1. A Christian is a man who desires to enter heaven not through his own goodness and works, but through the righteousness and works of Christ.
  2. To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
  3. We too are God’s baptized, beloved, blood-bought believers. And no one can ever take that away from us.
  4. God gives us the power and authority to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to burdened sinners who entrust us with their pain, guilt, and defeat.
  5. The sign of the cross, according to the earliest centuries of Christians, is “the sign of the Lord,” and every baptized Christian was “marked” with it.
  6. Repentance is meaningless unless we are willing to acknowledge who we are: sinners needing mercy.
  7. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.
  8. The nefarious thing about idolatry is that just about anything can become your idol: career, family, fame, wealth, status, spouse, you name it, any good thing can become a ‘god-thing” with ease. 
  9. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  10. Despite our best efforts to avoid him, King Jesus remains very much unavoidable.
  11. 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.
  12. If Jesus shows up and you are a sinner, ‘tis more blessed to receive than to give