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 - November 18, 2013

Monday - A New Idea - Grace - in Lifestyle

We are a few weeks into a new series on “Becoming Like Family”. This is important as members of our online community begin to share the daily challenges with friends, and we begin to gather our larger community together as one church community. We won’t be bound together by a building, or institution, but rather by five commitments. We’ve talked about commitment to common learning goals, connectedness as a community of small and large groups, connectedness to God in worship, and now this week, we come to grace in lifestyle. Those who’ve decided to follow Jesus, and walk in his path, are going to have to choose this over other paths. These choices impact many areas of life. That should be no surprise, but sometimes it’s hard to swallow. We can recoil from rules, or worry about restricted freedom. We’ll explore that this week, but it starts with understanding why we are asked to live by, and with, grace. But what does grace mean? There is a classic Seinfeld episode where Elaine is in a job interview, and the interviewer shares her admiration of Jackie O, who had “grace”. Elaine tries to say, “I think I have a little grace” but the interviewer snaps back, “You can’t have a little grace, you either have it or you don’t.” Elaine backpendals, “Alright, I have no grace. I don’t have grace, I don’t want grace. Hey, I don’t even say grace.” You can see the confusion here – what does grace even mean? Is it poise and kindness? Is it a lovely name for an old lady that is finally making a comeback? Is it a prayer before a meal? Question: What do you think of when you hear the word grace? What does it mean? Reminder: Last week we talked about worship, and asked you to complete our online survey about worship here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8TS7K93 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.

From Series: "Becoming Like Family"

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.

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