1. 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.
  2. Jesus’s story in Luke 16 draws definitive attention to whom God helps — namely, God always comes close in order to help those who cannot help themselves.
  3. It is of the utmost importance that pastors teach their congregation that through faith in Jesus Christ, they are fortified against the machinations of the adversary.
  4. Christ shows up in the middle of our storms and our nightmares. That’s where he sets up shop.
  5. Prior sees much of evangelicalism’s imaginary trouble arising from the fact that it emphasizes quick and dramatic conversion experiences and a personally directed relationship with God.
  6. This is an excerpt from “Finding God in the Darkness: Hopeful Reflections from the Pits of Depression, Despair, and Disappointment” by Bradley Gray (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  7. I’ve experienced firsthand the promise that God never leaves a congregation empty-handed.
  8. 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.
  9. It was meant to be Karlstadt’s moment to shine, but all anyone remembered was Luther.
  10. As Luther said, “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf of spring.”
  11. The Holy Spirit unleashes his power through us, his vines, and we then get to watch as his fruits blossom and ripen.
  12. Everything in Scripture is God revealing himself to his people, you and me.