1. We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
  2. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  3. There is a revival, no less real and even more definitive, taking place in every church, every weekend, where God’s people gather around his gifts.
  4. Reading includes, on some level, striving. Hearing, on the other hand, remains passive.
  5. Zephaniah has given us something more visceral to help us understand the love of God: the sound of salvation.
  6. The earliest followers of God sang their faith, which is no different today as we sing of the hope we have in Jesus.
  7. This sermon was originally given at Luther Seminary chapel on May 20, 1986.
  8. Predestination, Jim knew, is no longer a frightening doctrine of mystery when you understand that God makes his choice about you in the simple word of God, given from one sinner to another.
  9. 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.
  10. The answer to our messages is God's "yes," Jesus, who sends his preachers to proclaim that there's no place for us now other than in the grip of our God and Savior.
  11. In Memory of My Friend, James Arne Nestingen
  12. For almost three years, I have produced a weekly video in the series “Reading the Gospels through Hebrew Eyes.” Here is an index of all the Gospel readings covered so far, with links to their YouTube videos.