We are beginning a new series on “Becoming Like Family” as our online community begin to share the daily challenges with friends, and we begin to gather our larger community together.
We want to have five main characteristics, and the first is to be bound together by some common learning experiences.
In October I attended my university’s homecoming reunion, and reconnected with a lot of friends. Our friendships were forged through four years in a common learning experience.
The same weekend, I went to a church where I’d done a student placement. There was personality, familiarity, and comfort there, too. We were gathered around a common purpose, to learn about and grow as followers of Jesus.
We want to be that kind of community. It’s hard in suburbia, especially if you are commuting, but we have our own unique way of pursuing a common learning experience through mobile apps, social media, and our web site.
Our next step is to become a network of groups, where we build strong relationships with existing friends and family members, where one of the things that binds us together is we are all learning the same things through discussion, challenge, encouragement and prayer.
Question: Who was your best learning group or team? What made it so?
Coffee Hours this Week:
Have questions about the challenges, do you want to meet others exploring the same content, or connect with Ryan?
Join us for our coffee shop drop-in this Wednesay, October 30th from 7:30pm-9:00pm at the Starbucks in the Ajax Chapters. Look for Ryan Sim in the drink line, or a Redeem the Commute postcard on a table.
If you know in advance that you’re coming, please RSVP here http://bit.ly/1aHVTy2
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Jesus said, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
If the Sermon on the Mount was just about a list of rules for us this would be discouraging, hopeless. But it's not. It's about Jesus - his blueprint for his life - showing us what God is really like.
We are meant to see that Jesus looks like God. It's not just about how to behave, but how to discover the living God in Jesus, and reflect that into the world.
He is the pattern, blueprint for our lives as well.
Perfect in greek is teleioi. A word about Identity, where perfection relates to love. God is love…all loving.
Some scholars say "all embracing" is what that perfect word means.
To be like God is undiscriminating and undifferentiating love toward all. Even those who don’t deserve it. He’s loving and merciful.
Of course love doesn’t mean endorsement, or uncaringly saying “I don’t care what you do”. Sometimes God’s love means he protects us, stops us, redirects us, and more.
We show we are children of God when we show Christlikeness. All embracing love.
Connection back to love last week - Love is not sporadic, but who we are. Even with enemies.
"To return evil for good is devilish, to return good for good is human, to return good for evil is divine." - Alfred Plummer
Even with Jesus' example, we can be discouraged. He WAS God, so being godly was no great feat. What about us?
We'll see tomorrow why there is hope for us being perfect(ed).
Question: Jesus actually lived the perfect, loving life he commands us to live. Does this encourage, or discourage you? Why?
