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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For all mankind, the answer is terrifically simple and remains the same: God wants to turn us towards the cross and then turn us back to our neighbors.
It turns out that when Elijah battled depression, God sent someone to just be with him. To comfort him.
What God created, God will grow. We don’t add a few stitches onto his creation.
The grace of God does not save us at the beginning only in order to keep ourselves in his good graces by our good enough readiness.
Green is the color for “ordinary time” in the liturgical church year. It's the regular time of year that always gets overshadowed by other seasons such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter.
The new life Christ opened for us in His justifying resurrection, the new life into which we were baptized is a life of faith.
As long as the church teaches the gospel, it will suffer persecution.
Baptism is always valid because no unrighteousness or faithlessness on our part could ify God’s faithfulness.
I am cognizant of the powerful lessons for life I owe to those nights in the air-raid shelter.
The title “peacemakers” is not ours except as we tell and retell his peacemaking story.
God will give you more than you can handle. But he doesn’t leave you alone. Not at all.
The reason the mind is endlessly troubled about God predestining everything is the vague generalization. Generalizations are cold as ice, without the warm Christ.