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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The creation of this word reminds us that the Magnificat, like Christmas itself, is charged from the start with joy and praise.
He also took our own history and suffered all the agony and pain of our own lives.
The thought of losing even one of those for whom his Son died pains God beyond belief, and the angels rejoice when even one of his children repents.
Sometimes it is the unnamed characters in the Bible who can most help present-day readers find their own place in the biblical story.
Getting ready for Christ’s coming is a practice in humility.
Each week during this year’s Advent series, we will take a look at a specific implication of Christ’s incarnation. This week, we will discover how God reaffirms the goodness of his creation by making all things new in the incarnation.
Like Isaiah and John, we look forward to that great and glorious day, trusting the resurrected One will return as He promised.
The Word of Yahweh is not a trifling thing that can be visited only when it’s convenient. It’s a book of life, for all of life, that imparts life to those who believe in it and the God of it.
The oddness of this moment, at the beginning of Advent, is God’s way of saying, “The reason I’m here...”
The youths that mock Elisha are representative of Israel’s collective contempt and disregard for all things relating to their One True God.
Look the judge in the eye and pin your sin on Jesus, the divine judge’s son. Jesus knows you can’t do it, so he trades places with you and pits himself against God’s righteous demands.
Trust in the midst of trouble. That is what our Lord calls us to experience today.