This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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Now, if there were another way to heaven, doubtless, he would have made it known to us.
God has a strange delivery system, the foolish preaching of the cross and foolish preachers for Christ’s sake delivering it.
The result of this day’s proceedings, in Luther’s mind, was likely to be a painful death at the stake.
Forde’s work testifies to the liveliness and vitality of confessional Lutheranism, and its promise for the continuing need to preach Christ crucified in this, and every, age until the Lord’s return.
The Holy Spirit does what his name implies. He makes us holy. We believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and come to him only by the Holy Spirit who calls us with the gospel.
This is not a plea for us to be given the strength to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It is our helpless cry when boots – straps and all - slip off the edge of temptation’s cliff.
The true liberty that Christ gives to us through the gospel is not political. It is spiritual freedom. It is freedom from fear of God's judgment and wrath.
The petition not to be led into temptation is found in just the right place within the seven petitions.
Trusting in Christ’s promise of new life and deliverance powers our ability to view the world with perceptive sensitivity and, therefore, to treat others fairly in the way we think and the way we experience life.
If we want to see evidence of our Father’s answer to the fifth petition, we need only to look at the cross and the empty tomb.
Even though the horn of plenty on our table is there as the fruit of our labor, that is also a gift of God’s grace
The place where it is most difficult for us to accept God’s will is when suffering, calamities, and finally, death itself.