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. Rightly distinguishing between law and gospel, as Paul helps us see in 2 Corinthians 3, is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
  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. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.
  6. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  7. Despite our best efforts to avoid him, King Jesus remains very much unavoidable.
  8. When and how did the church start this season of anticipation?
  9. Help comes for those who cannot help themselves. When we bottom-out and come to the end of ourselves, that is where hope springs.
  10. Preachers and church workers must also hear the gospel preached to them.
  11. Through water, blood, and word, the Spirit never stops pointing us to Christ, and even more, giving us Christ.