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

Ryan Sim - May 5, 2014

Monday - A New Idea - Pioneer Story

Look down at your hands. Chances are you’re holding an Apple device. Well over ¾ of Redeem the Commute’s mobile users use Apple devices. It’s incredible technology that has ended up in the hands of millions quite quickly. It’s more powerful than computers in the space shuttle that put humans into orbit, yet we mostly use it to crush candies and fly birds into buildings. We take it for granted, we know iPods, iPhones, iPads have been around long enough we forget how they came to be. Whose idea was this? How did they do it? How did they market it so effectively? How did they become such a high theft item? How did they travel the world? Answering those questions is why there’s been so much fascination with the life of Steve Jobs. Many an article, a feature film, and more have been produced. We love our founding stories. In the story of Steve Jobs and his garage startup, you can find the character of Apple the company. The ingenuity, the creativity, the resolve and drive, the secrecy, and the mystique. Even as other leaders have their turn leading the company after his death, they always have his legacy to contend with. As we walk the streets of Western countries, we can get used to seeing church buildings – big and small, traditional and contemporary architecture, Roman Catholic, Anglican, United, and more. But how did they get here? Why are there church buildings, much less people who build, maintain and use them? I used to pastor four churches in Eastern Ontario, and one was a very old church. When I arrived, they were about to celebrate what they thought was their 150th anniversary, but while I was there, we discovered that was wrong. The bricks and mortar were indeed 150 years old, but the church was in fact much older than their building. The church is a community of people learning to follow Jesus. And in the days of early pioneers, this community was meeting in a tavern, then a hall and a school before they ever built a structure of their own. They met in those spaces because they could learn about Jesus together as a community. We had to go back to our founding stories, and our founding figures to realize we were much more than a building…we were a church…we were supposed to be all about Jesus. We needed to be shaped by our founding story, and our founding pioneer – Jesus Christ. That building is being closed in less than a month, but the church will carry on. They’ve joined with the other nearby churches to follow Jesus together in another building. As we talk about Redeem the Commute becoming a church community, we aren’t talking about a building either, we’re talking about a community shaped by our founding pioneer Jesus. The book of Acts in the Bible tells the founding story of those who established church communities after his death and resurrection to keep following him. In this series, we’ll be looking at that pioneer story, how the first Christians survived, thrived, and organized. We’ll read through the highlights of the Book of Acts. You can do this as an individual watching the videos each day and discussing with others as you go, or we have a new option if you’re meeting weekly with a group. You can watch the videos each day, but we’ll also produce a weekly small group study guide with all the week’s Bible readings and questions in one place. Question: Tell your pioneer story to someone. This can be as simple as explaining how the lifestyle choices and priorities that you do are based on the teachings of Jesus, or why you dedicate time to Redeem the Commute’s challenges.

From Series: "Pioneer Story"

We read through the Book of Acts as a Pioneer Story for the church.

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