Thursday - Act On It - The Night That Changed the Wise
We’re been exploring the contrast between the Magi and the Priests and Scribes who advise King Herod. The priests and scribes, the insiders, do nothing, and give nothing to the Messiah they have supposedly studied in depth.
While Magi, the outsiders and travellers, do something and give their gifts of treasure and worship, and make great sacrifices to do so.
None of us here are as powerful as Herod, as knowledgeable as the Magi or Scribes and Pharisees, but as you can see it’s not just about knowledge, it’s about our openness to God acting in our world, even in unexpected ways, that really matters.
We have something to learn from the contrast between the Priests and Scribes and the Magi. Given the same knowledge and experience, the Magi and Priests use it very differently. So we, given knowledge in this world, also have choices as to how we will use them.
We are given the knowledge that the message of Jesus Christ will change the lives of our family and friends for the better. He will transform our world from one ruled over by fear and manipulation to one ruled over by love and peace.
What will we do with it?
Like the priests and scribes, will we have all the info, and do nothing?
Or like the Magi, will we go to all possible lengths to worship this God, giving him our very best gifts?
Giving of our time, resources and even our power, to greet him as our Lord.
So today, with the same history presented to us, we decide how we will go down in history…as knowing much but doing nothing, or as worshipping the true King of love and peace.
Challenge: Explore Jesus this coming year – take c101, get in touch with me. In the process,s you can see if Christian faith is wise, rational, etc. for yourself.
Reminder: We are reading the Bible in sync as one community – so check out today’s reading here.
Reminder: The best way to grow spiritually this year is to join our Christianity 101 in the Cafe Course in Pickering starting January 22nd. Register for you and a friend today!
Read the Bible in Sync Today
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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 Redeemer Church to be that kind of community. Hard in suburbia, commutning, 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
