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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By pouring out his life unto death, Jesus reverses our death.
The question is this: Is it possible to truly believe God will give us a desirable answer to our prayers, and at the same time be OK if He doesn't?
The danger of denying the truth of our common human fallenness and brokenness by original sin is that the denial of this doctrine may also lead us to the denial of Christ as our Savior.
Regardless of what our eyes, senses, and circumstances tell us, we belong to Christ, and He is with us.
Every day, in everything we do and experience, we are busy hearing, seeing, and telling stories.
I had been taught and believed in a God who is love, but as I walked outside that night I did not see him. I saw the stars and I felt their indifference.
Rather than validate our selfish, self-serving choices, he justifies us by giving us new life and baptizing us into his death and resurrection.
What do we say when a Christian admits the church has driven them to atheism? And they don't mean ideologically.
The distinction between Christ-for-you and Christ-in-you can present a misleading dichotomy.
Jesus doesn’t talk about God’s love for us; he embodies it.
Mere confrontation in the form of, “What you’re doing is wrong—you need to change yourself,” can never solve the root of our problem.
Death can make us feel like tourists or strangers traveling across the landscape of someone else’s life.