MAC KIRK

  Matthew 5:23 -24   "Reconciliation- The sin of anger.."  Trinity VI    God is "slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy" Psalm 103:8; Micah 7:18 reminds us as well that " He retaineth not His anger forever, but delighteth in mercy.."  We too are commanded to be " slow to anger, slow to wrath.." James 1:19 .  We also are to " let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger.... and evil speaking be put away ..and be ye kind one to another,... forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Ephesians 4:32     In today's Gospel we are reminded that we should " first be reconciled to our brother/sister then come and offer our gift at the altar."  Matthew 5:24  Dr. Tasker, an anglican Greek teacher said it this way in his thoughts on this passage, " Conduct is more important than formal worship." The greek word in the NT reconcile is "change thoroughly".       General McArthur said ,    ...

  Thomas Brooks , Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices-  No. 2 Thoughts from this delightful Biblical series written by an English puritan . We begin with an illustration of our confusion .   "Some years ago, The Archbishop of Canterbury was rushing to catch a train in London. In his haste, he accidentally jumped on the wrong passenger car and found himself on a car full of inmates from a mental hospital. They were all dressed in mental hospital clothing. Just as the train pulled out of the station, an orderly came in and began to count the inmates, “1-2-3-4…” when suddenly he saw this distinguished looking gentleman there wearing a business suit and a clerical collar and he said: “Who are you?” The answer came back: “I am the Archbishop of Canterbury!” And the orderly said: “5-6-7-8.” The point of that story is this: It is so important to know who we are and who other people are. If we know what makes us tick and what makes other people tick, we get along bette...

  Are we Ignorant of Satan's Devices?  2 Corinthians 2:11   Many years ago in the 17th century Christians were taught by learned and reformed ministers. This question was asked by the Apostle and Brooks does a whole series of messages on this....discussing Satan's devices ( attacks), and the Biblical remedies for Christians to know and practice.  A lot of these books and his as well have been re-published by The Banner of Truth Trust .  This series of sermons is meaty and Biblical and can help us in our Christian way of love and holiness.  Thomas Brooks ( first published 1652) in his book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices  has some good thoughts from the Scriptures about how Christians should not be ignorant of Satan's tricks to get them to sin. Brooks goes back to the Apostle Paul's thought in 2 Corinthians 2. " Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices." vs 11.Satan is not even thought of by most Christi...

  12 Steps to Living Without Fear-  Lloyd Ogilivie ----When I lived in North Dakota and served the Reformed Presbyterian Church there in a small town,  I remember seeing him on the television in his sermon and Church broadcast.   He had a wonderful way of connecting with people , and preached with no notes! I have taught some of the below in various churches to help understand how fear can cripple us, and make us unable to do what we should be doing for God and His Kingdom. No, they are not perfect, and each point in his book listed above has a chapter dedicated to it.  They are worth reading about in the actual book still available. I will say that no. 12 has been one of the most helpful to me personally....but the others too are quite helpful especially no. 7 in dealing with people and how they affect us. Blessings to you as you meditate on them , and the Scripture for each one. They are worth looking at and seeing how they fit the thought that is introduced....

  Trinity II,   " Luke 14:16-24"  The Feast     In the middle of talking about inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to a feast or supper, someone hears our Lord talk about this, and feels the wonder of that kind of action.  In this life it is rare that one would invite those who cannot reply in kind to such a feast. " Now when one of those who sat at table with Him heard these things, he said to our Lord,' Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God' ".     Our Lord directs this story /parable to this individual to show the hope of heaven and that we also must claim that too without excuse.  " When the critical time came, would he really accept God's invitation?  Or would he be too busy about some activity affecting his more immediate interests?" The Gospel of Luke, Leon Morris.  Too busy.  I did not know that the Captain of the Titanic received six warnings about ice bergs on that night in ...

  The Rich Man and Lazarus-“ Two Men, Two Roads, Two Results” Luke 16:19-31 We could look through the Gospel of Luke , and we could discuss such things as Discipleship (“ Strive to enter through the narrow gate” 13:24), Counting the Cost as a Disciple and bearing our Cross (14:27), the Lost sheep, lost coin from Luke 15 and last Sunday the Parable of the Unjust Steward Luke 16 where we heard “ You cannot serve God and riches” 16:13 These have not been easy lessons . Today  we are focused on a story from Luke. I would think we should be careful if we call this a parable since it is more than that I believe. Parables are stories but in this story we have characters who are named. Be careful not to dismiss stories of Jesus either because in them we have the Word of the Gospel. I subtitled this message years ago when I talked about it ----“ Taking a wrong turn in life” Today we are looking at two ways of living. I am not trying to identify anyone here as I talk about this. I am si...

  Grace in the Holy Trinity GRACE and Trinity Sunday ( Before I talk about this subject, I want to share with you something that was written by a Christian I who knew; It touched me deeply because this is also somewhat my own experience....) "Good article. I was raised by atheists, but was baptized (in the Presbyterian church!) when I was four. I speculate it was done because my grandmother probably wouldn't stop nagging until they said, O all right, if it will get her off our backs. But I don't know why they did it with any certainty. Anyway, they did. There was no follow up. My Father refused to go to church even for my sister's or my wedding, simply because they were in church. I never knew what a church was through my childhood. It was not until my late teens that I found my own way to church, with no guidance, let alone encouragement, from anyone. As a result, my theology of baptism has been clear: I can trust the Father who works effectively his will through wate...