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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There’s something very attractive about both the cross-ladder and the cross-crutches. In fact, there’s something about both of them that the woodworker within us finds eminently more appealing than the simple cross of Jesus.
This is a selection from, "A Path Strewn With Sinners" by Wade Johnston
The sight of indulgences being bought and sold is just not something I witness on a regular basis.
There is a mirror that we Christians look into with daily repentance.
The truth is, this church’s eyes wander very easily. You are there to make sure Jesus is clearly and constantly placarded before those eyes.
Our Lord has told us not to make these fine distinctions in grades of sin.
"Are you Republican or Democrat?” “Liberal or conservative?” “Yankees or Red Sox?” “Star Wars or Star Trek?”
The love of God in Jesus is our confidence when the world seems to teeter on the brink of self-destruction.
Every age gives cause for both hopefulness and despair.
The conversation between four year-old Jackson and his mom in the car after dropping off his siblings at school was all-too-typical.
A confessing church is a church more worried about souls than appearances, family lines, or institutional bottom-lines.
Just when we think we had it all under control, Christ breaks into the midst of our futile efforts to save ourselves.