MAC KIRK

 Doing and Finding the One thing - Matthew 22:35---     While meditating on the text this week from Matthew about the greatest commandment in the law according to Our Lord, I read this in the morning reading about Naaman who wanted to be cleansed from his leprosy.  ( II Kings 5:9-19).  He comes to Elisha's door and he is told to wash in the Jordan seven times. With that, he gets angry.He thought Elisha would come out and do something dramatic, " But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper."  His servants tried to reason with him, " if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? "  Seeing they were right, "Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of th...

 Psalm 99.  The LORD is King "God governs the world by his providence, governs the church by his grace, and both by his Son. The inhabitants of the earth have cause to tremble, but the Redeemer still waits to be gracious. Let all who hear, take warning, and seek his mercy. The more we humble ourselves before God, the more we exalt him; and let us be thus reverent, for he is holy." Matthew Henry We can be discouraged and disheartened in our lives as we look at what we see in an unruly world.  It is good to be encouraged that among all the changes and chances of this world that the LORD is King, and He reigns. 1.  Reigning LORD. Let the people be deeply moved, or tremble. If we tremble before God, we will not be disturbed by the plans of men.  He dwells above the Cherubim.  They are an order of angelic beings who never sleep and watch .  Revelation 4:8- "...each had six wings, ....saying , ' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is ...

  Philippians 4:1-9   " Think on These Things" " And Do them"   In our current world crisis stage...or should I say another world crisis stage, the Scriptures encourage us through the Apostle's writing to the Philippians to think on these things.  4:8  What things?  He mentions several good things we should be thinking about---good things, virtue, if there be any praise, whatsoever things are lovely, just,honest, and pure and true.    Point 1. is that we are to do just that.Do what? Think, reckon, take into account.  The orig word is logízomai (the root of the English terms "logic, logical") – properly, compute, "take into account"; reckon (come to a "bottom-line"), i.e. reason to a logical conclusion (decision).biblehub.com ( In vs 9 Paul says to do them and so our thinking is a practice if we truly believe it and in Him) It means much more than keep in mind.  "It means to take into account , reflect upon and then allow these ...

  Philippians 2.  The Mind of Christ   Although the Philippian Church was commended for their financial giving and support to Paul,  4:10, 14 , there were problems with disunity.  Interesting and encouraging as we think we are alone in these things.  We are not. We see it in our reading today 2:2-4, and the Apostle appeals to them to see the mind of Christ working through them to work around their divisions and quarrels.     After mediating on this reading , it seems the bottom line question is " How do we get the mind of Christ ( v. 5)"?  Some have called it, " The Journey to Humility".     It is a " voluntary submission to humility" as one commentator called it.  1.  It is in the imperative, verb command form " Let this mind be in you" ( " which also was in Christ Jesus") This word is described here in Bible hub, phrḗn, "the midriff or diaphragm; the parts around the heart," J. Thayer) – properly, regulate (moderate) fro...

  Worthily   Philippians 1:27 Some of my favorite vs are in the Philippians letter.  1:6, "  being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" 1:21 " For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Ch 2 talks about unity through humility and being like Christ, doing things with the mind of Christ.Ch 3 is great too about our citizenship being in heaven and awaiting the Savior from heaven, Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly bodies at the Resurrection Ch 4 may be the best with not being anxious and to cast all our care upon Him and not being anxious.  But in vs 27 of ch 1 we are exhorted to " walk worthily of the gospel of Christ"    As a noun, axiom refers to a statement that is accepted as true and serves as the basis for argument or inference. It can also mean an established rule, principle, or self-evident truth.  Walk worthily of the Gospel of Christ, v. 27...

  Matthew 18:21-35  John D. Rockefeller built the great Standard Oil empire. Not surprisingly, Rockefeller was a man who demanded high performance from his executives. One day, one of those executives made a two million dollar mistake. Word of the man's enormous error quickly spread throughout the executive offices, and the other men began to make themselves scarce, not wanting to cross his path. One man didn't have any choice, however, since he had an appointment with the boss. So he straightened his shoulders and walked into Rockefeller's office. As he approached Rockefeller's desk, he looked up from the piece of paper on which he was writing. "I guess you've heard about the two million dollar mistake our friend made," he said abruptly. "Yes," the executive said, expecting Rockefeller to explode. "Well, I've been sitting here listing all of our friend's good qualities, and I've discovered that in the past he has made us many mo...

  The Cross and Communion Meditation:  Matthew 16:21-28      Sun and the rain.  Both are needed .  Without either , there is no growth.  But with the sun, the ground yields fruit.  Storms produce fruit as well, and the water is necessary for growth.  This is so true in the Christian life.  Today's Gospel lesson reminds us of the need for difficulties and trials.  Many of us are like Peter,  “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”        I have a little backyard that one day for some reason I put a chair out there from the front porch set.  And I left it there.  Perhaps I was too lazy to move it back to the front porch, but for some reason it is a nice place to just sit and look.  We are so busy we forget to hear, listen and look at what is going on in our lives.  Silence can be golden in terms of growth.  There are no commercials out there in the back chair....