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. Even as he was dying, the heart of God poured itself out for the sake of sinners.
  4. Repentance is meaningless unless we are willing to acknowledge who we are: sinners needing mercy.
  5. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.
  6. 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."
  7. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  8. Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.
  9. For with God we look not for the order of nature, but rest our faith in the power of him who works.
  10. 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.
  11. We don’t start with behavior and work toward Christ. We start with Christ and everything works out from there.