One of the easiest things to do in our walk with the Lord is get into a rut: a pattern of living and worshipping that feels routine and too familiar and too comfortable. The danger is, like any rut, we get stuck.

It is a dangerous thing for a church to set its sights for success on programs or events and not on the character of teaching that is embraced by the body. You can have the best ministries and a growing congregation, but if you sacrifice purity in the doctrines of the church you will have pollution in the lives of the people.

The task of the church to evaluate and confront the errors of ungodly behaviors and teachings is not a popular challenge today. Where sexual immorality has become accepted in our world, the church must be careful that it does not fail in discerning the difference between godly and ungodly actions. If we do fail to deal with it, God will deal with us for it.

For many of its first years, the church underwent significant persecution.  There were threats from within and from without.  It was when the government imposed emperor worship that the title of "Christian" was a heavy name to bear.  But Jesus gives the promise of hope to the believers in Smyrna, as one who has triumphed over the grave.

The book of Revelation contains 7 letters to 7 churches with a common thread inviting the reader to pay attention to what the Spirit has written. The first letter to the church in Ephesus highlights the high degree of discernment practiced by the believers in Ephesus, but Jesus also reveals the callousness of their hearts to have fallen from a life of love. We will seek to show that the solution is finding the right balance between both discernment and Christlike compassion and love.

There are subtleties in our world that can seem benign but hold differences that can be drastic, especially when the topic at hand is a foundational topic.  The subject of the Trinity is one that has left many scratching their heads, but that the church has sought to clarify in the face of false teachings.  Many times it is much easier to say what something "is not" rather than what it actually "is."

When false teachings show up in church history, we sometimes forget that those same heresies are alive and well today, lived out under a different name.  For the early church, there was never a question of Jesus' divinity, only a firm confidence that it must be accurately articulated when faced with false teaching.

In the creeds the church has preserved the truth of the gospel and identity of Jesus in the face of false teachers and false teaching.  While many churches have incorporated the creeds into their worship services, there are still many who remain confused as to the creed's source, occasion, and purpose.

There is a plan behind Jesus' prayer.  It is nothing short than the purpose behind our salvation.  For many in our world today, becoming a Christian is a private and individualistic decision that never requires expression in the world. But Jesus has different plans for us.

The Lord's prayer is often mis-titled as the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray from Luke 11.  However, Jesus' personal prayer is found in John 17, and it contains a treasure of spiritual truths; none more greater than the identification of the source of eternal life.