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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A part of our series on Luther's, Heidelberg Disputation.
God’s grace is extended to the incorrigible alcoholic as well as to us, the more sophisticated sinners and drunks.
Then, Jesus our Groom, with His nail-scarred hands takes our hands and walks out with us from that ultimate courtroom, and into eternity – His eternity – and a never-ending wedding feast.
Only because He is an outsider can he afford the costly fee insiders could never afford no matter how hard they work.
On the cross, God removed the load of every single one of your sins and placed it instead on Christ. Then, He clothed you with the fullness of His holiness and perfection.
If I were the devil, I wouldn’t just entice believers to do bad things. We’re experts at that anyway.
Right now (and I would add, for quite some time) there has been a debate within Christianity about the whole issue of culture.
As every nail that Jesus hammered was a delight to his Father, so every email you send, every purchase you ring up, every table you wipe down, is a delight to the Father.
I saw a beautiful picture of grace yesterday. A real bestowing of favor on someone less deserving.
For on the other side of the death of forgiveness is the resurrection of joy. An easter in which we emerge from the tomb in the arms of the man whose scars glow with mercy.
Prechers translate as a calling. Called by God, they are given a message, and for most of their hearers it is to one degree or another a message in a language from afar, with strange concepts, sometimes with a more familiar ring, sometimes with a strange sound.
Amazing things. That’s what happens when the Triune God shows up in Jesus Christ.