1. The Parable of the Lost Sheep bursts through the confines of convention and demands that we embrace the messiness of life and the unpredictable ways in which God's grace and forgiveness operates.
  2. What I desperately needed was not to preach to myself, but to listen to a preacher—not to take myself in hand, but to be taken in the hands of the Almighty.
  3. Just like for Mordecai and Esther, our lives are also sustained by the hand of God in the ordinary, in events begging to be seen as the work of Christ in our lives.
  4. When we forget that we live by promise, that's when the danger tends to creep in. Because failing to embrace promise means we usually fall back into notions of luck, or even worse--into works.
  5. Tim wanted everyone to know to the deepest part of their being that they were justified by Christ alone.
  6. This is the Christian word: grace. Such grace is found only with this Lamb who is also our Shepherd.
  7. God wants his word of promise to be the only thing we bank on, the only thing we have confidence in.
  8. This hymn is not for people who feel strong, but those who are weak.
  9. Jesus cries on the cross for us. He suffers and cries and dies in our place. He is forsaken by his father so we don’t have to be.
  10. What greater legacy could you claim than that of Mark? Listen to the Word. Learn from Jesus.
  11. 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.
  12. This is an excerpt from part two of “On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service” by Mike Berg (1517 Publishing, 2023).