Jesus dove into the waters of baptism, plunging into our deepest need to rescue us.
Alligood is at pains to stress that glorification is not the result of our own efforts any more than sanctification or justification.
Forgiveness from Jesus is always surprising to us.

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Those called out for their sins, who find themselves knee deep in their transgressions, always need grace.
People are searching for connection, direction, and hope in a troubled world, and we can use their star-shaped questions to point them to the shape of the cross.
Preaching needs to recover the recognition that it is a monumental event, setting forth through proclamation the monumental Gospel.
The expectation of the Old Testament is NOT first and foremost obedience, but rather adoration!
If Christ is the holiness, righteousness, salvation, truth, grace, resurrection life, eternal life, and perfection of God, then the spirit of the world is the antithesis of all those.
Jesus is the vine. You are His branches. And God the Father delights to bring the inside out.
The creatures and the elders show us what to do now. They hit the deck, sing, and worship, so we would know what the liturgy is supposed to look and sound like.
Just as the grave could not hold the Lord of Life, neither could the calendar contain Easter to just one Sunday.
For those of us who recognize the disciples’ despair in ourselves, Jesus comes with the same word: “Relax, it’s me. Peace be with you.”
This is an excerpt from the introduction of Ragged: Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritually Exhausted written by Gretchen Ronnevik (1517 Publishing, 2021). Now available for preorder.
God has a strange delivery system, the foolish preaching of the cross and foolish preachers for Christ’s sake delivering it.
What kind of shepherd does God provide? The answer, of course, starts and ends with Christ.