Read: Mark 12:28-34 Study:  In this verse, a teacher comes to Jesus and asks him what the most important commandment is. Jesus’ answer is simple but powerful. By answering with the two commands “love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind and all your streangth”…

Read: Matthew 6:25 Study: Do not place your highest value on money or things. Place it on your relationship with God and others. We all know this. The problem we often face is not the knowing but the doing. We don’t intend to but we often place other things above the relationships in our lives.…

Read: James 1:14-15 Study: Sometimes, We are called to remove ourselves from whatever is testing or tempting us. James tells us that Temptation, if continued, can turn into sin and we know that, even though we are called, at times, to persevere in testing, we are not called to persevere in sin. When our temptations…

Read: 1 Timothy 6:9 Study: Our temptations are often brought about by the worldly things around us, not God. We are blessed with many things. Those things can often become temptations. The more we rely on things, the less we try to rely on God. We see that all the time with people who let…

Read: Philippians 12-14 Study: Before writing the letter to the Philippians, we know that Paul was arrested in Caesarea and was in Jail for 2 years. After he wrote a personal appeal to Caesar, he was transferred to Rome. On the journey, he was in a ship wreck where he had to spend the winter…

Read: James 1:12 Study:  After arriving in Rome, Paul was placed under house arrest.  House arrest in ancient Rome was not like house arrest today. They didn’t have those little ankle monitors. Instead they chained the person under house arrest to a Pretorian Guard. These are the Imperial Guard mentioned here. Paul would have been…

Read: Philippians 2:8-10 Study:  Humility is the theme of Christ throughout the Gospels. God not only humbled God’s self by becoming human, he also set an example of extreme humility by his death on a cross. But in this humble nature, Christ was exalted. Are you living a humble life? In our modern society where…

Read: Isaiah 9:6 Study:  This verse is a perfect example of who the people (especially the disciples) thought Jesus was supposed to be. Everyone expected a king to rise up and lead the Jewish people to the prominence they once held in Jerusalem. They thought the Kingdom of God would be a physical kingdom ruled…

Read: Galatians 4:4-5 Study: The law was a very important part of the Jewish faith. The law was a meant to guide and help people lead a life that reflected God. Over time, the followers of the law became more and more legalistic in their adherence to it. This meant that the law was no…

Read: John 1:14 Study: Merry Christmas! Jesus is God and God is Jesus. Remember that this very same God that breathed life into the clay; this very same God who said, “let there be light”; this very same God who parted the waters and led his people through the desert; it is this same God…