God's blessings to Abraham create defining markers towards our understanding of God's strategy of redemption for all nations.  His blessings follow the pattern previous determined in creation and with Noah's family after the flood.

The Mission of God flows in perfect harmony with His design.  And in the beginning God designed the human creatures to be his representatives on earth: to display His glory and rule across the entire globe.

The world's most motivating influence is love.  As we have been called to a modern-day task of representing the good news of the gospel to the world, we must make sure that our service and sacrifice come from a source of love for God and what God is doing.

The evidence is clear, a growing subset of the next up-and-coming generation doesn't  care to know God.  One place where we can make major repairs is by making sure that our faith is found in unity with our lives.

The influence of the world's values has brought us individualism, entitlement, and an avoidance of commitment - especially confrontational commitment.  The church desperately needs to display a return to the foundations of community and relational investment that carries the hallmark characteristic of being committed to one another.

The world's influence has never been more prevalent in our lives and in the lives of our children.  For all the good that our technology has given us, it has also inadvertently retrained the way we think, study, wait, and want.  It has never been more important that the child of God is equipped with wisdom to navigate the treacherous world of a digital Babylon.

There are many reasons why individuals leave the church, but there are only a handful of values that tend to keep people plugged into regular cooperate worship and the ministry of God's people.  At the very top of the list is the personal conviction that a relationship with Jesus is the only way to find true fulfillment in this life.

In Jesus' great commandment to his followers we are told to "Love one another; just as I have loved you."  There is no greater way to begin obedience to this commandment than to pursue it by attempting to place yourself in another's shoes.  This action of empathy is what the bible calls compassion, and it is the fuel for good works.

The plan of God is humbling when you understand His grace.  God had determined that He is going to reach the nations through the church, through sinners-redeemed, through us!

Oh, how easy it is to fool ourselves into NOT living the Christian Life.  In our world today, we must be ever vigilant make sure we haven't adopted a version of the faith that leaves us "checking" the holy box, but remaining lethargic when it comes to transformation.