1. Today I would like to share The Legend of the Dogwood, inspired by the words of Stoney Cooper.
  2. The needs of the people remain the same, but now the people are you and me. We still sin, and that sin causes so many challenges in our lives.
  3. It’s scary to share my struggle and to show that I have cracks because once I’ve shown my cards, I open myself up for judgment.
  4. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  5. To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
  6. His love for you is so deep that in his mercy, while you were yet a sinner, God sent his only begotten Son to die for you.
  7. “So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
  8. Love is pointing to Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
  9. Forty days after giving birth, Mary, along with her husband Joseph, presented their firstborn Son at the temple and "bought" him back with a sacrifice of two small birds. This is known as the "Presentation of Our Lord."
  10. Rightly distinguishing between law and gospel, as Paul helps us see in 2 Corinthians 3, is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
  11. Christ our Word, as with a two-edged sword, burst the devil's belly.
  12. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.