1. 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."
  2. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  3. Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.
  4. By his first Advent in the flesh, through his second Advent with bread and wine and water and Word, we await his third Advent at the end.
  5. The waiting of Advent isn’t just for Christmas; it’s for God’s reversal of all sin and evil and his renewal of all things.
  6. For with God we look not for the order of nature, but rest our faith in the power of him who works.
  7. While the world is full of horizons and endpoints, for Christians, there is always tomorrow, and there are people in that tomorrow waiting for us as we wait for them.
  8. We ache in eager anticipation as we see Christ in action and as we take in the snapshots of his life, death, and resurrection.
  9. That is the task of preaching in these last weeks of the Church Year, to enable the people given to our care, to praise God from the perspective of the end when our Lord will return in glory bringing us into His Kingdom of glory.
  10. We don’t start with behavior and work toward Christ. We start with Christ and everything works out from there.
  11. The reason that God’s commandments are not burdensome is that Jesus has fulfilled them.