What Israel’s story makes painfully obvious is that following the Lord is a lifelong lesson in “I believe, but help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).
Faith holds on to the truth of who Jesus is revealed to be, despite our sometimes incongruent experience with God.
This is an excerpt from the first chapter of A Reasoned Defense of the Faith by Adam Francisco (1517 Publishing, 2026), pgs 1-3.

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What we have in our reading is a picture of how God deals with a lack of understanding.
Nothing stands against you. Only Christ stands now, and he is for you, more for you than you could ever know, for you like nothing else that has ever loved you.
Today, Jesus comes as your Good Shepherd. You recognize His voice.
What the gospel promises is not escape from our humanity, but resurrection from the dead.
To give us God’s name, the name that is above every name, Christ gave us the exact words to say at baptism: the name of the triune God who is three persons, one God: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
The days after Easter are strange. We are slowly returning to our patterns of Church life and family life after the festivities of Easter. Yet, we need to be careful we do not become too comfortable.
Salutary funeral preaching seeks to set the life of the baptized believer who has died within the life of Christ incarnate, crucified, risen, and reigning.
This book is not in your hands so that we can simply commiserate with each other’s difficulties. It is meant to pierce your sin-darkened night with the light of God’s Word.
I want the beginning of my funeral to be focused on Jesus, as well as the middle, the end, and every point in between.
On every page, in every theme, in every major character and every major plot twist, we are invited to see God’s unfolding work to make all things new and whole in Jesus.
The gospel of Jesus’ coming out of death and the tomb alive so that we might be restored to our identity as God’s children establishes the most enduring reality there is.
The Messiah is exiled from God on the cross as Israel was. Forsaken as Israel was forsaken. Cast away from Yahweh as Israel was. Why?