1. Lutherans have a unique heritage that makes teaching predestination doubly difficult.
  2. This is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of Your God is Too Glorious: Finding God in the Most Unexpected Places by Chad Bird (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  3. Now that the Lord of Sabaoth has involved himself, something ends, something is born.
  4. The cross not only stands as the measure of our hatred of God but also as the measure of God’s love for us.
  5. 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.
  6. God chose Russell Brand, chose to defy his fast-escaping life and drink up all his swift-running sin in the River Thames.
  7. Some part of us always wants our ability under the law to be just as important (or more) than grace.
  8. The Good Shepherd doesn’t leave the sheep to fend for themselves.
  9. 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.
  10. The notion that your goodness is “good enough” to make you right with God is a lie straight from the father of lies himself.
  11. Applying the pressure of law to ensure you do not to take grace for granted squeezes the life and power out of the gospel.