We don’t flinch at sin. We speak Christ into it.
One might say that the first statement of the Reformation was that a saint never stops repenting.
Wisdom and strength require bootstrap-pulling and the placing of noses to grindstones.

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Only in this manner could the good that the law pointed to be completed. It was completed in us, not by us.
He looked me straight in the eye and said these words, almost in a challenging way, “I hate God. I do."
I finally climbed all 109 mountains. My journey began out of desperation, fueled by anger, fear, resentment.
“There is no obedience that does not have its eyes on either God or neighbor. An obedience that is motivated by what we will get out of it is no obedience at all.”
Our sin marked Christ. Jesus was marked with the scars of nails and a spear for us. His hands, feet, and side are marked with scars displaying the cost of our redemption.
God is used to working with colorful figures. One of the most colorful in the Bible is Balaam. Hailing from Mesopotamia, Balaam was what we might call a shaman or a soothsayer.
The following is an excerpt from Law and Gospel in Action written by Mark Mattes (1517 Publishing, 2019).
The following is an excerpt from Always be Ready: A Primer on Defending the Christian Faith written by John Warwick Montgomery (1517 Publishing, 2018).
We expect God to try us, not for our crimes, but for our better moments.
We don’t need another human to love us, so we become our own divinity full of self-directed, unconditional acceptance.
Any and all failure is re-written to portray us as either victor or victim.
The following is an excerpt from Handing Over the Goods: Determined to Proclaim Nothing But Christ Jesus & Him Crucified - (A Festschrift in Honor of Dr. James A. Nestingen), edited by Steven Paulson and Scott Keith (1517 Publishing, 2018). Edited and used with permission.