There is no room for pride and self-seeking in God's church. It is important for us to examine if we have any pride and how that is changing our lives. It's especially important to examine this as we consider being part of the Lord's church.

Paul tells Timothy to not be entangled in civilian pursuits. What does that look like and how can we be sure we are committed to the Lord? There are many pursuits that can follow, but commitment to God and serving Him must be the top pursuit.

God desires all to be saved or come to salvation. Does God set conditions on salvation? Is there anything God desires us to do in order to be saved?

Joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit and fundamental to many characteristics we’re supposed to display, so why aren’t we more joyful?

The idea of giving a cup of cold water to someone seems so simple and is not glamorous. In Matthew 10:42 that's exactly what Jesus highlights as something that is great in His kingdom! It can be simple and not even recognized or the one thing we are desperately in need of. Every little thing we do for our brothers and sisters counts. It all matters and Jesus makes that clear.

We're closing out our study of 2 Thessalonians by looking at chapter 3. It might be that, in light of Christ returning, some had stopped working and were becoming burdens to their brethren. Paul corrects this problem and gives further instruction. How should they handle the Christians living this way? Christians today should put all their hope in Christ returning, but continue working and doing good.

We continue our study of 2 Thessalonians by looking at chapter 2. In this chapter, we see Paul highlight the coming of Jesus even more. There were some different teachings and seems like some people were being convinced or at least listening to these teachings. The false ideas were causing people to loose their hope in the return of Christ!

Why does the Christian still suffer from sin? 1 John teaches that the Christian should sin no longer, but we still often struggle with temptations and passions. It is only in Jesus that we find relief, and it is our love for Him and for His church that gives us confidence.

In Matthew 15 Jesus has a conversation with the Pharisees and scribes about cleanliness. They were focusing on outward cleanliness while Jesus focuses on what is inside. He says that "what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person." In this lesson, our speech and communication is the specific aspect of what comes from the heart we look at.

The end of Acts 12 says that the "word of God increased and multiplied." So, how do we go from the Apostle James being killed at the beginning of Acts 12 to God's word being spread? We see the Christians praying earnestly, Peter freed from prison, the church encouraged, and Herod punished by God. Through all of this, a potentially discouraging event then leads to God's kingdom being spread further.