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

God’s justification of us does not happen secretly in our spirits. God justifies you and me in His absolving Word
We are forgiven for Christ’s sake. Losers set free to trust in God’s promises.
When we are unsure of who God is, it’s to Christ that He tells us to look.
Luther contends that even our best spiritual, theological, and moral efforts are insufficient to save us.
Rather than presenting Christ’s words as a rule or a threat, Luther reveals it to be the promise of God.
The Christian who understands Gospel-based love recognizes the false promises and rewards of the Playboy Mansion.
Satan cannot stand the Gospel, and so he goes to work to undermine and render God’s Word an impotent and absurd message.
Conflict demands resolution, tension demands a balancing act in the face of uncertainties.
How strange and yet how comforting: God prays to God for us, the Spirit to the Father. He sees through the fog of our emotions to what we truly need.
I hear voices in my head accusing me, telling me these sins will be there on the Day of Judgment unless I make atonement.
If this opening verse offers to us both door and doorkeeper, then the doorkeeper stands with the door held securely shut.
Standing before Jesus is one of the cultural groups that the Lord sought fit to eradicate for their wickedness to preserve the line that would eventually birth Jesus.