It is critical to acknowledge God at the beginning of things. But we must continue to acknowledge God throughout those things as well.

God does not follow the patterns of this world and trough Scripture he urge us to not follow them. We can live and extraordinary life following the patterns of God rather than the ones from this world.

During this Message, we learn about 3 different kinds of faiths showed in the Bible that fall in the category of questionable. Many times we found ourselves having that kind of Faith.

In Psalm 107 we are commanded to tell others about the wonderful things that God has done for us. When we have been “redeemed from the hand of the foe” or “gathered from…the east and west, from north and south,” we are to tell others about it. It is critical that we do this so that God might receive all the glory and credit for what He has done for us.

It is clear that the Magi had anticipated finding a young boy being raised in the royal household of the Jews. They had anticipated finding a child of privilege but they found a child of poverty. It must have been stunning for Mary and Joseph be greeted by the Magi in all their splendor. Yet something clicked when they found Jesus. Though He was not what they had anticipated they knew he was indeed the King of the Jews. Something was different about Him.

When we’ve received the present of His presence in our lives, we will share it with others. It’s time to make a plan. How will you share the present of Jesus’ present with someone in your life this Christmas week?

There was no sinister motive behind denying Mary and Joseph a place to stay that night in Bethlehem. It was just how the circumstances came together. But there is one truth we can be certain of: had the homeowners in this story known whom they were turning away they would have made room for Jesus.

Truly Mary was blessed to experience Christ so thoroughly in her life. But never forget, through the power of the Holy Spirit; we also can experience Christ with the same intimacy.

How can you create intentional, lingering, times of connection that are relationship focused rather than object focused or event focused? How can you leverage the activities of the season to accomplish this?

A thankful heart keeps our heart and motives pure and focused on what really matters. Let's learn how to keep the focus on what really matters.