1. This is an excerpt from “Finding God in the Darkness: Hopeful Reflections from the Pits of Depression, Despair, and Disappointment” by Bradley Gray (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  2. We may not all be mass-murdering Nazis. But we all have the same root sin that causes the most egregious criminal activity on the face of the earth. We all have the desire to be our own God.
  3. The Holy Spirit unleashes his power through us, his vines, and we then get to watch as his fruits blossom and ripen.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. The Lord’s Prayer is liturgy and catechism, action and instruction, praxis and theology.
  8. Prayer is not just about asking for things. It's about receiving what has already been given to us in Christ.
  9. Praying the Word of God back to God carries didactic import. It teaches us.
  10. The Lord’s prayer is a prayer in perfect accord with the will of God, and Jesus gifts it to us to plagiarize at will.
  11. What might Christians of the Reformation tradition think of claims like these about the nature of salvation?
  12. As I look back, I choose to remember her as a soul redeemed by Christ.