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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Any conception that contends that Jesus only died for some sinners turns the gospel into an uncertain message for everyone.
Jesus gave His disciples the Lord’s Prayer as a gift. It’s really our prayer when you think about it.
Terror and even hatred of God are the only things with which divine hiddenness can leave us.
We want to be kind, gentle, and cheerful to others, but we’ve got to protect ourselves from getting hurt.
As our first parents had a bond with the animals, as Noah had animals with him in the reboot of creation after the flood, so after this old creation comes to an end, we will enjoy a new creation that includes animals.
By pouring out his life unto death, Jesus reverses our death.
Stop and be enveloped by the unending grace of Christ and his beautiful teachings that touch every corner of life.
Far too many Christians read the Bible as if a dam has been built between the waters of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
After the glory of our flesh has gone the way of wilted grass and faded flowers, and we’ve long forgotten all our efforts at self-justification, the word of the Lord remains.
God is the only one who decides what we receive, when, and how it’s given to us.
Biblically speaking, we won’t find much evidence for a preordained spouse.
Jesus and the New Testament—good. Yahweh and the Old Testament—not really so good. So goes the popular, but largely whispered, dichotomy.