1. This is an excerpt from “Finding God in the Darkness: Hopeful Reflections from the Pits of Depression, Despair, and Disappointment” by Bradley Gray (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  2. Jesus is the only answer to the nagging question. He is the only way to make sense of this unsettling story in Exodus 4.
  3. Tim wanted everyone to know to the deepest part of their being that they were justified by Christ alone.
  4. If it’s all a fiction spun by disappointed disciples, if it’s a mere symbol for the idea of an inner awakening, if it’s not a fact that Christ has been raised, then our grief and loss have no end, and we have no hope.
  5. If the season of Lent is a journey, Holy Week is the destination.
  6. What we discover in O’Connor’s stories and Martin Luther’s theology is that God’s grace is elusive because the human heart is resistant to it.
  7. This is the message of Lent. We are not called to sacrifice for Jesus in order to earn our salvation. Rather, we are called to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
  8. In Memory of My Friend, James Arne Nestingen
  9. Even though All Saints is a day for remembering the dead, it is not a day of mourning.
  10. Both now and forever, the bruised and crucified Lord nailed to a cross is our assurance of deliverance.