People call themselves blessed and ask for blessings, but does what we call a blessing match what Scripture calls a blessing? Jesus begins the Sermon on the mount with that word, blessed, and describes for us a life that is different from what we would normally call blesed. So what does it mean to be blessed and how do we find that blessing for our lives?

When Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven, what is he talking about and what does it mean for you today? Taking a close look at the beginning of Jesus' ministry allows us to see the power, the purpose, the promise, and the people of the kingdom of heaven and how we can become a part of it too.

We all have moments in our lives where we recognize the need for change. This moment is the beginning of what we call repentance, but just recognizing the need for change is not enough. From the message of John the Baptist in Matthew, we see what repentance is, why we need to repent, and how we make this radical change to find life in Jesus rather than death.

"The devil made me do it". Most of us have heard that, said that, or that that, and it refelcts our poor understanding of temptation and sin. In looking at Jesus' temptation in matthew 4, we get a glimpse of what temptation is and what it looks like in our lives and how we can fight the deceptions in our own lives that drag us away from God.