Spiritual transformation is building toward the ability to treat people as Jesus treated us. But you won't get there by sheer effort. It takes some training.

If our mouths are the overflow of our hearts, it makes sense that the best way to deal with what comes out of our mouth is to fix what's in our hearts. Paul gave the Ephesians a formula that God still uses today to fix what's inside so it doesn't come spilling out.

Like a small spark that has the potential to scorch an entire green forest, our tongues are untamable, with the power to control our whole bodies. We have a tool that can be used to build up those around us or tear them down in just a few words. What do we do with that kind of power? We can’t lock it away. But we can, by God’s grace, learn to control it.

We all know what it’s like to be hurt by someone who just couldn’t listen long enough to understand us. Maybe in their attempt to be right, they damaged a relationship that could have been saved with a little patience and curiosity. You’ve probably been on the other side of that coin too. Taking the verbal offense may have won the argument but you lost relationally. What if we didn’t settle for being right, but tried to make things right instead? The longer we listen the more we learn, and the better chance we have of protecting ourselves from our own big mouths.

Christmas is the celebration of more than a baby being born. It's the celebration of God's saving grace entering our world.

Jesus came to a world that was dominated by a system of religion and rules that crushed "regular people" under its weight. Jesus put religion in its proper place: second place. Right after the people God cares about and religious systems are meant to serve.

All of us carry labels on our hearts and souls that sadly demean and dehumanize us. Just as sadly we are quick to label others, demeaning and dehumanizing them as well. Labels get in the way of love. And that's why Jesus came to demonstrate and declare an end to labels.

Engaging with Scripture isn't a practice for spiritually special people, just spiritually growing ones. When we approach the Bible with the simple question of "What can we learn about the Father from the Son?" insights open for us to figure out more of what God is like.

A lot of people have claimed to have the best explanation of God. Jesus claimed to be the best explanation of God. Jesus came into the world to communicate and demonstrate what God is like to us.

Jesus tells us that it delights God our Father to equip us with all that's needed to do the work he has called us to do. The only question is, will we hop off the bench and into the game?