1. Faith sees your neighbor not as a means to an end, not as a way to score points, but as an object of love: Christ's love and yours.
  2. We must also address the stigma surrounding addiction within so many churches.
  3. It is of the utmost importance that pastors teach their congregation that through faith in Jesus Christ, they are fortified against the machinations of the adversary.
  4. In that moment of greatest despair, we find the antidote for all our fears. We know we are beloved of God and there is salvation in Christ’s atoning death.
  5. Jesus weeps because his heart pulses with furious rage and fierce love.
  6. Honest confession brings us into the fatherly care of God where we are always greeted with grace, mercy, peace, love, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
  7. While midnight might seem long, the mercy of God assures us that the morning will come.
  8. God comes to us through the flesh and blood and spirit of Christ precisely where he promised to be manifest to us and for us.
  9. I’ve experienced firsthand the promise that God never leaves a congregation empty-handed.
  10. A pastor is sent to proclaim the unconditional grace of God, reminding us again and again that it is our Heavenly Father who reaches out to us in love through his Christ-won forgiveness, and not the other way around.
  11. Christ Jesus brings his word and presence to where you are and he is even willing to do so through the likes of your personally present pastor.