Have you noticed we live in a society that doesn't really reflect anymore? It's always what's next, what's coming in the new year, what's going to happen in the future. Let's just stop and take a moment to reflect.

Merry Christmas! We live in a beautiful part of the world, don't we? We forget just how beautiful it is. You almost lose that sense of wonder after awhile. And when we get to Christmas, we realize just how much we've forgotten the wonder of the gospel story.

There have been all kinds of fanatic religious groups who claim God is on their side and have done awful things in the name of religion. So when we say, "If God is for us..." what does that mean? Is God really for us? Do we really believe He is for us?

Oftentimes, the grief in our lives is more subtle. Subtle darknesses of the soul settle in upon us. In that, we struggle with the goodness of God and how to life in a both broken and beautiful world. So why? What's the meaning of it all?

But wait... there's more. Suffering is real and suffering has a purpose, but that isn't the end of the story. There's more. The Holy Spirit holds so much more for us, and we discover the depths of His love for us in prayer.

We live in a culture that hides from suffering, which is crazy because there's been so much of it in our world lately. When there's this non-stop parade of tragedy and heartache and suffering, how do we find hope? Suffering may not be exactly what you think it is...

What is a "real" faith? How do we experience God for real? Any connection we have with God started with the Holy Spirit. He made the first move. Christianity is not about a set of beliefs or truths that we just follow. It's about what Jesus did for us, and when we place our faith in Christ, His very Spirit comes and dwells within us and never leaves us.

When you're born into this world, your operating system is old technology. It's dead. It doesn't work. There's a virus not just in your operating system but deeply embedded into your hardware—sin. And as much as we try to relate to God, we can't because our bad hardware makes us incompatible with holiness. Religion, performance, success... none of it works. We need something brand new, and we can't buy it on our own.

Whether you're a religious person or not, everyone is looking for some sense of meaning. Of righteousness. Of self-worth. We are all searching for value and approval—it's built into our DNA. But we all struggle with righteousness because of sin and our own flesh, and we start searching for that approval from things other than God. Ultimately, there is no other thing, no other god that fill that hole in our hearts.

Whether you've been a believer for a long time or just a short while, we all struggle with sin. Every single one of us. We often find ourselves discouraged, defeated and ready to give up (if we haven't already) because it just seems like we can't get victory. It would be natural for us to add discipline, accountability or education to our lives to fix it. We let those be the things that help us win over our sin, but the problem is they don't actually help.