This is an excerpt from the sixth chapter of Fear Not: How the Gospel Disrupts Our Deepest Anxieties by Luke Kjolhaug (1517 Publishing, 2026).
We draw near because Christ our Mediator has gone where we never could, and he has brought us with him.
The Israelite God was different from all the other gods, thus, the worship of Yahweh differed from that of all other gods.

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You might not know it, but every Christian hopes for the day when their faith will die. Really. I promise. Faith’s death is our celebration.
In Israel, once a year, a priestly climber would reach the peak of a very different kind of mountain. Here's his story.
Even for idolatrous sellouts like you and me, God’s position has not changed. Even though we may have forgotten him, he never forgets us.
If we think God’s power, love and beauty are reserved merely for the glories of Transfiguration, then we have not understood the Father; we have not understood divine revelation.
The LORD cleanses, prepares, and fills the mouths of His prophets, so they might be able to proclaim the holy Word of the LORD.
The same Christ we proclaim to the people in our pews is the same Christ who is for those not in our pews.
Paul has no interest in a love which does not find real traction in our daily lives.
Grace remits sin, and peace quiets the conscience. Sin and conscience torment us, but Christ has overcome these fiends now and forever.
Here, robed in Word and Sacrament, is your King, infant though He be, come out of eternity into time to bring you out of time and into eternity.
Jesus' cross is for dull shepherds and bright magi. It is for the whole world. It is for you.
The gift is God’s and not ours, and the fact that any of us have any role to play at all in the Body of Christ is an amazing grace.
Thus, the people weep and mourn, but they are told to cease with their mourning and rejoice and celebrate as a festival without worry or care, for the day is holy to the LORD who is their refuge and strength.