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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This week, we’re exploring how a church community should be committed to connectedness to God in worship.
Humans will never be more connected to God than in the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God. The Bible includes the book of Revelation, which recounts John’s vision of the kingdom of heaven. Here’s what he described about angels, and then humans:
Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE Lord GOD ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS, AND IS, AND IS TO COME." Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." (Revelation 4:8-11)
Even in the kingdom, there is worship. The word may not appear in this reading, but the core meaning is there. Worship means “to give worth to something.” And the words “you are worthy” are right at the beginning of the words the elders say in their heavenly worship.
You can tell what someone values by how they spend money, time. You can see what’s worth their limited resources. Worship is spending our limited time on God. It’s an expression of love.
In our Marriage and Parenting courses, we introduce the five love languages. Some communicate and receive love through words, touch, acts of service, time, and others through gifts.
In the same way, we can show love to God through various “languages”. Worship includes prayer, and music, confessing sins, asking forgiveness, reminding ourselves what we believe, reading the Bible together, and more. All aspects of how communities of Christians worship.
These are all ways to communicate God’s worth in our eyes. You can see it in this reading. The elders say, “You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power” but then they tell him why: he is the creator of everything.
He knows all this, of course. But this is a time for humans, mortals, to feed that back to him. To acknowledge he is at the cetner of our lives, not the periphery, and we’re not going to deny it.
Question: How do you know someone values you? What do they say, do, or not?
Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.
This series looks at becoming “like family” with others learning to follow Jesus. We're exploring how the church is not a building, institution or event, but a community of people. It's important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.
