Wade Johnston, Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis: MO, 2025.
This ancient “tale of two mothers” concerns far more than theological semantics—it is the difference between a God who sends and a God who comes.
This story points us from our unlikely heroes to the even more unlikely, and joyous, good news that Jesus’ birth for us was just as unlikely and unexpected.

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True freedom, Luther discovered, is found in Jesus crucified who sets us free.
Christians are Christians not because of anything that they have done but because of everything Christ has done for them.
Professional historians frequently assert that "miracles" are not a proper subject for historical investigation.
This old preacher, Zechariah, didn't abolish holiness. He spread it out. He pushed it beyond the boundaries of the temple.
The essential Christian claim is that God came to earth in Christ and died for men to take care of their problem of sin and evil.
It is often the case that when dealing Divine, we find ourselves befuddled. For as relatable and surprisingly vulnerable God is as the man Jesus, he seems, at times, to retain a certain aloofness, a type of distance.
The flower of youth, as lovely as it is, cannot withstand the hot winds of time. There is a beauty, however, that remains.
Before long I was deeply involved in the trilogy (the reader is invariably "drawn into" the story in a unique way, and for a good reason as we shall see).
The word which typifies my understanding of what makes male friendships so central to the concept of masculinity is philia.
One thing is for certain: my day was heaven compared to his. My minor headaches nothing compared to whatever he was going through.
Being a Christian is hard because it’s easy.
There is no pain like the pain of being mistreated by those who, above all others, you expect to love you unconditionally.