1. I’ve experienced firsthand the promise that God never leaves a congregation empty-handed.
  2. The gospel tells me that the revelation of weakness in myself, my husband, and my son is the occasion for the revelation of God’s strength.
  3. God’s published will offers us anchorage, the anchorage of Jesus Christ, in the midst of chaos, reminding us that there is a greater purpose to our lives than the pursuit of worldly success or fleeting pleasures.
  4. When properly distinguishing law and gospel in the Word of God, it is important to use the God-given gift and abilities of the imagination as your ears.
  5. The Holy Spirit unleashes his power through us, his vines, and we then get to watch as his fruits blossom and ripen.
  6. Everything in Scripture is God revealing himself to his people, you and me.
  7. 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.
  8. God's faithfulness is constant and consistent. It knows no season. His love for us doesn't fade with the summer sun.
  9. 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.
  10. His successes were not the result of his brilliance, might, and ability as an apostle. They were the result of the all-sufficient grace of God.
  11. When we forget that we live by promise, that's when the danger tends to creep in. Because failing to embrace promise means we usually fall back into notions of luck, or even worse--into works.
  12. Jesus is the only answer to the nagging question. He is the only way to make sense of this unsettling story in Exodus 4.