Water City Church - Oshkosh

It is not just about believing right things... the life of following Jesus is about living rightly from believing rightly.  It's ORTHODOXY (right belief) and ORTHOPRAXY (right practice).

“Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful – community is the final apologetic.” - Francis Schaeffer

Walk through the Peace brought into the world through the birth of the Prince of Peace, starting from a quick look at the opening of the book of Ecclesiastes.  We need peace, true peace, because things in this life are not the way they should be.  (NOTE: sorry the last five minutes got cut off when the battery gave out on our recorder)

The 'rid yourself of these sins' list that Peter gives in 1 Peter chapter 2 are directly connected to the health of the church community.

“We have one crystal clear reason apart from the blessed happiness of this way of life. It is this: prayer is the core of our day. Take prayer out, and the day would collapse, would be pithless, a straw blown in the wind. But how can you pray--really pray, I mean--with one against who you have a grudge or whom you have been discussing critically with another? Try it. You will find it cannot be done.”  ― Amy Carmichael 

1 Peter 1:3 - 12

"In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."  1 Peter 1:3 - 5

Rewind through the life of Peter.  Intro to our new series through the first letter of St Peter.

What are we to do with Paul's message to wives and husbands and children and fathers from Colossians 3?  More than might get said on a safe Sunday morning.

“No part of human existence remains untouched by the loving and liberating rule of Jesus.”  Tim Mackie