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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God does not take us out of a world of evils of various kinds, but He does stand beside us and accompany us, as a shepherd accompanies his sheep, through valleys of shadows of all kinds.
As we live as the children of the Father of lights, the giver God, he will keep on pouring out his gifts, and they will overwhelm us more and more.
How does God feel about us sinners? God loves us so much that His stomach aches. His insides hurt. He refuses to let our sins separate us from Him. He refuses to let us die.
Our Creator wants to restore us to a right relationship with him and all creation. So, in his goodness and mercy, he sent his Son to for us what we couldn't do for ourselves.
Today we need to promote almost the reverse – to talk it like they walk it – the know-how and courage to engage in social discourse that reflects the truth of God’s revelation.
Although human reason pretends to understand a great deal about work and word of God. The glory of it is too bright, the longer he beholds it the blinder he becomes.
There is a power that is stronger and mightier than the power of separation in death. And that power is the power of God’s love for you and me.
His word is what strengthens and changes our hearts. The Lord God will bring us victory.
We trust God's Word because Jesus never fails us. He is our daily comfort when struggles and afflictions find us.
New normals are always sneaking up on us. Preachers ignore them to their peril and the peril of our hearers.
The power of God's Word is nothing like human power. People exercise power through force and violence. God's Word manifests His power through humility, service, and self-sacrifice.
There is no comfort in naked sovereignty. A bully may be said to be “sovereign” over the elementary school playground, but that doesn’t bring much comfort nor does it promise security. We need something more than a God who is in control.