Each Sunday we pray that God's Kingdom will come. Jesus shared many parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus tells the disciples that the Kingdom is a treasure that should be valued. Unlike other treasure that we might hide or put away for safe keeping, the Kingdom of heaven cannot be contained. 

A great banquet has been prepared and invitations have been sent. But many make excuses and choose not to come to the feast. Those who fill the tables are not those people who have honor, but those who are grateful. 

Our youth who attended Dogwood Acres and Montreat conferences this summer share their experiences.

There are so many achievements of humankind: climbing Mount Everest, reaching the moon, curing disease. We so often look at this world as something to be tamed, something to be conquered. There is so much in this world that can conquer us. But by the grace of God we can be more than conquerors. 

The news is filled with suffering. It is easy to get overwhelmed. Our hope in Christ is that there will be a time to come, a new Heaven and new Earth, and nothing will compare to the glory of God. 

No one is perfect, not even Paul the Apostle. While we all strive to be who God wants us to be, when we take stock of our actions at the end of each day, we can all think of ways that we could be better, words that we wish we could take back, money that we wasted, neighbors that we have taken for granted. Paul offers us a vulnerable expression of the nature of sin, reminding us that our only hope is the grace of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus names the 12 disciples and sends them out into the world to serve. But these heroes were ordinary people. It was God who made them extraordinary. 

Jesus heals two daughters. One is the daughter of the leader of the synagogue. The other is a child of God.