1. The cross not only stands as the measure of our hatred of God but also as the measure of God’s love for us.
  2. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of these early Lutheran hymns – and their physical availability in hymnals – in the piety of common people living in Lutheran towns and territories.
  3. The Battle of Frankenhausen stands as a warning for what can happen when we abandon the Word God has given us and chase after some vision of our own imaginations.
  4. Elsewhere makes promises that can’t be kept, but God’s promises are secure, reliable, and certain.
  5. Some part of us always wants our ability under the law to be just as important (or more) than grace.
  6. A Christian story untethered from the reality of Christ and his mercy toward sinners becomes a mere fable, while a sermon disconnected from the hearts of its listeners remains a hollow oratory.
  7. Eucatastrophe is the coming untrue of all sin, evil, and death. And where that starts is the empty tomb of the risen Jesus.
  8. The notion that your goodness is “good enough” to make you right with God is a lie straight from the father of lies himself.
  9. When Jesus appeared again to his disciples on that first Easter evening and again a week later with Thomas and the Emmaus disciples, what did Jesus show them? His hands.
  10. Applying the pressure of law to ensure you do not to take grace for granted squeezes the life and power out of the gospel.
  11. Like the serpent on the pole, God still puts real-life things up for us to look to for salvation.
  12. Don’t get in the habit (or, if you already do it, get out of the habit) of saying, “I could never talk about these things the way my pastor does.”