This is an excerpt from the introduction of Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Christopher Richmann (1517 Publishing, 2026).
We can bring our troubles, griefs, sorrows, and sins to Jesus, who meets us smack dab in the middle of our messy mob.
Confession isn’t a detour in the liturgy. It’s the doorway.

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We are saved by grace, and strictly speaking, not by an offer.
A part of our series on Luther's, Heidelberg Disputation.
God’s grace is extended to the incorrigible alcoholic as well as to us, the more sophisticated sinners and drunks.
Then, Jesus our Groom, with His nail-scarred hands takes our hands and walks out with us from that ultimate courtroom, and into eternity – His eternity – and a never-ending wedding feast.
On the cross, God removed the load of every single one of your sins and placed it instead on Christ. Then, He clothed you with the fullness of His holiness and perfection.
Right now (and I would add, for quite some time) there has been a debate within Christianity about the whole issue of culture.
Prechers translate as a calling. Called by God, they are given a message, and for most of their hearers it is to one degree or another a message in a language from afar, with strange concepts, sometimes with a more familiar ring, sometimes with a strange sound.
Whatever loss you’ve undergone, whatever grief resides in the hollow of your heart, however much it seems like God has abandoned you, God sees that void as the place he wants to fill with new life and mercy.
A father dies and leaves an inheritance to his two children, Jane and Grace. The family member handling the estate gives them each a letter containing the cheques for their inheritance.
God preaches a concrete word to us in the present tense. We hear the Good News that Jesus is God’s mercy for us.
We too believe that we can be just like God, perhaps even by helping God to be a God in our image.
I have a confession: I don’t believe the Bible is true because it says it’s true.