1. Forty days after giving birth, Mary, along with her husband Joseph, presented their firstborn Son at the temple and "bought" him back with a sacrifice of two small birds. This is known as the "Presentation of Our Lord."
  2. Rightly distinguishing between law and gospel, as Paul helps us see in 2 Corinthians 3, is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
  3. Christ our Word, as with a two-edged sword, burst the devil's belly.
  4. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.
  5. As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."
  6. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  7. Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.
  8. For with God we look not for the order of nature, but rest our faith in the power of him who works.
  9. We don’t start with behavior and work toward Christ. We start with Christ and everything works out from there.
  10. The reason that God’s commandments are not burdensome is that Jesus has fulfilled them.
  11. Both now and forever, the bruised and crucified Lord nailed to a cross is our assurance of deliverance.