1. The God who abundantly restores is still in the business of total restoration, even today. Even now the God of heaven restores dead sinners to life.
  2. Every part of Jesus’ encounter with Mary Magdalene in John 20 was incredibly intentional and personal for God to systematically redeem what was lost.
  3. Hamilton writes lucidly. He has that rare gift of walking the tightrope between the academy and the church, being able to communicate to both groups in the same book.
  4. False holiness is always a possession and achievement of the individual in isolation from the good of others. And so it isn’t holiness at all.
  5. Sometimes it’s important to go far away to learn of holy places back home.
  6. The Word of the Lord is sure. The enemy is defeated. Salvation is waiting for you.
  7. God is often hidden in history, even as we make it now, but He is always manifest where He has promised to be.
  8. When we own up to our sin, our Father is not scandalized, and his response is not to reconsider his calling us.
  9. There is perhaps no better observation about the nature of anxiety and depression than its fundamental desire for avoidance.
  10. The language of faith speaks promise and persecution, hope and trial, victory and pain. The language of the world may well speak the former, but rarely the latter.
  11. Mephibosheth’s story is a living parable of the gospel. It reeks of redemption, demonstrating precisely what Christ does for even the chiefest of sinners.
  12. You might not know it, but every Christian hopes for the day when their faith will die. Really. I promise. Faith’s death is our celebration.