1. 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.
  2. Jesus not only healed her daughter, but he also gave himself to her. Wherever she went from then on, he was with her.
  3. The more awareness we have that we are weak and low and frail and incapable of doing this thing called life, the more perfectly we are positioned to meet the God of grace.
  4. A theologian is a passive receiver of God’s active revelation about Jesus Christ, his words, works, and ways.
  5. Who is God really? He is offensive, anarchic by the world’s standards, and far too gracious to people who don’t deserve his time or attention.
  6. You’re not new because of what you do. You’re new and so you do new things, even in spite of yourself, because of your sinful nature.
  7. God is consistently rooting us in reality—both what is seen and unseen—because that is where he is.
  8. At the heart of The Idiot is Dostoevsky's confession of faith and the confession of all Christians.
  9. It’s God’s power that we are dealing with here that is made perfect in weakness, not ours. God’s power is made perfect in the weakness of the cross.
  10. That on Pentecost God’s Spirit should function through a dozen seeming inebriates should be no surprise when this same God saves through the ignominy of the cross.