1. The Lord knew how it felt to be a rejected stone.
  2. Walther’s living legacy is his enduring teaching on how to distinguish the law and the gospel in the Church’s proclamation.
  3. 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.
  4. 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).
  5. What is undoubtedly true, however, is that St. Peter wasn’t left outside. He wasn’t left weeping. He was restored, as am I, as are you.
  6. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  7. To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
  8. 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.
  9. “So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
  10. 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).
  11. Predestination, Jim knew, is no longer a frightening doctrine of mystery when you understand that God makes his choice about you in the simple word of God, given from one sinner to another.
  12. Even as he was dying, the heart of God poured itself out for the sake of sinners.