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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Some lie and tell us that to sin is to be ourselves. But it is not. Sin is not natural to humanity.
God’s Law is a death sentence for us sinners. There is no winning beneath the Law of God.
How should we read Paul, ya’ll? Why reading the Bible like a Southerner makes sense of confusing passages.
The Gospel predominates when hearers receive the saving gifts of Christ as God’s final word to them.
Whatever we call “god,” how we act out our “religion,” what we call “living,” if its name isn’t Jesus, it’s a sham.
We are called to proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of the Answer incarnate, Jesus Christ, and in love respond to the questions that inevitably arise against it.
Pictures of God’s grace for us in and through His Son, Jesus, can be found in the most unlikely places. Recently, I witnessed one such picture of God’s grace during WrestleMania 34.
I’ve always been more at home in the Old Testament than in the New Testament.
Our gods expect us to be perfect, pure, and in constant control of our feelings and thoughts.
Because of Jesus, we don’t have to pretty up anything ugly thing in life.
“Standing firm in the confession we share should not exclude us from inviting others into it.”
Come to the feast where evil and good, wise and foolish, shameful and shaming are welcomed as citizens of the kingdom.