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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God gives his church a story that helps to make sense of this life.
Your justification isn’t a matter of “Jesus plus” anything.
It would serve us well to embrace the beauty of our diversity within the unity of the body of Christ.
What does professional wrestling and preaching have in common?
What (if anything) makes a sermon distinctive?
What’s the big deal about Jesus’ name?
I didn’t see Christmas as a gift given to me to enjoy, I saw Christmas as a long list of expectations I needed to hold up to love those around me.
Can you imagine Christmas from creation’s point of view?
Luke shows us that when we try to fit God into our life movie, the plot is all wrong; and not just wrong but trivial.
We still think we can sort own own problems with more money, more education, more resources, more techniques, more, more, more.
Show me your righteousness, we can only point to Jesus
God has a hall ready for us, for us and for so many more