MAC KIRK

Malachi Advent I 2014    Malachi struggled with the same things that we still do as a nation , as a people, as families and as individuals.  The people looked around at others and said, " it is useless to serve God...it the evildoers who are successful."3:14  ( NEB) They had neglected the House of God after returning from captivity ( 100 years later).  The priests did not set the example . Intermarriage between believers and non-believers continued.  Jews were divorcing their wives to marry idolatrous women. ( Halley's Bible Handbook) 2:10-16  They offered diseased and blemished animals in the temple 1:8 as well as neglecting the temple tithes.     Malachi is quoted in the NT in Matthew 11, Mark 1 and Luke 1 , " Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." ( KJV)  He was speaking of John the Baptist who too faced similar things when he told the people to repent .  There is an attitude as well ...

John 6:5-- Suprising Challenges    Is it not true that God uses things, people, circumstances and situations to challenge us?  Somehow we did not think we had signed up for that when we acknowledged Him as Lord and King of our lives.  Yet in today's Gospel we see Philip being tested when he is asked , " Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?"  Is He testing our motives ?  Perhaps we can relate to the story of the fish :   " A little fish was swimming around in the ocean, when he came across an older ( and presumably wiser) fish.  ' Excuse me ,' said the little fish. ' You are older than I , so can you tell me where to find this thing they call the ocean? ' The ocean,' said the older fish, ' is the thing you are in now.' ' Oh this?' ' But this is water.  What I'm seeking is the ocean,' said the disappointed fish as he swam away to search elsewhere.' "  as in Hearing with the Heart by Farrington. ...

Nobleman and Jesus John 4: 46    Have we ever been so overwhelmed and desperate that we go to God for a need that we cannot meet anywhere else?  I know we have.  We have asked I am sure for a loved one that has been deathly ill or have asked God, " Why?  Why?  Why did my loved one die ?"  At many times in our lives we feel absolutely helpless.  Perhaps we have experienced loss in other ways....thru a divorce or the loss of a friendship for some reason. Or a personal crisis in the life?    Thomas Merton well-known writer and Catholic Trappist monk was not always so.  In his auto-biography The Seven Storey Mountain, he tells of his worldly life. His conversion he said was when he, " ...was pierced deeply with a light that made me realize something of the condition I was in, and I was filled with horror at what I saw...and my soul desired escape . And now I think for the first time in my whole life I really began to pray...and pr...

Witnesses to Life All Saints    ( one of the alternate readings today is the ending vs of Hebrews 11) Heb 11: 32-12:2    Who are our role models today?  We all have them or are looking for them.  We all need friends, mentors and wise people to help us in our journey through life that we may live lives that are full with correct choices and paths of righteousness and humility.  What happened I have thought this last week to the young ( 15 years old) High School student who was a prom king one week , and the next week texted his friends and some family members in school to be at a certain place where he would take a gun out and shoot them?  Two have died along with the shooter up to this point I have heard and others remain in serious condition.  Young lives , 14 years, ended for no apparent reason that we know of at this point.  That young man needed someone he could go to for help and listening.  He needed to share what was ...

I Bare You on Eagles' Wings ----Exodus 19 :4 This is God telling the Israelites that He has always been there for His people.  Who has not been needing God's care in their lives?  We are all needing His care every day.  They have been greatly delivered from the hand of Pharaoh as Moses parts the Red Sea and they go on dry ground.  The waters cover the enemies of God and they and the 600 chariots are all lost forever.  We can be confident as Christians that whatever we are facing now and will face that as we continue to trust in God, He will bring us out of the difficult times we face.  Most birds carry the young in their talons ( Deuteronomy 32:11-12), but the eagle carries its young on its wings.  Matthew Henry says, " even those archers who shoot flying cannot hurt the young ones unless they first shoot through the old one." POINT 1 This people of God, the Israelites had a history of complaining.  We talked about it last week when they...

A Great Salvation and Deliverance by God -Exodus 14     " ..let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians , than that we should die in the wilderness." So said the people of Israel to Moses after leaving Egypt and being pursued by Pharaoh and 600 chariots.   The people were " sore afraid" , and they cried out to the LORD.  But what they cried was not very forward looking.  We should have just stayed in Egypt and served the Egyptians. Do you ever feel as though you have had  your back to the wall and there is no rescue?  Have this ever happened? And our first reaction is that of the Israelites.  We think , " how did we get here?"  " We should have stayed where we were."  This is not what we call forward thinking , is it? Loss causes this reaction in us.  At first we are in shock that this or that has happened to us.  Then we deny the situation.  This d...

Moses and the Will of God  Exodus 5    Today's Old Testament reading continues with Moses proceeding to do the will of God after the encounter with Him at the burning bush where he learns God's name," I am that I am" .  Moses is spoken of in the Epistle to the Hebrews in the same vein as Christ and so we see how important Moses was to the economy of God's salvation and purpose. " Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, AS ALSO MOSES was faithful in all his house. " Hebrews 3:1  That is a remarkable credit to Moses.  He is called the one who " builded the house" where Christ is the house. Hebrews 3:3     Moses returns to Egypt for that was God wanted. He gathered the elders together Ex 3:16 at God's direction and told them what was coming.  Say unto them ," The LORD God of your fathers ..has seen th...