1. Christ has received the mark of law that we might be marked with the gospel, with the sign of his holy cross on our heads and hearts as redeemed children of God.
  2. Pastor Craft: Essays and Sermons is now available through 1517 Publishing
  3. The youths that mock Elisha are representative of Israel’s collective contempt and disregard for all things relating to their One True God.
  4. Forgiveness of sins does not come in bits and pieces. There are no levels of forgiveness.
  5. One could reason that God might, at least, give the church a little worldly power.
  6. Forty-five seconds is about how long I have as a pastor leading a Sunday morning service to sit at the feet of the cross and receive Jesus’ body and blood given to me by the hands of another at the Lord’s Table.
  7. Martha’s pain is not met by a to-do list. Jesus’ reply is not that she should try harder or change her behavior
  8. Bo Giertz attained infamy in Sweden for a humble adherence to unpopular, orthodox practice and doctrine.
  9. We must be careful in how we use Bible verses to establish Scriptural truth both to others and to ourselves.
  10. God and Jeremiah may have been looking at the same person, but they were seeing very different things.
  11. A famous saying of Augustine (echoing Jesus in Luke 24:44) perhaps puts it best, “The New Testament lies concealed in the Old, the Old lies revealed in the New.”
  12. It turns out that when Elijah battled depression, God sent someone to just be with him. To comfort him.