Secrets from the Ancient Paths

If you're serious about spiritual fitness, this is discipline has the potential to take you to the top of the class.

Plus, it's something Jesus and everyone around him did. That makes scripture memory a good idea, in and of itself!

We're living in challenging times. It's easy to be discouraged, disheartened, angry or depressed.

There's one aspect of being spiritually fit that will have a profound impact on you and the people around you during days like these.

It's copying the example of Paul and Silas, who sang at midnight after a very, very bad day in Philippi.

If it's January, it must be time to lose weight and exercise more. It's our culture's annual re-commitment to physical fitness.

Spiritual fitness carries many of the same characteristics of physical fitness. This short series of inspirational messages starts at the gym to drive home a very fit message. If you want to hear what Jesus is saying, just do what his followers did.

Know the Book.

Be sure to check out our tips on how to maximize your personal Bible study time!

An ancient passage in Leviticus explains that if a priest sinned intentionally, he'd have to sacrifice a bull . To chase down that story, we're going to interview a bull!

But there's more to this unusual episode than first meets the eye. If you're a follower of Jesus, there's something you've been commanded to do that will be messy, embarrassing, expensive and exhausting. Kind of like killing a bull.

If you'll obey the command, this year could be the best you've known.

So here we are at the end of 2020, one of the most difficult years the modern world has ever known.

But have you ever considered that everyone involved in the Christmas story was having a tough year, too? From the prophets to the shepherds to Mary and Joseph themselves, difficult circumstances surrounded them all. Even so, God was in control and those who were faithful got to be a part of the world's most amazing event.

Here's a message of encouragement you'll want to take with you as we flip the calendar over to what promises to be a challenging 2021.

We know an amazing amount of information about what happened to Jesus in the days, weeks and months following his birth.

In this final episode of "Finally Finding Christmas," you'll also connect with why those events were so important for a people desperate for a Messiah.

Talk about a secret hidden in plain sight ... the "grotto" underneath the Church of the Nativity has an amazing message for us!

In this episode, Andy Cook will take you on a journey through the world's oldest church used for continuous worship, and then outside modern-day Bethlehem to envision the place where Jesus was born.

It's so surprising that we have somehow missed the importance of Herod the Great in the Christmas story. After all, the fact that he was king of Judea was the very first detail Luke gave us as he opened his Gospel!

Watch this short message (10:23) and you'll soon see why Matthew and Luke both wanted you to meet the man who dominated the Christmas story.

Discover the journey to Christmas May and Joseph traveled and you'll never read the Christmas story the same way again. Only the land can unveil these "secrets!"

And if this Christmas happens to include a tough journey for you, what happened on this hard path for Mary and Joseph might be the very thing that brings you through your own challenge.

With the holidays upon us, you'll probably see a lot of family in the next few days.

No doubt, you won't see a perfect family in front of you!

But take heart! The Bible is full of dysfunctional families, right from the start. Here's an encouraging word from Andy Cook that you can give thanks for every imperfect family.