“The fear of the Lord” is our heart’s awakening to and recognition of God’s outrageous goodness.
The women at the tomb were surprised by Easter. Amazed and filled with wonder at Jesus' Easter eucatastrophe. And so are we.
This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.

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Is it possible to take a cyber approach to the season of Lent? I do not think so.
Jesus enters this world’s darkness and brings us the life-giving power of God’s light.
The preacher of this text should follow the logic of the text, the divinely inspired genius of Saint Paul, and get out of the way.
When we look upon the cross, we see our sin. We also see the One who washes it away and gives life.
Because of my Advocate, there is no judgment or condemnation by God in my suffering.
God preserves language so he might continue to communicate his love and grace to us, and that we might communicate his love and grace to others.
At times, our Church struggles with clutter which distracts us from what is most important: Listening to our Lord and gathering at His table where we are fed.
Christianity is not about principally about ethics. It was the Cross on the Hill rather than the Sermon on the Mount that produced the impact of Christianity upon the world.
While these are familiar words to us, frequently they are dealt with in ways that fail to take into account the context and the situation.
The words “sanctify” and “sanctification” have deep roots in the Old Testament. There, holiness is about nearness to the presence of God. He is the holy-maker. Sanctification is his gift. The Old Testament helps us to avoid the common misunderstanding today that sanctification is all about our life of good works.
Repentance comes on account of suffering, loss, failure, and death. It happens when the promise of forgiveness of sin given in Jesus’ death is proclaimed to us down-and-outers.
Make no mistake, the life to which Jesus is calling His disciples is radically other than what our world preaches.