Water City Church

As a follower of Christ, what is our place in this moment? The way of the Kingdom of God is a different path.“Blessed are the poor. Blessed are you who are conscious of your lack of merit and readily open yourselves to the divine mercy.” Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish

Matthew 2The Joy of the Magi is on display, contrasted against Herod's rage. “Son,'he said,' ye cannot in your present state understand eternity...That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say "Let me have but this and I'll take the consequences": little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why...the Blessed will say "We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, : and the Lost, "We were always in Hell." And both will speak truly.” C.S. Lewis, The Great DivorceArt Study: “The Adoration of the Magi” by Peter Paul Rubens1st - LINK2nd - LINK

Luke 1:5–25“Blessed are the ears which hear God’s whisper and listen not to the murmurs of the world.” Thomas A’ Kempis

Jesus is teaching us to pray in all directions: The Now: Give us today our daily bread. The Past: And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. The Future: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

In prayer, as in life, knowing God shapes all that follows.“To hallow God’s name means to treat His name as ultimate, as weighty – to center our entire being around who He is, not to reduce Him to a category of convenience.” Tim Mackie

Guest Teacher: Rachel Yokers

Ecclesiastes teaches us that joy is God’s gift, even in the midst of life’s contradictions.“Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!”Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“Happiness can be found neither in ourselves nor in external things, but in God and in ourselves as united to him.” - Blaise PascalEcclesiastes 1“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” - Richard Feynman