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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Perhaps the most poisonous venom to afflict the gospel is the notion of "balancing" grace.
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.
He calls us to suffer as Christ suffered. That is, we are to suffer in service to our neighbor even if they caused the injustice.
What is supposed to be given by Christ through us for neighbor is used up by us, twisted for our righteous gain.
After the glory of our flesh has gone the way of wilted grass and faded flowers, and we’ve long forgotten all our efforts at self-justification, the word of the Lord remains.
Here’s a little “devotional” for you; some thoughts on Law and Gospel from Gerhard Forde. Drink deep, drink full. These are rich streams of thought.
God is the only one who decides what we receive, when, and how it’s given to us.
Biblically speaking, we won’t find much evidence for a preordained spouse.
The simul makes several affirmations and rejections on the doctrines of sin/original sin, justification, and sanctification, to name a few.
A person, not a nation, can be a Christian because only a person can be saved by grace through faith in the work of Christ.
We confuse our success and failures with God’s judgment of us.
It wasn’t that I didn’t love. I loved deeply, but I was also aware of the much deeper reservoir of self-love that kept me from ever loving fully.