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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Theology is a practical habit—that is, an aptitude cultivated to be applied in the real world in daily life.
The prophet Jonah longed for one thing: to see the Assyrian city of Nineveh utterly destroyed by the wrath of God. His wish eventually came true
Scripture is clear: God’s Spirit pursues sinners from conception to the grave with his life-giving Gospel and gifts.
We are a people always seeking, always moving, always striving for more: it is the American way.
We don’t need another human to love us, so we become our own divinity full of self-directed, unconditional acceptance.
From political parties to sports teams, we know all too well how quickly we can ruin a good thing, turning a temporal allegiance into a spiritual one
Jesus is the heart of the Gospel, and the Gospel is Good News. But it is always Good News that comes to us best on the lips of another.
With a new year comes many new things. In the corporate world, we again introduced to our yearly performance review.
He comes to fill our old, stony heart with the new wine of his forgiveness.
Despite the death all around us, the death that is assured us, we know there is a way out.
How long, O Lord, will the voice of children’s blood cry out to You from the ground?
We surrender confidence in God because we lack faith in Christ, and we lack faith in Christ because we rebel against the fact that each, single moment of self-destruction is nailed to that cross.