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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Where Jesus says, “She’s not dead, she’s sleeping,” death dies.
Galatians 5 isn’t a move beyond Christ to the Christian life. Galatians 5 is the Christian life in Christ.
It’s been my experience that All Saints’ Day, celebrated on November 1st and observed on the first Sunday following, gets overshadowed by the celebration of Reformation Day.
What do you think of when you hear the term “self-esteem”?
Let’s take a walk together. And as we do, I’ll tell you a mystery.
We are caught up in a battle between two kings and two kingdoms. And, whether we like it or not, we are ruled by one king or the other.
This a part of our series on Luther's, Heidelberg Disputation
Only because He is an outsider can he afford the costly fee insiders could never afford no matter how hard they work.
Sehnsucht can echo the truth, but only Scripture reveals the God who experiences it.
I told him that God does not have two types of sheep. God does not have a fold of black, and another white. God only has a fold made up entirely of black sheep because He knows the truth about us.
Our meditation listens to the King of Kings when He says; it is finished.
No matter how loving we are, we don’t get bonus points with the Almighty for imitating Jesus. We love each other because we recognize that “this is one for whom Jesus died.