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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However, right before I affirmed her proposal, it dawned on me, “Isn’t every worship service and Bible study for those struggling with faith, life, and fear?!”
One thing that makes John different than the other three Gospels is the absence of the Lord’s Supper.
The Christian Church is one of the last refuges in modern American society where people who have perpetrated or suffered trauma and violence can gather together to receive the truth about themselves.
The idea is that Jesus has called His church to make disciples, and since the church doesn’t look much like the One they are following, the people need to be changed.
Let’s take a look point-by-point to better understand why apologetics is really just part of sharing the Gospel.
For every child in a mother’s womb, the whole host of heaven and earth, indeed God himself, intercedes.
You can see it far off, looming on the horizon, a thick fog menacing off the coast and swirling in the distance. You know the signs.
In Christ we are already dead to sin and the eternal consequences of sin. “There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,” writes Paul (Romans 8:1).
One of the biggest challenges to the Christian faith is sorting through our question of “Where is God in the trials of our lives?”
One of my favorite things to do in the summer is read out under the shade of my backyard tree. There, I have a reclining chair and small little side table.
It’s a subject that for some comes up every 4th of July. How does the American Revolution square with Romans 13?
God in Jesus takes off your shirt of shame, your bitterness, your anger, your guilt, your hopelessness, and drapes these rags on himself.