Luther neither removed the Apocrypha from the Bible nor discouraged its use. Rather, he received and preserved the ancient distinction inherited from the fathers: the Apocrypha is valuable, edifying, and worthy of reading, but it is not Holy Scripture and therefore cannot serve as the foundation of Christian doctrine.
The confessors at Augsburg remind us that every generation of Christians is called to bear witness to the gospel amid the challenges and pressures of its own age. As they confessed Christ before emperors and kingdoms, so the Church continues to confess Him before the world today.
When Jesus washes you with baptismal water, you can rest assured that the Lion of Judah is on the move.

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Senkbeil is a pastor’s pastor, a master of the art of pastoral care.
Luther’s final thoughts were not meant to bum you out or lead you to despair.
Jesus stands before the disciples as the bridge between heaven and earth, and between Old Testament and New Testament.
The tragedy of the incidental Christ I was raised with is that he was really no Savior at all.
The one true God has revealed himself as the answer to the longings of every human heart. The search has ended. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Holy, Holy, Holy.
What does it mean that holding to Jesus’ teaching will set us free? Which teaching? What will we be set free from?
Solomon did not write Ecclesiastes to bum you out. He wrote it to set you free.
To understand the meaning of the Pentecost miracle for the life of a Christian, we must first learn to see it through the lens of the history that came before it.
Jesus reminds us of God’s mercy to the helpless, snakebitten children of Israel, then connects that story to him being lifted up on a cross to rescue an entire human race that is snakebitten by sin.