1. The needs of the people remain the same, but now the people are you and me. We still sin, and that sin causes so many challenges in our lives.
  2. It’s scary to share my struggle and to show that I have cracks because once I’ve shown my cards, I open myself up for judgment.
  3. We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
  4. Unprompted, without any warning, for no reason at all, without any instigation say, "I love you." And that will wash over your parents like a beautiful absolution.
  5. I hate to break it to you, but "are" is not an action verb. "Are" is a being verb.
  6. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  7. 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.
  8. We too are God’s baptized, beloved, blood-bought believers. And no one can ever take that away from us.
  9. Hidden beneath the sinner is a glorious saint. Jesus has declared it to be so in your baptism.
  10. Rightly distinguishing between law and gospel, as Paul helps us see in 2 Corinthians 3, is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
  11. 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.
  12. The sign of the cross, according to the earliest centuries of Christians, is “the sign of the Lord,” and every baptized Christian was “marked” with it.