There is indeed a responsibility for the church to share the gospel in the world, but never at the expense of the church’s charity and mercy for those neighbors who are nearby.
The only hope for idol-addicted sinners who are utterly incapable of decluttering their souls is Jesus, the one at the heart of the gospel, and the only one who stands before the Father with an undivided heart.
More than a friend, Amsdorf was also an important figure in the work of religious reform, providing counsel to Luther on key occasions, shepherding the churches, and defending the faith until his death.

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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.
This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.
Despite the best efforts of that council to silence Jesus of Nazareth and his message, it wasn't enough. Jesus was alive.
What a small thing in the big picture to give his head for the Head of the Church who would give his life for John and all sinners.
Press on, church. Yours is the victory through Jesus Christ your Lord.
Nature ends in stinging judgment from its Creator.
As both law and gospel are proclaimed, judgment and deliverance are miraculously pronounced over the hearer.
God can never really be said to be ignoring us, even if our experience with God at any given moment is that he is.
The good news for Jacob is that God humbled himself so that he could lose a wrestling match to a man with a dislocated hip so that he could give him a new name.
In Christ, this world’s never-children are his always-children, because he isn’t a God of death, after all.
A miracle happened right before our very eyes.
This is an excerpt from “Confession and Absolution” by John T. Pless in Common Places in Theology: A Curated Collection of Essays from Lutheran Quarterly, edited by Mark Mattes, (1517 Publishing 2023).