When it comes to the close relationships we share with family and friends, areas of ministry and leadership, and even in everyday interactions we have with strangers in our community, we have the opportunity to choose to see these interpersonal encounters through the lens of God's plan.

Through Saul's example, we learn that it is possible to believe God exists; to go to church; to read the bible; to tithe your income; to do everything that is expected, and yet to still be far from God. How is that possible? It has everything to do with our pride.

Most people know the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." When we get offended or mistreated however, we tend to swap this axiom for another: "An eye for an eye." How do we reconcile forgiveness and the gospel when we find ourselves offended and resentful? The answer can be found in the story of David, Nabal and Abigail.

Most people would jump at the chance to get ahead. But what if that opportunity involved disobeying God's direction in your life? In 1 Samuel 24, David had the opportunity to fast-track his ascendency to the throne. How did he respond? And what can we learn from his example?

On Christmas day, we take a journey back to the Prophecy of Isaiah, and see just what the first Christmas was intended to show us.

We explore 1 Samuel 18 focusing on the friendship of Jonathan and David, taking an extra focus on Jonathan's sacrifice, and we'll see that Jonathan to David, is Christ, to us.

David came to face Goliath, the massive Philistine champion that stood nearly 10 feet tall. The story is one of the most famous from the Bible, yet it is often misunderstood. What does the story of young David versus the giant have to teach us today—about Christ, and about ourselves?

God humbles the proud, and exalts the humble. As the focus of the story in 1 Samuel shifts from Saul the king to David the shepherd, we learn a key truth: mankind tends to make choices based on worldly values, but God looks on the heart. David's life would prove to be a moral failure in many ways, yet the Lord blessed him and considered him a man after God's own heart.

A major problem of sin in our lives is that it leads us toward self-deception, so that we choose what is wrong and then justify those decisions to ourselves and others. The story of Saul's failures as king brings these issues into focus for us, and by looking beyond Saul to the Son of promise we see God's redeeming hand at work.

While Saul presents himself as a person of humility, his actions as a leader reveal a heart that has been ravaged by the effects of sin. What is sin, and how does it flare up within us? What is the prescription for healing the self-deception that entangles us?