1. God wants his word of promise to be the only thing we bank on, the only thing we have confidence in.
  2. In the sacrament, we receive an earnest of that future promise here and now in the body and blood of Jesus given and shed for us.
  3. Jesus makes David’s words his own, because David’s words were Christ’s to begin with.
  4. The drama of Scripture is about God renaming us by bringing us into his image-bearing family once again. And it would take “a name above all names” to accomplish it.
  5. The testimony of every son and daughter of God is, God has brought us through.
  6. A father's struggle to pray for his child's healing is one of the most difficult experiences he can face.
  7. This is the prelude of Easter. Is a dead Jesus still resting in the tomb? No!
  8. This is the message of Lent. We are not called to sacrifice for Jesus in order to earn our salvation. Rather, we are called to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
  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. Jesus not only healed her daughter, but he also gave himself to her. Wherever she went from then on, he was with her.
  12. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.