1. Human history, our history, is the story of two Adams with two very different encounters with the devil.
  2. What we discover in O’Connor’s stories and Martin Luther’s theology is that God’s grace is elusive because the human heart is resistant to it.
  3. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  4. Unprompted, without any warning, for no reason at all, without any instigation say, "I love you." And that will wash over your parents like a beautiful absolution.
  5. This is the message of Lent. We are not called to sacrifice for Jesus in order to earn our salvation. Rather, we are called to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
  6. As disciples of Jesus, our righteousness cannot be performed before others, because our righteousness was already performed by Jesus.
  7. Ash Wednesday's purpose is not to motivate our resolve to redouble our efforts to do better.
  8. To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
  9. His love for you is so deep that in his mercy, while you were yet a sinner, God sent his only begotten Son to die for you.
  10. “So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
  11. Zephaniah has given us something more visceral to help us understand the love of God: the sound of salvation.
  12. Love is pointing to Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).