, James and John were chosen. Moses took up Nadab, Abihu a...

from an article by William H. Smith, in the " Banner of Truth" LOOKING FOR LEADERS Now how should you go about nominating and electing those who will serves leaders of our congregation? You need to know two things: First, what are these men called to do? Second, what qualifications are they required to possess? by William H. Smith We as a church are looking for leaders. One of the highest privileges and greatest responsibilities of a church member is to nominate and to choose those who will serve as leader/officers. I hope you take that very seriously now during the nomination season when potential officers are identified and that you will later when you are called on to elect those who will actually serve as officers. The generic name for all church officers is "servant" or "minister." The same Biblical word in Greek is used in a special way of those who are called Deacons. But all officers, whoever they may be are servants who follow the Great Servant, J...

The Way of Holiness/ The Way of Love Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18 1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23 Matthew 5:38-48 Psalm 119:33-40 In summary over the last few week from the Gospel we see “ the character of this new community ( Matthew ) ( by example) is which anger is overcome through reconciliation (5:21-26), lust is kept under discipline (5:27-30), marriage is honored through lifelong fidelity (5:31-32), language is simple and honest (5:33-37), retaliation is renounced (5:38-42), and enemy-love replaces hate (5:43-48)” The Moral Vision of the New Testament , Richard B. Hays. Today’s first reading from Leviticus reminds us that the people of God “shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” 19:1 I was encouraged by looking at Louis Berkhof, Summary of Christian Doctrine who said unlike justification “(requiring) no work with a view to merit..” ( in other words of grace alone) sanctification is not a “legal act but a recreative act, …” “ USUALLY A LENGTHY PROCESS” “Put to de...

Sermon on the mount Matthew 5:1-12 In these short words recorded in Matthew we have what many say, “ would not the world be a wonderful place if we could live by these?” I have often heard people say this. I agree. It would be a much better place if we could live these Beatitudes. Many admire them. All of wish to be happy . According to Jesus these are happiness. Beatitude means happiness or blessedness from the latin “beatitudo” We might say the word itself breaks it down for us. BE . Secondly, ATTITUDE. In other words our attitudes come from within and our desires. We desire certain things in life , sometimes not always that good and they do not bring us happiness. Jesus has something to say about this. “He opened His mouth and taught them ( the disciples) saying: ‘ Blessed are the poor in spirit , For theirs is the kingdom of heaven…’ ” It all starts here. Without a change of heart we are still going to serve the old patterns and habits and maste...

Christian realism---Patience. James 5:7-10 JI Packer is his book Knowing God says this in his chapter, “ These inward trials”: “…. Unreality in religion is an accursed thing. ….Unreality towards God is the wasting disease of much modern Christianity. We need God to make us realists about both ourselves and Him. Perhaps there is a word for us in the famous hymn in which John Newton describes the passage into the kind of realism that we have been seeking to induce, ‘ I asked the Lord, that I might grow In faith, and love, and every grace; Much more of His salvation know, And seek more earnestly His face. I hoped that in some favoured hour At once He’d answer my request, And by His love’s constraining power Subdue my sins, and give me rest. Instead of this, He made me feel The hidden evils of my heart; A...

Romans 13:11 “ You know what time it is” In an interesting phrase we are reminded of time and the presence of God in our lives. Literally, “ And also this knowing the time” Did you ever have anyone ask you, “ what time is it?” Usually I think, “ daytime” , but then I politely tell them the time. I wonder how they can not know the time. They do not have a watch or a phone to look at with the time . Time as my theology professor used to say is the measure of the motion of created objects. In God , there is no time. He is eternally now and present , past and future. One of the earliest Christians , ST Augustine ( who died in 430 AD) heard parts of this passage, specifically vs. 14 “ Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.” As he read, he experienced this as God speaking directly to him, convicting him of his past sins, and offering him forgiveness; calling him to amend his life, and promising him the grace and power to do...