1. Confession and absolution offer more than assurance, they gift real and genuine Divine promises.
  2. Human solutions to problems, important as they are, are inadequate to meet our deepest needs
  3. Christ reshapes what forgivness means and why it's important
  4. As much as we want the glory, riches, and knowledge of Dantes, what we need is Jean Valjean's candlesticks.
  5. How can he say it? How can he say that Christ is after all the entire meaning of life for him, and that death is no real worry?
  6. God knows that when we face insurmountable odds in our moments of weakness, we are more likely to turn to him in trust and reliance.
  7. We know that death does not have the last word in Christ.
  8. We have to “remember” that God remembers us. He has not fallen away. For God to remember us means he is working for our good; a restoration.
  9. When God remembers his covenant with Noah and causes the flood to subside, he also chooses to forget.
  10. Faith sees your neighbor not as a means to an end, not as a way to score points, but as an object of love: Christ's love and yours.
  11. We must also address the stigma surrounding addiction within so many churches.
  12. What if Jesus had said on the cross, “Earn it”?