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. Chains may have restricted Paul, but nothing can restrict the gospel.
  5. We may not all be mass-murdering Nazis. But we all have the same root sin that causes the most egregious criminal activity on the face of the earth. We all have the desire to be our own God.
  6. It was meant to be Karlstadt’s moment to shine, but all anyone remembered was Luther.
  7. The Bible not only calls us to remember God’s past acts of deliverance; it also invites us to recognize that God in Christ is still in the business of delivering sinners from bondage.
  8. As Luther said, “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf of spring.”
  9. The Holy Spirit unleashes his power through us, his vines, and we then get to watch as his fruits blossom and ripen.
  10. One word from one God says it all to our tired hearts.
  11. 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.
  12. Church historians attempt to determine why Melanchthon made those controversial decisions.