1. Nothing moves or drives Paul more than preaching about “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
  2. 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.
  3. I can guarantee you that when Paul was overtaken by the Spirit and inspired to write these words, he did not have in mind your local school's boys' basketball tournament.
  4. 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.
  5. “So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
  6. Even as he was dying, the heart of God poured itself out for the sake of sinners.
  7. We assert, we herald, the truth about God becoming King of the world in and through Jesus of Nazareth alone. It is our public announcement.
  8. The gospel's message is the scandalous announcement that Yahweh has stooped to our frame, to where we are.
  9. 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.
  10. Fullness, truth, reality – all this God gives us as his gift in Christ.
  11. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  12. To trust in the Lord, the Messiah, the Deliverer, is our salvation and our only hope. Yet he does not trust us to have this “trust” on our own or of our own will.