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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On the one hand, forgiving as Jesus commands us feels impossible. But on the other hand, forgiving as we have been forgiven is the most natural thing in the world
We entered the hospital with a jumbled ball of questions, uncertainties, and anxieties. We left with a master class in effective communication.
When we cry to the Lord in our trouble, he will send us a preacher with words that deliver us from destruction.
Jesus came to His own people to bridge the rift which exists between humankind and God.
Certainly, Jesus’ parable provides a dire warning for where, not wealth, per se, but obsession with it, will lead.
God did what we could never do. He made a promise that endures forever and is eternally significant.
Hymns were a means by which people were brought into direct contact with the Gospel that brought justifying faith. Set to music, they could readily memorize it, take it home with them, and rehearse its messages around the hearth and at work.
St. Paul extends to us the call to arms. In particular, there is one weapon which is effective against so elusive an enemy. The weapon is prayer.
The LORD sends His Son who targets those who are trampled and downtrodden. He comes for all, but He specifically includes the less fortunate.
God commands we serve only Him. We serve Him with all we have and all we are, including the 90% of our income which does not go in the plates. What does it look like to serve God above money?
The reign of God in Christ compels us to pray for all in authority, while at the same time our praying for them calls into the question all the idolatries that arise from the exercise of this authority.
The message of the gospel is a multifaceted diamond. Parallelism in preaching helps you to bring out the beauty of those different facets.