This story from the life of Christ highlights the difference between pride and humble repentance. Jesus uses a parable to explain to the prideful pharisee Simon how the woman in the story understood her sin and forgiveness much better than Simon. (Luke 7:36-50)

Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, then He challenges them to ask persistently in prayer using a parable. While God desires to provide for us as a loving Heavenly Father, He ultimately has a greater goal for us as we approach Him in prayer. (Luke 11:1-13)

Be Patient! Great things start from small beginnings. That is how the kingdom of God grows. (Luke 13:10-21)

The kingdom truth in this parable is: The productivity of the seed is dependent on the receptivity of the soil. The quality of your life is dependent on the condition of your heart. How receptive is your heart to God's Word? (Luke 8:4-15)

The people of God return to Jerusalem from captivity to rebuild the temple of God. They begin the work, but then get distracted and the temple sits unfinished for 16 years. God sends the prophet Haggai to challenge and encourage them to finish the work. (Haggai)

Without attention a fire will quickly go out. And so it is our spiritual lives. This happened quickly to the children of Israel in the book of Nehemiah. This is the conclusion of Nehemiah as the people had to be called to return to God. (Nehemiah 13)

For Nehemiah, and also for us, there is something more important than accomplishing big tasks for God. Our first priority needs to be maintaining a soul level connection with God. This is done through letting the Word of God speak deeply to us. (Nehemiah 8:1-12)

Nehemiah's leadership led to the wall being built and fortified in less than two months. This display of God's power is an encouragement to know our task, stay on task, and determine to finish our task for the glory of God. God finishes what He starts. (Nehemiah 6:1-16)

In leading the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, Nehemiah faced opposition from outside and inside the walls. In chapter 5 we see how Nehemiah deals with opposition from within the walls and leads the people in righteousness. (Nehemiah 5)

Whenever we are in God's will doing what he desires for us to do there will be opposition. Nehemiah 4 contains illustrations of how to deal with this in our lives. Prayer, preparation and praise to the almighty God are the essentials we see from Nehemiah. (Nehemiah 4:1-23)