1. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  2. 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.
  3. The earliest followers of God sang their faith, which is no different today as we sing of the hope we have in Jesus.
  4. 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.
  5. As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."
  6. Despite our best efforts to avoid him, King Jesus remains very much unavoidable.
  7. When and how did the church start this season of anticipation?
  8. Help comes for those who cannot help themselves. When we bottom-out and come to the end of ourselves, that is where hope springs.
  9. Preachers and church workers must also hear the gospel preached to them.
  10. Through water, blood, and word, the Spirit never stops pointing us to Christ, and even more, giving us Christ.
  11. The reason that God’s commandments are not burdensome is that Jesus has fulfilled them.