1. Jesus continues to breathe His gifts on His beloved. He continues to breathe absolution upon sinners like me and you, He continues to fill us with the Holy Spirit and all His comfort.
  2. As we stand before our Lord dead in our transgressions and guilt, Jesus pronounces His judgment upon us. He absolves us.
  3. Jesus does not give as the world gives. With Jesus, everything is guaranteed and has been finished from the start.
  4. God’s will is not sparkly, flashy, exciting, extraordinary plans for your life—at least not in the Old Adam’s eyes. So, what is the will of God?
  5. Jesus does not come to see how we will welcome Him. He does not come to make a list of who is bad or good because there is no list. Only a book of life. And He has come to write our names in that book.
  6. God will not repent. He will not repent of His promises. He will not change His mind regarding His selfless, self-sacrificing, inconceivable love for sinners.
  7. The devil knows our name and labels us by our sin. The devil breathes out death as he names us for what we are, sinners.
  8. When we run deep into the darkness, Jesus runs deeper and deeper after us. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.
  9. Regardless of what our eyes, senses, and circumstances tell us, we belong to Christ, and He is with us.
  10. Christmas comes in the dead of winter. In a season when the earth is cold, dark, and bare, songs on the radio belt out a chorus which names this season, "the most wonderful time of the year."
  11. He was a beggar on the streets. And, he was as good as dead if he didn't receive a blessing. The words, "you're cursed" haunted his mind.
  12. The wound on my hand would not let me forget what happened. The crackled and blistered strip of skin was a memento of the searing pain I felt that day. For the remainder of that year, I was constantly reminded of what I had done.