A fearless teenage girl sings the first Christmas Carol that would herald the greatest revolution in the history of the world.

We sing songs about home at Christmas. Our longing for home is really an echo of our longing for God, our longing to be loved, to be protected, to be shaped, to be secure and wanted.

God chooses to work through our weaknesses yet we do everything we can to be rid of our weaknesses. When we do we are at cross-purposes with God.

We all have to cheat at where our primary allegiance rests. Either we are loyal to God or the idol of a busy schedule. Often the place most of us cheat is at home. In this lesson we learn to give the best of us to those whom we love the most...our time.

Strengthening Families begins when faith is passed on from one generation to another. Two generations from now, will there be anybody spreading the faith because of you? Did you pass your trust in God to anybody else?

Jesus uses a physically blind man to contrast the spiritual blindness in which religious people can easily slide. Jesus "sees" the ignored and marginalized like no other person who ever lived. What He "sees" we need to see. Love pays attention.

This is the story of desperate men who fund incredible fortune through no merit of their own and how they shared that good news to desperate people. The parallels for us as Christ-followers are remarkable as we are compelled to share with others in our world what the God of the universe has done for us.

Does becoming a follower of Jesus really change our character in this life or are we JUST forgiven? Do we really expect to change as a result of becoming a Christ-follower? Jesus offers us deep change when we enter His Kingdom. But we have to go into training.

The Bible is best understood as a story and a clear understanding of that story and where we are in the story is critical to a correct reading of the Scriptures and the deepening of our faith.

We are all recovering from something. Sin has wrecked our lives. There is something broken inside us that makes us do what we don't want to do. James gives us strategies for stopping the crazies of sin cycle.