1. Repentance is meaningless unless we are willing to acknowledge who we are: sinners needing mercy.
  2. Rejoice with Mary as she would rejoice with you. Be blessed, like her, with humility from God, so that you may serve joyfully and willingly wherever and in whatever role God has placed you.
  3. God is not calling us to “grow up.” He is calling us to dependence.
  4. You are the friend in low places. It’s only from this place that you are free to look outside yourself for the remedy to the issues that plague you and humanity.
  5. We live again, not so that we will now pay our debt, but to proclaim that we live because our debt was paid!
  6. You are a child of God. You’re blameless, holy, perfect, and righteous. Don’t feel that way? Too bad. God is greater than your heart.
  7. Through water, blood, and word, the Spirit never stops pointing us to Christ, and even more, giving us Christ.
  8. The good news is that with our God there is always more: more than we deserve, dare, ask, or expect, more than we can see, hear, feel, or think.
  9. The reason that God’s commandments are not burdensome is that Jesus has fulfilled them.
  10. Both now and forever, the bruised and crucified Lord nailed to a cross is our assurance of deliverance.
  11. The love mentioned in 1 John 4:15-21 fourteen times (!) is a love that needs no apology but is determined at all times to sacrifice for the other.