1. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  2. Reading includes, on some level, striving. Hearing, on the other hand, remains passive.
  3. Rightly distinguishing between law and gospel, as Paul helps us see in 2 Corinthians 3, is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
  4. The further up and further into the season of Epiphany we get, the bigger the grace of God in Christ is, the brighter the Light of Christ shines, and the more blessed we are in Jesus' epiphany for us.
  5. God gives us the power and authority to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to burdened sinners who entrust us with their pain, guilt, and defeat.
  6. Repentance is meaningless unless we are willing to acknowledge who we are: sinners needing mercy.
  7. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.
  8. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  9. A.I. can’t make the proclamatory move that delivers God’s word in a way that is specifically for me.
  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. All our sin and shame is answered for in the death and resurrection of our Lord.
  12. 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.