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. It’s not our eloquence or persuasive rhetoric that changes hearts, but the Word of God that pierces through the hardened shells of unbelief and breathes life into the dead bones of sinners.
  3. We live for the most part, on the strength of our moral fiber, under the law, by our zeal for God and all that which tickles our proud fancy.
  4. 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.
  5. What might Christians of the Reformation tradition think of claims like these about the nature of salvation?
  6. Jesus makes David’s words his own, because David’s words were Christ’s to begin with.
  7. 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).
  8. What if sin was truly removed and what if the one who took it from us had the power to conquer it’s curse and spit in the face of death?
  9. It’s scary to share my struggle and to show that I have cracks because once I’ve shown my cards, I open myself up for judgment.
  10. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  11. Ash Wednesday's purpose is not to motivate our resolve to redouble our efforts to do better.
  12. To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.