1. Jesus is the only answer to the nagging question. He is the only way to make sense of this unsettling story in Exodus 4.
  2. 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).
  3. 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.
  4. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  5. 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.
  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. 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."
  11. In Memory of My Friend, James Arne Nestingen
  12. Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.