This is an excerpt from Remembering Your Baptism: A Sinner Saint Devotional (1517 Publishing, 2025) by Kathy Morales, pgs 74-77.
“The Church exists to tell anyone and everyone who knocks on her door wondering what’s inside: Come and see” (pg. 58). Such reminders make The Church a worthwhile read.
The way of the cross is the actual way of victory. Jesus absorbs the worst of what humanity and even the devil can do to him, and he spurns the shame of it all.

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Paul has gone through all this explanation to belabor the point: The incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ changes everything.
Jesus did not come to be first. He came to be faithful, faithful to His Father’s mission for you.
He would not go back on his word, for his word is the word of the Father and the Spirit, and they all say “come.”
If your congregation promotes and supports “family values,” you should be prepared to take this text head-on.
St. Paul asserts the baptized have died in Christ but this death then makes them free to live unto Christ. Complicated? Yes, a little. Let us try to clarify things a bit.
As a prophet, Jeremiah only speaks the LORD’s words. Obviously, this is the difference between a true and false prophet.
If the world could have been saved by bookkeeping, it would have been saved by Moses, not Jesus. The law was just fine.
Jeremiah trusts the LORD to be faithful. He knows the LORD must answer, even though he is not certain how He will answer.
The lordship of sin and its reign have been deposed by Jesus Christ. Nothing can stand to oppose those who are in Him.
The Father in Heaven is the only one we have legitimate reason to fear. But in Christ, we learn that the Father knows His children intimately and values His children exceedingly.
The enemy comes with his wounding, haunting words, and I stand behind my advocate Christ the Lord. He gives me more words, better words, truer words.
Before the sending is the gathering. Before the gathering is the compassion. Before the compassion is the seeing. And it all starts with a gracious God.