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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Predestination is a promising teaching as Paul teaches it in Romans 8. It’s promising when Christ and his work for us are held firmly in hand.
The gospel fires up within us the gratitude, joy, and love to pull off what the law never could get us to do.
Everything normal for the Church of Christ is abnormal for those who reject Jesus as Savior. We worship a God who creates new life... and who gives His blessing, declaring, "I am pleased with you."
We don’t just need someone to bear our guilt and die for us. We also need someone to defeat all of the forces of sin and darkness and anxiety and depression that overwhelm us.
The fact that baptism specifically unites me to Christ in his death means that I share in his sufferings in my identity, not in my activity.
Our Lord's love for us is so great that He not only sent His Son to redeem us from sin, death, and hell, but He sends His holy angels to protect us no matter which direction our lives go.
This is an excerpt from the book, “Paul and the Resurrection” written by Joshua Pagán (1517 Publishing, 2020).
Prayer dares to call the impossible into reality. It trusts the One who can do all things to do impossible things. It rests its hope on God’s power and not man’s agency.
The unbeliever will search for relief from temptations in worldly prescriptions and pleasures. The believer searches for answers in the promises of the One who can bring true lasting peace in mind, body, and soul.
Even as children of God, we have down days. That’s just a fact of being sinful and living in an evil world.
When you don’t know whom to thank, you start thanking yourself. Praise turns inward. This is a double bondage. When you have only yourself to thank, you end up having only yourself to depend upon.
Saying the words of the prayer together meant that if my voice became too weak or shaky, other voices would be around to support and continue the message.