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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Do our petitions move God?
In this article Amy Mantravadi give a short but helpful summary of the differences in Lutheran and Reformed thought regarding assurance.
Curious about what Lutherans mean by “Two Kingdom”? In this short piece John Hoyum sums up the doctrine and some of its potential consequences.
1517 Resources to help Celebrate Reformation Day
How can he say it? How can he say that Christ is after all the entire meaning of life for him, and that death is no real worry?
God knows that when we face insurmountable odds in our moments of weakness, we are more likely to turn to him in trust and reliance.
We have to “remember” that God remembers us. He has not fallen away. For God to remember us means he is working for our good; a restoration.
Faith sees your neighbor not as a means to an end, not as a way to score points, but as an object of love: Christ's love and yours.
Jesus’s story in Luke 16 draws definitive attention to whom God helps — namely, God always comes close in order to help those who cannot help themselves.
It is of the utmost importance that pastors teach their congregation that through faith in Jesus Christ, they are fortified against the machinations of the adversary.
Christ shows up in the middle of our storms and our nightmares. That’s where he sets up shop.
This is an excerpt from “Finding God in the Darkness: Hopeful Reflections from the Pits of Depression, Despair, and Disappointment” by Bradley Gray (1517 Publishing, 2023).