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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Help comes for those who cannot help themselves. When we bottom-out and come to the end of ourselves, that is where hope springs.
He cuts into our darkness with words that work like a knife. They awaken us from our routine to a sliver of light. Jesus reigns and He will return.
As the church year ends, we are not give a vision of Jesus on His throne, ruling over a new creation. Instead, we see Jesus ruling from the cross. His grace comes in the midst of suffering and pain.
When God does not give you a life free from suffering, He calls you to look for Him in the midst of suffering. There you find Him doing His work, giving you words to speak and promises to hold onto.
The words of Jesus shine with a graceful brilliance among the broken fragments of this world.
To preach Christ and Him crucified is to reveal again the revealed God who saves.
This parable does its surprising work of turning everything upside-down, as Christ’s Kingdom always does.
The Kingdom will be manifest when the King wills it, and rest assured, He is a good King.
Jesus cares about the daily details of ordinary bodies and creaturely comforts, just as He cares about the eternal well-being of our souls.
On the one hand, forgiving as Jesus commands us feels impossible. But on the other hand, forgiving as we have been forgiven is the most natural thing in the world
Jesus came to His own people to bridge the rift which exists between humankind and God.
God commands we serve only Him. We serve Him with all we have and all we are, including the 90% of our income which does not go in the plates. What does it look like to serve God above money?