Because it's tradition

Key verse
Psalm 147:1 - How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him.

2 Thessalonians
2 Thess. 2:15 says "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter."  This statement follows after Paul spoke about how God chose us to be saved through sanctification of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.  It's interesting.  The word 'teachings' here, according to my study bible, means 'traditions'.  Until the New Testament was written down, the spiritual teaching was really traditions that the rabbis passed down to their students.  We often think of traditions as being steeped in the past and without real substance or logic.  Why do we believe something?  Why, it's tradition!  But in fact, tradition can be powerful, if we pass down the meaning behind the tradition and not just the basic message or action.  So we should hold firm to traditions of our forefathers, if we know what they mean.  If you're involved in certain traditions and aren't sure why, look into that.  You may be surprised at what started it all.

The armour of God

Ephesians
I was reading a commentary by William Wiersbe on the last chapter in Ephesians.  He said something that was so true, and yet often forgotten.  In the last chapter in Ephesians, Paul talks about putting on the armour of God so that we can wage war against the forces of evil.  We always have to be on our guard.  Wiersbe said that, "as believers, we do not fight for victory - we fight from victory."  That is to say, victory is already ours in Christ!  We just need to keep walking in that truth. How do we do this?  We wear the armour of God.  Check out Ephesians 6:13-18 for Paul's description of the armour.

A servant of Christ

Today's key verse is 2 Corinthians 11:23 - "Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more." 
Paul is writing to the Corinthians, explaining why they should not listen to the false brothers coming in preaching a bad message but purporting to be Christians.  Instead, they should listen to Paul, because he brings the message of life and truth.  I appreciate Paul's approach to convincing the Corinthians that he is more reliable than the others.  Normally, he wouldn't bother mentioning his credentials, and as brothers and sisters in Christ, we shouldn't have to do that, as we are all equal under Christ.  But in order to reach these Corinthians, Paul meets them at their level, giving them the information that they would understand and respond to.  As he does this, however, he makes sure that they realize that what they are looking for is not what is truly important.  They're looking at appearance and outward show, not at the actual message.
In the end, we should take a cue from Paul and refrain from boasting about what we do and instead, just go out and extend God's kingdom on earth, as he did.  But if we've got to meet people at their level, we should do it with humility and not let ourselves become feel more important than we are.

Truth - do we believe it?

Check out str.org.  It's a site titled Stand To Reason and provides numerous resources on how Christians can defend their faith reasonably, logically, and good-naturedly (ie., no need for violent condemnation).  They provide a lot of material that will help you think through your faith and understand how the truth does actually stand up as truth, even in today's twisted culture.