It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

God has purposed to reproduce His life in and through your life. In order for Him to do that, He must reveal Himself to you and bring you into an intimate relationship with Him. It is His highest priority! How does He do that and what is your part?

Having a spirit of gratitude is extremely important for every believer in Jesus Christ. Being kind to those around us is not the only purpose for gratitude, it’s for our protection as well. Thankfulness is an essential guardian of the soul. We open ourselves to be fair game to the enemy when we don’t live a life of thankfulness, so we should always guard ourselves with gratitude.

Transformation is not a one time event. It is the constant never ceasing change of a believer into the image of Christ. As Paul states in 2 Corinthians 3:18, we should always be willing to be "...changed into the same image from glory to glory..." This Sunday, we will go deeper into what it means to have a renewed mind and be transformed by the Spirit of the Lord.

Ephesians 4:23-24 says, "and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." This Sunday, we will explore what it means to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

We get our DNA from our parents. And while our genetic makeup tells us what color hair and eyes we will have, what about our personality traits? Studies have shown that we do pass on certain personality traits such as our attitudes and even our sense of humor to our children. If this is so, do we have any say about who we are or who we will become? Are we destined to be nothing more than a genetic product of our parents...good or bad? What does the Word of God say?

Jesus said, "...I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." God's design is for us to put our full trust in the work of the cross. Jesus died for us so that we could not just "live," but live abundantly. We must choose to stand on God's Word and break every chain with which the enemy tries to shackle us. God wants every Christian to walk in freedom, but we must choose to do so.

In the Proverbs, a question is proposed: where can one find a virtuous woman? In Christ we find her: the church. His Bride and His Body, the church, is the place of power, healing, and refuge on this earth. Come discover why and how you belong in the Body of Christ, the church.

The time to think about the finish line of a race is not when the race is over, but before the race has been completed. When all is said and done in your life, will you be able to look back as Paul did in 2 Timothy 4:7 and say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith"? This Sunday we finish this message series by covering the last three keys to Winning the Race of Life.

In order to win the race of life, we must have the right attitude. No matter what crisis may come our way, if our attitude is right, we can still win. This Sunday, we will uncover another key that will help us face any crisis, overcome it, and stay on course to win the race.