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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When it comes to confessing the truth of the Christian faith, Christians are given the words. We don’t have to formulate them ourselves.
The following is an excerpt from“Credo: I Believe,” edited by Caleb Keith and Kelsi Klembara (1517 Publishing, 2019).
Are people so different today? Is justification really irrelevant now? Is the preacher’s only point of contact with the life-giving Gospel a by-product of Microsoft’s word processor? I do not think so.
Good theology is the most practical thing you can have.
Christ’s indwelling in the Christian must be tied relentlessly to these external and objective events of God’s own action.
Theology is not to simply adopt the positions and presuppositions of philosophy, nor should it reject philosophy.
Who is God? What did God do in the person of Jesus, and how are we connected to the benefits of the Resurrection?
In the suffering of Jesus, we have an example of trusting in the promises of the Father.
The danger of denying the truth of our common human fallenness and brokenness by original sin is that the denial of this doctrine may also lead us to the denial of Christ as our Savior.
The articles were used to catechize churches in Lutheran doctrine through a series of pastoral visitations.
I had been taught and believed in a God who is love, but as I walked outside that night I did not see him. I saw the stars and I felt their indifference.
Rather than validate our selfish, self-serving choices, he justifies us by giving us new life and baptizing us into his death and resurrection.