1. Reading includes, on some level, striving. Hearing, on the other hand, remains passive.
  2. Jesus stands before the disciples as the bridge between heaven and earth, and between Old Testament and New Testament.
  3. Zephaniah has given us something more visceral to help us understand the love of God: the sound of salvation.
  4. This week we will take a closer look at God's love in Scripture.
  5. This sermon was originally given at Luther Seminary chapel on May 20, 1986.
  6. Predestination, Jim knew, is no longer a frightening doctrine of mystery when you understand that God makes his choice about you in the simple word of God, given from one sinner to another.
  7. Forty days after giving birth, Mary, along with her husband Joseph, presented their firstborn Son at the temple and "bought" him back with a sacrifice of two small birds. This is known as the "Presentation of Our Lord."
  8. Christ our Word, as with a two-edged sword, burst the devil's belly.
  9. All of Scripture, every last syllable of it, is meant to drive us to "consider Jesus," the One who comes to "make us right" by gifting us his righteousness.
  10. 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.
  11. The answer to our messages is God's "yes," Jesus, who sends his preachers to proclaim that there's no place for us now other than in the grip of our God and Savior.
  12. As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."