1. As Luther said, “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf of spring.”
  2. Everything in Scripture is God revealing himself to his people, you and me.
  3. Church historians attempt to determine why Melanchthon made those controversial decisions.
  4. When we forget that we live by promise, that's when the danger tends to creep in. Because failing to embrace promise means we usually fall back into notions of luck, or even worse--into works.
  5. Luther's emphasis on the need for sinners to have preachers who can provide them with the comfort and support they need for their faith in Jesus Christ and life is as relevant today as it was in his time.
  6. Jesus cries on the cross for us. He suffers and cries and dies in our place. He is forsaken by his father so we don’t have to be.
  7. As I look back, I choose to remember her as a soul redeemed by Christ.
  8. What greater legacy could you claim than that of Mark? Listen to the Word. Learn from Jesus.
  9. The drama of Scripture is about God renaming us by bringing us into his image-bearing family once again. And it would take “a name above all names” to accomplish it.
  10. This is an excerpt from the introduction of “Common Places in Christian Theology: A Curated Collection of Essays from Lutheran Quarterly,” edited by Mark Mattes (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  11. 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.
  12. Unprompted, without any warning, for no reason at all, without any instigation say, "I love you." And that will wash over your parents like a beautiful absolution.