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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What fundamentally and truly matters about me is not what I do, but what has been done for me. Discipleship isn’t a virtue or habit that is honed through practice. Instead, the emphasis is placed on the one who has made it his mission to forgive sinners, raise the dead, comfort the troubled, and exorcise the demons that haunt us.
In the upper room, Jesus revealed himself as the Lord of the dirty business of life.
In all of the good or bad that may have come out of the current mess that the world is in due to coronavirus, I see at least one good thing happening. The daily social media feed has been full of pictures, quotes, and videos of ordinary people praising other ordinary people for just doing their job.
Grace is about God’s choice when we cannot by our own reason or strength choose Christ or come to Him.
Sin will constantly break our hearts, but God's love in Christ Jesus will give us new hearts daily, in the abundance of his forgiving grace. This is love in its purest form, and he has overcome the world.
Joseph was not the father of Jesus, but then again, he was. Jesus was the true offspring of the heavenly Father, but even the Son of God needed a daddy.
In the vortex of uncertainty and upheaval, what’s the best thing we can do? Seize the ordinary.
Virtue, like all good things, can easily be weaponized. And not only can, but constantly is. Indeed, I would argue that, for churchgoing, rule-following, tradition-honoring, morality-applauding people, virtue often becomes the cancer that we deem a badge of honor.
It would do us well to expand what we mean when we say catechesis and consequently broaden the reach of theological education into daily life.
Your faith is not dependent on whether or not you suffer well. Your faith is dependent on the fact that Christ did.
The following is an excerpt from "Finding Christ in the Straw" written by Robert M. Hiller (1517 Publishing, 2020).
We sing, and in so doing, we are blessed as we are instilled with the word of God in word and song.