1. My fear of this coming darkness only lasts a moment.
  2. This is an excerpt from the introduction of “Common Places in Christian Theology: A Curated Collection of Essays from Lutheran Quarterly,” edited by Mark Mattes (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  3. 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.
  4. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  5. Nothing moves or drives Paul more than preaching about “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
  6. We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
  7. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  8. There is a revival, no less real and even more definitive, taking place in every church, every weekend, where God’s people gather around his gifts.
  9. Reading includes, on some level, striving. Hearing, on the other hand, remains passive.
  10. To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
  11. 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.
  12. “So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.