When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey the onlookers took it to be an ancient symbol of kingship. And indeed, it was. Yet their expectations of that coming kingdom were far removed from the kingdom that Jesus sought to establish. Jesus knew that the people expected an immediate overthrow of oppression and the onset of an earthly kingdom with Jesus as their benevolent ruler. The kingdom Jesus actually established was one of hard work and repentance, in other words, a spiritual kingdom. This Sunday we will look at how our own expectations are contrary to what the Lord actually intends for us.

Marriage is an important part of love for many people. And yet the Word has very little to say about it directly! Part of the reason is that people have so many warped ideas of what marriage is or ought to be. When the Word was written, a true explanation would have been rejected. But in the Teachings of the New Church we find that clearer explanation, and at heart, marriage is about friendship. Through cultivating a genuine friendship, a married couple can establish trust, mutual support, and true marriage love.

“Everything in moderation” seems like a sound rule for life. After all, anything, even something good, can become harmful when taken to an extreme. Yet this common-sense truth finds surprisingly little support in the Lord’s Word. As just one example, Jesus says, “no one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). There is no moderation or balancer here: rather pick a side and wholeheartedly follow it! This Sunday we will look at how a blind devotion to moderation can be harmful and why thinking in terms of prioritisation is a more heavenly outlook.

What would you be willing to give up in order to get the Lord's truth? Sometimes it seems like we don't have to give up anything: all we need to do is learn a little! But to really take in the truth and have it become part of our lives, we need to be willing to let go of other wants, points of view, and habits that get in the way. We have to be like the merchant in the Lord's parable who was willing to sell all that he had in order to acquire the pearl of great price.

When Saul was commanded to destroy all the Amalekites and all their possessions, he only half obeyed: he destroyed all the worthless possessions, but kept the precious things, and spared the king. Yet he still claimed that he had obeyed the Lord. How often do we only follow the Lord halfway, but claim that we have done everything He asks? And how do we come to a place of wholeheartedly separating ourselves even from the evils that we really love and are attached to?

We have all needed to be forgiven at one time or another. It's tempting at these times to think a simple "I'm sorry" will suffice. But when it comes to forgiveness "sorry" just doesn't cut it. Although when we say sorry it may be heartfelt it does nothing to change us or our situation. It is when we recognize our fault and make an effort to change that we can receive real forgiveness.

The Bible, the very Word of God, is our link to the Lord and His Teachings. And yet, it is not always obvious how it works. What are we to make of the confusing parts? Or the contradictions? Why is God so obtuse in revealing Himself to us? A large part of the answer to these questions can be found through understanding the spiritual sense that lies beneath the surface of every verse of the Word.

Salvation is at the heart and soul of Christ’s message. But what actually is it? Salvation is meaningless if we do not understand what we are being saved from and how we can achieve that salvation. The New Church teaches that all of us have an inclination towards evil that would destroy us if we weren’t protected by the Lord; and that to be truly and fully saved, we need to look to the Lord, reject evil, and live a good life, based on His teachings.

The most important question that almost any religion tries to answer is, “Who is God?” In our day to day lives we may find other questions more pressing, such as “how do I keep my temper when my three-year-old scrawled crayon all over the wall AGAIN?” But how we see God actually filters into how we see all those basic day-to-day questions of life. So who is God, and how can we come to know Him better? That’s what we’ll explore this Sunday.

What is the Lord’s? In a broad sense all things are the Lord’s: He created and sustains everything in the universe. Yet we also feel as if we are our own masters. There is an innate sense that what goes on in our minds and hearts is ours and ours alone. Yet even here all that is good and true belongs to the Lord. Miraculously, when we acknowledge that truth and live it, we can actually feel more, not less, ourselves.