Paul's final instructions for the church are a call to learn how to live in peace, cultivating patience, and in lifestyle of worship. How well are we doing? Do we have a functioning faith, laboring love, and enduring hope that keeps us keeping on?

How do your views of the Second Coming... the return of Jesus affect the way you live each and every day? Are you living with hope, prepared even if he chooses to return today? Do you have a functioning faith, a love that labors, and an enduring hope?

Paul is pretty clear -- "For this is the will of God, your sanctification." He begins what we know as the 4th chapter with a significant change - the urging for the church to be walking and pleasing God in the manner in which he had instructed them. Is our faith one that functions, our labor a loving serving God, and our hope enduring?

What is it that you hold in affection, since there is a relationship between affection and afflictions? Are you willing to share of yourself as you share the gospel? Can you be "gentle... like a nursing mother cares for her children?

Paul provides a nomenclature or rubric for examining our spirituality and the effectiveness of our witness: faith, love, and hope. In this first chapter he also talks about the Christians witness in terms of their conviction, their change, and the way in which they became channels for others.

John saw a vision of the cross in the words of Zechariah 12:10-11. Yes, there was an immediate reference for Zechariah's prophecy, but notice that it really says that it was God that was pierced. And it was God the Son that was pierced again on the cross. Have you received the forgiveness from the 'fountain' that flowed from his side?

Zechariah's message included the promise that God -- a God of compassion -- would hear our prayers and respond. He did respond, in anger against the false prophets, wicked 'shepherds', and leaders who were causing the people to continue to wander. But the message included that "He shall pass through the sea of troubles" (the cross and death) to bring deliverance (resurrection)

At least after the cross and the empty tomb, Matthew and John realized that Zechariah 9 had something to say regarding what many call 'The Triumphal Entry,' though it was really 'A Royal Entry'! The King was entering Jerusalem to be enthroned on the cross.

What does it take to experience the joy that God promises in the midst of tough times? How can our times of mourning (fasting) become occasions for feasting?

Where is you heart? Is it hardened to the point that you are just going through the motions? Have you closed your ears to the truth of God's Word and closed your eyes to the needs around you? If so, the question as to if you need to continue some ritual is really the wrong question!