Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Jesus is describing how he pushes the reset button in life.  He uses imagery that sounds like baptism.  Baptism is when someone is washed with water, to show on the outside what God is doing on the inside, washing away the sin from our hearts.  When adults are baptized by becoming fully immersed, one can plainly see the imagery of them having died to sin, and then rising out of the waters to new life.

We are baptizing our first RTC member this February.  It will be her reset moment.  Looking back on her life, she says this represents a new beginning.

In the Christianity 101 course, we illustrate the life of faith with a line with markings at 0, 50 and 100.  Whether we’ve run as far from God as possible, stayed close, or jumped around – what matters most is where you go from there.  Will you move closer to God by following Jesus, or run away?  The 50 point is when someone decides to do this intentionally, and although that moment is important and has a real impact, there are many moments to follow when the Holy Spirit transforms a Christian’s life.  New decisions, directions and priorities all come with time and relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.

In this series we’re going to look at a number of ways a “reset” life is different from before.  Specifically:

  • Reset: Goals
  • Reset: Time
  • Reset: Money
  • Reset: Work
  • Reset: Body & Food
  • Reset: Sex & Marriage
  • Reset: Family
  • Reset: Compassion
  • Reset: Nature
  • Reset: Society
  • Reset: Death

Challenge: If you’d like to reset life, here are some steps to consider.  Take our live Christianity 101 in the Cafe Course in Pickering starting next week to explore the first steps.   Consider being baptized, to show on the outside the reset that has taken place inside.  Just get in touch with Ryan if you’re interested!

Reminder: Coffee hours are tonight at 7:30pm at Starbucks in the Ajax Chapters Store.  See you there!

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 - September 12, 2013

Thursday - Act On It - Neighbours Matter

Yesterday I asked you to define love. One common way people today define love is to be as tolerant and permissive as possible, as long as the other person does not to hurt others. See what a low standard that is? Jesus defines love to a much higher degree, he says to love one another as oneself. He knows we are self-centered…and Jesus uses that to teach us love for others. Between loving God with everything, and loving neighbours as ourselves, Jesus has declared self-salvation to be impossible. We may love God to one degree or another. But with everything? We can and should try, but we reach our limits since we are only human, and separated ourselves from God in sin. We need help. Equally true, we may make ourselves harmless and never say a word to anyone who isn’t harming another, but we can’t make ourselves completely love others as ourselves – we always want more for ourselves than to be tolerated and put up with. We can and should try to love others as ourselves, but we need the help of another to do this. Jesus made himself harmless, and willingly sacrificed himself on a cross in the ultimate action of love for God and others. He led the way, and did what would be impossible for humans, so we could follow him in love for God and love for others, rather than trying to trailblaze ourselves. We’ll look at this more in this upcoming series on neighbours. Challenge: How do your actions “hang’ under love of God or love of neighbour? Is there anything you’ve done in the last week that doesn’t fit one of those loves?

Related Topics: God, Love | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Won't You Be My Neighbour?"

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