The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus . As we do our part rejoice in the Lord, pursue a gentle spirit, pray about everything, and cling to gratitude, God does his part. He bestows upon us the peace of God. Note, this is not a peace from God. Our Father gives us the very peace of God. He downloads the tranquility of the throne room into our world, resulting in an inexplicable calm. We should be worried, but we aren't. We should be upset, but we're comforted.

Fear may fill our world, but it doesn’t have to fill our hearts.

God did everything necessary to get Herod's attention. He sent messengers from the East and a message from the Torah. He sent wonders from the sky and words from Scripture. He sent the testimony of the heavens and the teaching of the prophets. But Herod refused to listen. He chose his puny dynasty over Christ. He died a miserable old man.

Anxiety and fear are cousins but not twins. Fear sees a threat. Anxiety imagines one.

I do think there is great strength, though, in starting a sermon with a story, then returning to that story at the end. That puts book ends to a sermon. It is a real simple technique that communicates to the audience that there is a sense of closure, that they have a package here, or we began and we closed with this. I think that's just a nice technique.

I've never been one to say I know exactly that we're in the last days, but there's some things happening these days, both good and bad, that make me wonder if we may be heading into the final generation. One of the good things that's happening is that little by little we're taking the gospel to the whole world. But at the same time there is this resistance.

The lack of God-centeredness leads to self-centeredness.