1. The Parable of the Lost Sheep bursts through the confines of convention and demands that we embrace the messiness of life and the unpredictable ways in which God's grace and forgiveness operates.
  2. His successes were not the result of his brilliance, might, and ability as an apostle. They were the result of the all-sufficient grace of God.
  3. No matter how far away they wander, God always hears the prayers of his children.
  4. This is an excerpt from part two of “On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service” by Mike Berg (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  5. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  6. To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
  7. His love for you is so deep that in his mercy, while you were yet a sinner, God sent his only begotten Son to die for you.
  8. “So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
  9. Love is pointing to Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
  10. Morons though we all have been, there is nothing we need that Christ hasn’t given us.
  11. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.
  12. As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."