The Pharisees were the intellectual elites, so how did they become blind? How did they miss that Jesus was God? The key is humility.

Right at the heart of Christmas is a claim to the identity of Jesus as the God-Man incarnate. If we celebrate the baby in the manger without really wrestling with who that baby is, we're not getting Christmas. The whole point of Christmas is the Christ and the implications that has for our lives.

Here we come to the most difficult thing of allthe actual practice of forgiveness. Joseph understands it and he reaches out to say the hardest word and do the hardest thing.

Our task to learn how to have joy and love and all of the fruits of the Spirit is of great significance so that we can avoid having a fake religion, saying one thing and doing another. We want to live in a way that is authentic.

The choice before us is between learning to forgive or just gradually becoming more estranged from people and more bitter. For there is no way to be in an intimate relationship with another person without the constant practice of forgiveness.

This passage finds Joseph ending up in prison. We all experience temptation, yet we can find the faithfulness of God in even that sort of darkness. This is a lesson we all need to learn.

We live in a fallen world, and it's good to be reminded that God is in charge of even the difficult things of life, and that he uses them for our good and his glory. This passage of Scripture helps us keep that perspective.

Jacob's wrestling with God encourages us to persevere with whatever we may be facing in our lives. We need to wrestle through it like Jacob did and we must not give up.

You can only wrestle with God if you're ultimately at peace with him. Being at peace with God means having a secure relationship, and in a secure relationship you can bring up your struggles. The story of Jacob wrestling with God is profoundly important.

Some of us like long hikes, and others of us drive around parking lots trying to find the closest spot. Here Paul looks at the metaphor of walking in Galatians.