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.
American religion did not become optional because the gospel failed. It became optional because religion slowly redefined itself around usefulness.

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I am the Resurrection,’ says Jesus, not an abstract miracle or idea
Pastors are built from the same stuff as everyone else. That’s good, and that’s bad.
Our enoughness before God cannot be earned by our piety or bestowed by our neighbor. Our righteousness and our justification come from Christ and His work for us
I finally climbed all 109 mountains. My journey began out of desperation, fueled by anger, fear, resentment.
Netflix just recently released a series called The Umbrella Academy, another comic book series adapted for screen.
I was once asked why I thought young people were leaving the church in droves after they graduated high school.
Our sin marked Christ. Jesus was marked with the scars of nails and a spear for us. His hands, feet, and side are marked with scars displaying the cost of our redemption.
God is used to working with colorful figures. One of the most colorful in the Bible is Balaam. Hailing from Mesopotamia, Balaam was what we might call a shaman or a soothsayer.
Holding to Jesus’ teaching while denying His divinity presents a host of complications that make it difficult to take one and leave the other.
All the weight of our sin is lifted by Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world, past, present, and future.
The following is an excerpt from Law and Gospel in Action written by Mark Mattes (1517 Publishing, 2019).
When we say “forgiveness,” we mean, “Jesus.” When we say, “righteousness,” we mean, “Jesus.”