Christmas is a celebration of the first coming of Christ. Christians look back to what God did many years ago, sending his Son as a baby boy, come to save us from our sins. But we don’t only look back to see what God has done—we also look forward to what God will do. Christ has come to save us from our sins and he will come again to make all things new and to live with us forever in perfect peace and joy.

While it is easy to get hung up in the details of the visit of the wise men, it can cause us to miss the point of the story. These men travelled many miles over many months so that they could kneel before this child in worship.There was no question in their minds of who he was and there was no question in their mind what their response should be. What about in your mind?

Kids and grown-ups aren't that much different. At times, we both feel afraid and alone. But knowing Jesus as our Good Shepherd settles our hearts as we go through the dark times in life and gives us a passion to go after those who need his love.

Sometimes we forget the obvious that Jesus is the most important character in the Christmas story. There's a glory and transcendent beauty about him. More than a baby in a manger, he is the eternal Son of God who took on flesh to save us from our sins. And He's still shining his light in the darkness. So, how will you respond to Jesus this Christmas?

God has visited us. That's essentially what Christmas is all about. Christ has come to this earth to redeem us. Just like a sunrise, he breaks through the darkness to save us. And one day he will return to make all things right.

We're living in a culture that struggles with sexual immorality and confusion over our bodies. Consequently, many of us have deep stains and scars in our sexual past. The path of freedom is found in seeing that our bodies belong to God and that we have been bought with the price of Christ's blood.

In Corinth, members of the church were filing lawsuits in the Roman legal system, seeking to settle their grievances in court. For the sake of financial gain and personal satisfaction they were ruining relationships with fellow believers and bringing shame upon Christ and his church.

God has another plan for dealing with conflict. Grace reframes grievances. In 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, we see that a proper understanding of God’s grace toward us produces peace, humility, and unity that commends Christ to unbelievers.

As Christians, one of our responsibilities is to keep the church as pure and holy as we can. One way we do this is by confronting each other when our lives don't match up with scripture. While this may seem harsh at times, it has three important effects: 1) it protects the church, 2) it honor's Christ's sacrifice, 3) it saves people's souls.

Leadership matters to everyone because everyone is led, and everyone leads in some capacity. When Jesus came, he flipped leadership on its head. He turned everything upside down. No doubt, Paul's views on leadership were shaped directly by the crucified Christ, and he expected the leaders and teachers of the Corinthian community to take their cues from him - to follow him as he followed Christ. So the question is, "How do we lead like Jesus?"

God is building something greater than our minds can even begin to comprehend! He's building his church, and we get to be a part of it. But we must be careful how we build. Indeed, how we live and how we teach matters! It affects our eternity, influences our entire church family and shows if we take God seriously.