A Year to Remember
Part 4 – A Year of Faith

This Sunday, Tom Sherman brings us the talk in the latest of our EBC Online services. Once you have watched the video, we encourage you to reflect on the bible text and join us in the prayer that follows below.

To listen to the talk click here.
 
Readings:

Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 to 12
Visitors from the East
2 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
 
3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. 4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
 
5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:
 
6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
    are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
    who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”
 
7 Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. 8 Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”
 
9 After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! 11 They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
 
12 When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod. 

 

Prayer & Reflection

Lord, thank You for this opportunity to reflect.
Thank You in the hustle and bustle of this year that we have some time now to really look back on this year and take these lessons we’ve learnt and put them into practice. And I pray that we stop it just being these nice words and phrases and put them into being an active God-driven faith.
I thank You for the example of the wise people in your word that really can just inspire us to dig deeper into you and into our experiences with faith.
I pray that the words said today will really strike a chord with some people and I pray that this doesn’t just become a one-time reflection: that this does become active faith.
Thank You Lord. Amen


Questions to Consider

1. How has 2020 affected your faith?
 
2. When have you made a big leap of faith?

3. How has 2020 affected your relationship with wisdom?

4. Who are your ‘wise men’? Whose advice do you seek out? Are you following wise advice or just following the worlds ways?

5. How has 2020 affected your commitment?

6. What long journey might God be calling you to make? What’s stopping you?

7. How has 2020 affected your giving?