Luther neither removed the Apocrypha from the Bible nor discouraged its use. Rather, he received and preserved the ancient distinction inherited from the fathers: the Apocrypha is valuable, edifying, and worthy of reading, but it is not Holy Scripture and therefore cannot serve as the foundation of Christian doctrine.
The confessors at Augsburg remind us that every generation of Christians is called to bear witness to the gospel amid the challenges and pressures of its own age. As they confessed Christ before emperors and kingdoms, so the Church continues to confess Him before the world today.
When Jesus washes you with baptismal water, you can rest assured that the Lion of Judah is on the move.

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Take away the communal aspect, take away the communal gathering around Christ’s body and blood, and the Christian will begin to suffer a malnutrition of faith.
God invites you to confess the skeletons in your closet so that he might bury them in the grave for good.
Our certainty is of Christ, that mighty hero who overcame the Law, sin, death, and all evils.
In the overall context of Lamentations this text stands out as a breath of fresh air, or perhaps more accurately, words of relief after so much dismal lamenting!
If you truly love the brethren, you will not grudge to help them in their distress.
The people you serve are still hanging on by a thread, which is another way of saying they are living by faith.
Christian hope means always hope in God and hope in Christ simultaneously without distinction.
The fact that the LORD answers Job is a great gift of love and mercy, but He does not provide the answers Job seeks.
This faith bears fruit, but it may be fruit that turns upside down the world’s values.
The only one who is truly worthy of fear shows He cares for His disciples and desires to save them. Not only them, but all who are perishing.
This article comes to us from 1517 guest contributor, Karen Stenberg.
We know not how, and we do not know when, but God works according to His perfect will and His perfect timing.