Guest speaker Pastor Young Kim walks us through a case study of the life of King Saul in 1 Samuel 15 of what NOT to do. Avoiding the things Saul fell into can help us to experience self-awareness, honesty, and repentance.

Not many churches balance the theology of power and pain. However, the Bible talks about the importance of expressing sorrow and the necessity of learning how to grieve. Guest speaker Pastor Young Kim explains why if we don't learn how to grieve with God, we can end up deadening our hearts to not only pain but joy as well.

The Book of James is a series of letters by James to the twelve tribes in Dispersion: Christians who were being persecuted and who were actively suffering due to their faith in Jesus Christ. Instead of writing wishes for the sorrow to be taken away, James instead encourages the people to be steadfast in facing these trials to their faith. Today, Pastor Ulysses poses the question - how can we be steadfast in the midst of difficulty as James encourages?

Our "I can" attitudes are often times motivated by the belief that our importance is based in how much we can do. Today, Pastor Ulysses looks at the life of Moses and shows us how Moses's attitude transformation is something God wants to do in each and every one of us, starting with a shift from saying "I can" to "I can't".

Life together means that we build intimate relationships — sharing in each others’ joys and bearing one another’s burdens. But for some of us, we distance ourselves from other people, afraid that we will be judged or criticized. Others have the tendency to be in enmeshed relationships - seeking validation and approval from another person and unable to build an independent identity. Today, Pastor Ulysses teaches about healthy relationships which are neither detached nor enmeshed, but rather rooted in Christ. Because of Jesus, we can have the courage to love rightly.

Even though the character of the demoniac in Mark 5 is initially a little hard to relate to, the more we dig into the story, we see the ways that this story is relevant to us. Similar to the demoniac, we are all held in some sort of bondage but the temptation is to be like the townspeople and hide away the “bad” things in our lives. The real question is: do you really want to be free? Will you approach Jesus for healing and transformation or do you think Jesus wants to “torment” you?

Though the church community is called to unity and oneness, we remain distinct members which all serve a specific and intended purpose. Too often, we fail to see that every member plays an equally important part, or, in our self-reliance, we live apart from and divided from community. Pastor Ulysses teaches from Paul's letter to the Corinthian church about the interdependence of Christian community and how uniquely essential each and every person is in the body of Christ.

Jesus prays that all believers would be in complete unity. His desire for the Christian community is to have a oneness that parallels the oneness of the Trinity and the union of Christ and his Church. In order to know and love each other deeply, one of the obstacles we face is our own judgemental attitude. We look at what Jesus says about the tax collectors and Pharisees to unpack the ways we criticize and compare ourselves with others, as well as our great need to humbly recognize our own struggles and weaknesses.

Division is one of the Devil’s primary tools in breaking down the Church. As one body living in a seemingly ever-so divisive world, how are we to fulfill Paul’s wish for us all to “stand firm in one spirit and one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel”? Today, Pastor Ulysses shares about living sacrificially, in a way that puts others’ needs before our own and in doing so, experiencing a greater relational depth with our brothers and sisters in Christ!

When King David comes face to face with the brevity of life, his heart burns with the realization of the smallness of our existence. Instead of being discouraged by apparent lack of meaning in this world, David places his hope in God and is driven to live rightly before the Lord. His example challenges us to live with wisdom and purpose, intentionally seeking God in every moment, so we do not waste a single breath distracted by that which will not matter in eternity.