When you envision what it means to lead, do you imagine being powerful? When we look to our political or even church leaders, we might come away with the negative idea that leadership means you are "lording it over others." It can be easy to distrust leaders, or hunger for leadership ourselves, in a desire for personal power.

Throughout history, there have been some incredible celestial events. In 1833 and 1966, there were huge meteor showers that, from Earth, looked as if stars were falling like snowflakes. Scientists predicted the meteor showers, but many people were frightened to watch, fearing they were signs of the end of the world.

What do you think of when you hear the word, majesty?  Do you imagine a queen wearing a jewel encrusted crown?  Maybe you think of the darkest night sky, sprinkled with trillions of sparkly stars.  Majesty implies impressive beauty, dignity and power.

When I was a kid, I would pester my mother with questions until she would exasperatedly say, "No more questions until tomorrow!" Of course, that night I might try throwing in a last-minute question about God to prolong bedtime—something like, "Mama, what does God look like?" 

Are you "battling it out," in some area of your life right now?  Everyone experiences life as a battle at times. For followers of Jesus, there's an added component of spiritual warfare. Paul used the analogy of a soldier fighting for his life when talking about some of his trials. He concluded that he had "fought a good fight" (2 Timothy 4:17). Jesus used the same word when He said, "Strive [or fight] to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able" (Luke 13:24).

Prayer is conversation with God, and any relationship is shaped by the quality of communication between those in the relationship. We use the word "prayer" when we're talking about communicating with spiritual beings, so we often treat it differently than communicating with people. If we let go of the idea that there is one right way to pray, we can grow in our relationship with God.

Serving requires devotion and devoting yourself to something requires, well, your whole self!  For example, you can't devote yourself to becoming rich and devote yourself to serving God. It is not the presence of money that zaps devotion to God, but it is easy to devote of one's energy to the pursuit of money.

Jesus spoke often of "the Kingdom of Heaven" while on Earth, saying it was here, right now (Matthew 4:17). So, is the Kingdom of God present or future?  The answer is…yes!

Humans naturally want to problem-solve. We make our plans and then inform God how He can help us carry out those plans. Too often, our solutions don't turn out to be God's solutions. Early Christians struggled with this as well.

We are becoming more open about the depression and anxiety that people of all walks of life and age experience.  Sometimes these feelings are situational and sometimes they are the result of a physical, chemical imbalance.