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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Fred Rogers did not teach children how to live through a pandemic, but he had many profound things to say about loving our neighbors and finding our identity in that calling.
God has forgiven us our trespasses in Christ Jesus and it is his grace that begins the transformation process making us into little forgivers.
We begin in ignorance and we end in ignorance. But, in the midst of our ignorance, Jesus is walking with us.
Here is Paul’s repacking of the Christmas gift in terms of the personal and corporate implications of God so loving the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
The receiving and/or possessing of a gift, even one from God, is far different than putting it to use.
This story of despair met with the hope of the gospel is rightly told by many during the holiday season.
We’ve hung on every whisper of hope that this way of life would end and a new one would rise to take its place.
Christian peace is not the absence of problems, but it is the presence of God amid our pain and sorrows.
As Simeon sang, you might lead your hearers in a song of defiant and hopeful confidence to close out a year characterized by death and despair.
Why is it important for us to confess and remember the virgin birth? It is important because of its place within the total story of redemption.
The Lamb of God is stripped of His garment and sheds His blood on a cross to clothe us in robes of righteousness and garments of salvation—like a bridegroom who adorns himself and his bride.
The way through loneliness will lie in the blessing of solitude and the care of God.