Wade Johnston, Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis: MO, 2025.
This ancient “tale of two mothers” concerns far more than theological semantics—it is the difference between a God who sends and a God who comes.
This story points us from our unlikely heroes to the even more unlikely, and joyous, good news that Jesus’ birth for us was just as unlikely and unexpected.

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Jesus came for little children, and that is what we are. We are children of God.
God’s creatures on four legs are some of the greatest storytellers of the Scriptures.
This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.
Jacob is given the gospel afresh right when he needed it and it is because of this gospel that his faith is stirred up anew.
In his resurrection, God says "Yes" to Christ, and all those in him.
Jesus has instituted his living-breathing disciples, his shepherds in his church, to declare the full forgiveness of sins.
Are you tempted to say with the father in Mark 9, today or any day, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief"?
The mere fact of “having faith” or saying that “you believe” is not as important as in what or in whom your faith rests.
To obtain this righteousness, you have to admit you don’t have it and could never produce it on your own because you are unrighteous.
True religion or true faith is heavenly. It understands that mankind’s only hope has to come from outside of itself.
The central message of Christianity is not a worldview, a way of life, or a program for personal or societal change; it is a person and the message of the cross.
He will never leave you nor forsake you. Your faith is not fragile glass.