Home improvement is a popular hobby, with entire streaming networks based on shows like Fixer Upper or Dream Home Makeover.

Jesus said, "You will always have the poor among you" (Mark 14:7), but the fact that poverty is impossible to stamp out doesn't mean that we're exempt from doing something about it. 

Every time I pick up my phone, they're there.  Image after image, story after story, about war, immense suffering, injustice, and overwhelming need.

What do you do when crisis hits?  When the unthinkable happens in life? My friend, Nadia, stands in the kitchen; strain visibly etched on her face.  For weeks, her country has been under relentless attack by an enemy.  Nadia cries out to God for strength and rescue.  And then she makes soup.   She makes a huge pot of soup for those who help pack and deliver food, between air raid sirens.

What would you say it takes to be a great leader?  Charisma, brains, a take-charge attitude?

Have you ever wondered what it really means to "give your life to God?" Maybe it looks something like the lives of Mother Teresa or Billy Graham?

A man decided to donate a relatively small piece of land to his church. It was swampy and not suitable for development.  Soon after, the church had the land appraised and coal was discovered. A geologist was called in and an exploratory well brought up oil!  In the course of oil production at the site, uranium was discovered near the vein of coal.

In 1865, William Booth, founded what would be a huge mission called the Salvation Army.  He was once asked. What's your secret?"  The story goes that Booth thought about it for a moment and said, "God has had all there was of me!" 

Being in the middle of something can be disheartening.  Remember when you were a kid, sitting in the back seat of the car in the middle of a long road trip and you kept asking your parents, "Are we there yet?!"  So frustrating!  But when you're in the middle of treatment for cancer, or you're in the middle of years of prayer for someone you love who's walked away from Jesus, in "the middle" can be an excruciatingly painful place to be.

Followers of Jesus have a unique hope. We've got wealth that is stored for us where there's no rust or threat of a break-in. Scripture refers to this storage place as heaven (Matthew 6:20), which Jews historically interpreted simply as, "in God's realm." "But honestly," you might ask, "why bother with treasure you can't access?"