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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Amazing grace is a sweet sound not just because it saved a wretch like me, but because it saved a whole wretched world like me.
Christ’s flesh and blood is light that the darkness cannot comprehend.
Some have built an entire theology on the false assumption that when God commands us to obey or believe, we have the ability to obey or believe.
The Law must attack because nothing outside of Christ can enter Heaven—nothing!
As sinful humans, we are adept at taking what God gives as gift and making it into a work. Nowhere is this made more evident than in the universally misunderstood doctrine of sanctification.
Let us preach Christ and Him crucified to the masses.
God has given us a way out of our plight of “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” It is the way of the cross.
“The strongest person in the room doesn't win the fight," she said, "it’s whoever's the meanest…” I was fifteen years old when my aunt taught me that.
Today I want to give you some good news. It is good news for the relationship failure; for the one who is self-focused;
Gone, abolished, put away with, undone, and destroyed are any and all notions that my repentance unlocks, sets free, or earns God’s forgiveness.
In the world of martial arts, which I am the first to admit I am no expert in, there is a concept, particularly in Jujutsu and Judo, called seiryoku zen’yo or, “maximum efficiency, minimum effort.”
Neither did Christ’s absolution “run out” nor “reach a limit” due to Judas’ sin.