1. Zephaniah has given us something more visceral to help us understand the love of God: the sound of salvation.
  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. I think the problem with the idea of eternity is that we do not have any direct experience of it, but we encounter enough of its possibility to be unsettling.
  5. Repentance is meaningless unless we are willing to acknowledge who we are: sinners needing mercy.
  6. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.
  7. The usual acclamation when one becomes King is: “Long live the King!” But this King of kings, this son of David, has come to die.
  8. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  9. If Jesus shows up and you are a sinner, ‘tis more blessed to receive than to give
  10. The more awareness we have that we are weak and low and frail and incapable of doing this thing called life, the more perfectly we are positioned to meet the God of grace.
  11. 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.