Luther neither removed the Apocrypha from the Bible nor discouraged its use. Rather, he received and preserved the ancient distinction inherited from the fathers: the Apocrypha is valuable, edifying, and worthy of reading, but it is not Holy Scripture and therefore cannot serve as the foundation of Christian doctrine.
The confessors at Augsburg remind us that every generation of Christians is called to bear witness to the gospel amid the challenges and pressures of its own age. As they confessed Christ before emperors and kingdoms, so the Church continues to confess Him before the world today.
When Jesus washes you with baptismal water, you can rest assured that the Lion of Judah is on the move.

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We are not saved by the success of our refining process. We are saved precisely because our impurities, no matter what the percentage, ruin the whole thing.
The Church is where God has instituted the office of the preacher of the gospel. And if you are let-down, the gospel is what you need to hear.
This tiny rural church would bulge at the seams with worshipers from realms seen and unseen, all mixed together in the adoration of the Lamb.
In His grace, Jesus promises that all who come to Him in faith will live abundantly and eternally.
Through the often abominable and lamentable and occasional commendable season, there is one who remains unmoved by it all.
We do not have to endure the pain and suffering of this fallen existence forever, just for a little while.
When the One who created the world comes to you, there is reason for courage and never reason to fear.
The good news is Christ Jesus is faithful to the end, even to the point of death and through death, with a steadfast and vocal faith in God our Savior for those who cannot do so in their lives any longer on account of their altered state.
But Jesus didn’t see it that way. He saw his arrest not as the kingdom’s program being thwarted but as it being “fulfilled.”
The acquisition of salvation, the giving of salvation, and the keeping of salvation are entirely dependent upon the Savior himself.
Because Jesus turns desolate, dying places into holy landscapes of life.
What Luther is doing in his Catechism is teaching how the gospel is an action of the whole Trinity, not just one of the persons.