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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Pastor Craft: Essays and Sermons is now available through 1517 Publishing
Our Advent anticipation of the coming of the Savior to liberate us from sin and its wage of death, from the condemnation of God’s Law and the wrath of a loving heavenly Father, is indeed a daring and defiant stance.
This Messiah is not a continuation—He is the fulfillment and the beginning of something new.
The creation of this word reminds us that the Magnificat, like Christmas itself, is charged from the start with joy and praise.
When Jesus assumes the body prepared for Him to do God’s will, the end of an old era has arrived, and with it, the beginning of a new.
Big or small, potential or certain, the despair we may grapple with during this time of year tends to find its end in the fact that things are not as they should be.
Jesus is both the image bearer and the image giver. In Jesus’ incarnation we are redeemed and re-imaged.
Waiting is not easy, but after waiting a long time, one would at least expect us to be ready when the time came.
Sometimes it is the unnamed characters in the Bible who can most help present-day readers find their own place in the biblical story.
Even though they have reasons to fear, the peace of God that transcends all other reasons now guards, patrols, and garrisons their hearts and minds.
“The days are coming,” and God said it. God, who kept his promise that Christ would come at Christmas.
The Messenger is coming—must come—because the LORD God has promised, and He is unchanging and always faithful no matter how unfaithful His people may be.