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.

All Articles

It turns out the family trait of not being able to wait runs deep and wide in the family of God. We do foolish things while we wait for promises to be fulfilled.
"Come to me, all you who are weary of being you, and simply be mine."
We have needs every day, but we also need a daily reminder that God loves us and he wants us to depend on him for our everyday stuff.
Many of us have experienced what it feels like to wait and to remain patient this year. This Advent, we are reminded of how the saints before us experienced similar feelings of uncertainty, need, and hopeful expectation as they awaited - both faithfully and unfaithfully - for God to fulfill his promises.
To a world enslaved to time (because it has no future), the Church's disregard for clocks and calendars is ridiculous.
Bearing fruit is wonderful, but you do not stay a Christian through fruit-bearing. You bear fruit and are growing because you are united to Christ.
This advent we will take a closer look at the four names given to Christ by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah Chapter 9. For Christ is not only Immanuel, or God with us, but he is also Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. His rule is not what the Israelites of Isaiah's day, the Jews throughout Jesus' life, nor even we today, expect. He comes to us as a servant and as a child and yet more wonderful, mighty, everlasting, and princely than we could imagine.
In a year where things are unclear, tensions are heartbreaking, and uncertainty is rampant, what can we be thankful for?
Even when you’re praying and you feel like you’re not getting what you want, God loves you. God hears you.
We are given, so we give thanks, and we give thanks by giving.
God’s love does not have an off switch. You cannot earn it or deserve it. And your thankfulness for it will not determine if you get it or not.
In a year in which every day seems to blur together, Luther's orders of daily prayer help order our daily lives.