We move to part five of our study of Jacob and see him “wrestling with God.” Although this is a popular story, it is a difficult one to bring into our culture. We will read the story and talk about what we learn for our own lives.

We see Jacob return to Israel with his young family and we meet a man that is trustworthy. Jacob returns a changed man and it gives us all hope!

We come to the third study in our series on Jacob. We will see his meetings with God, Rachel, and Leah and we learn that often times, “what goes around, comes around,” as the deceiver gets deceived.

We continue our series on Jacob and learn about an extremely dysfunctional family. Hopefully, we will learn some good lessons for unity within our own families and our church family.

We begin a new series on Jacob called, THE JOY OF A CHANGED LIFE. This week we look at his birth and early life.

We conclude our series on the Beatitudes by looking at the “extra” Beatitude (or the wrap-up) that Jesus gave us. This last statement has great hope and joy!

We are challenged to understand why Jesus said that we could be happy to be persecuted. No rational person wants to be persecuted. We are not expected to be radicals to invoke persecution. Happiness is found in persecution only when we share in the suffering of Jesus.

We’re living in a world and a time that is very good at dividing people, but not very skilled or inclined at uniting people. This beatitude speaks directly to our life and times, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” We want to be skilled peacemakers! This weekend's beatitude tells us that when we bring people together, we resemble our Father in heaven.

We move to the sixth Beatitude. This is the one that really doesn’t seem to fit into Jesus’ teaching or the chart — at first glance. It is the one that makes little sense if you don’t take time to really study it. Take a look at this and think about what it means to you, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” To many, it probably will be confusing and counter-productive. We will learn all about it this weekend!

We continue our Beatitude series by starting the second set of four Beatitudes. This weekend, we look at being merciful and what that really means.