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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This is an excerpt from Ditching the Checklist: Assurance of Salvation for Evangelicals (and Other Sinners) by Mark Mattes (1517 Publishing, 2025), pgs. 5-7.
In the liturgy, Christ is present, self-giving, and ever-addressing his people.
There is no one — not now, not ever — who cannot be included in the family of God through the efficacy of Christ’s saving power.
As you step into the days ahead, remember this: no matter how lost you may feel, you have a God who seeks you out, celebrates your return, and rejoices over you.
This is the third article in a special three-part Advent series on how Jesus is our prophet, priest, and king.
Thanksgiving is never out of place for the Christian.
Show me a sinner, and I’ll write you a story of a God who saves them.
More certain than death or taxes and more certain than “anything else in all creation” is the fact that God loves you.
Salvation doesn’t hang in the balance of a voting booth.
Jesus Christ is relentless. He does not give up. And with him comes the certainty of redemption.
Below is the Thinking Fellows Essential Reading List with contributions from each of the Thinking Fellows hosts.
Jesus came for little children, and that is what we are. We are children of God.