1. If the season of Lent is a journey, Holy Week is the destination.
  2. This is an excerpt from the prologue of “On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service” by Mike Berg (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  3. What we discover in O’Connor’s stories and Martin Luther’s theology is that God’s grace is elusive because the human heart is resistant to it.
  4. We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
  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. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  7. There is a revival, no less real and even more definitive, taking place in every church, every weekend, where God’s people gather around his gifts.
  8. The earliest followers of God sang their faith, which is no different today as we sing of the hope we have in Jesus.
  9. The sign of the cross, according to the earliest centuries of Christians, is “the sign of the Lord,” and every baptized Christian was “marked” with it.
  10. God resolves his wrath through the unexpected giving of his Son.
  11. Toy Story is indeed a Christmas story.
  12. That great truth of creedal Christianity – that God is man in Christ – is not set forth for our speculative enjoyment.