1. While midnight might seem long, the mercy of God assures us that the morning will come.
  2. This is an excerpt from “Finding God in the Darkness: Hopeful Reflections from the Pits of Depression, Despair, and Disappointment” by Bradley Gray (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  3. A pastor is sent to proclaim the unconditional grace of God, reminding us again and again that it is our Heavenly Father who reaches out to us in love through his Christ-won forgiveness, and not the other way around.
  4. The Holy Spirit unleashes his power through us, his vines, and we then get to watch as his fruits blossom and ripen.
  5. 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.
  6. It’s not our eloquence or persuasive rhetoric that changes hearts, but the Word of God that pierces through the hardened shells of unbelief and breathes life into the dead bones of sinners.
  7. This is an excerpt from chapter 9 of “What Can Really Know?: The Strengths and Limits of Human Understanding” by David Andersen (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  8. The Lord’s Prayer is liturgy and catechism, action and instruction, praxis and theology.
  9. No matter how far away they wander, God always hears the prayers of his children.
  10. Prayer is not just about asking for things. It's about receiving what has already been given to us in Christ.
  11. God cares about our real life where we actually are. He is present in the everyday.
  12. 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.