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.

All Articles

The sinful nature loves self, and pride is its native tongue.
This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.
What a small thing in the big picture to give his head for the Head of the Church who would give his life for John and all sinners.
In the Bible, we meet the God who also does not prance around naked as a jaybird.
God’s headline for his church prioritizes the person of Jesus and his purpose to demonstrate God’s power by dying and rising again for our salvation.
God does not give us an undebatable answer to suffering. Instead, God suffers, too.
Lutherans have a unique heritage that makes teaching predestination doubly difficult.
You are the baptized, for in Christ we are all wet. The demographic dividers are washed away.
He declared you what you might not always feel you are, but what you were from the moment he knew you, before you were you, when he foreknew you.
God demonstrates his great love for us in the actions of Jesus, who came down into the flesh and soaked up all our sin.
Jesus will lead us through the deep waters onto the dry land of that celestial shore, where he will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
Jesus reveals to them again who He is. And that life can only be given when we feed on Christ.