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 is just something about the idea of not being ‘under Law’ that sets off all kinds of alarms in the minds of many Christians.
This is the first of seven words of Christ from the cross.
Perhaps you’ve had a pastor or “Bible teacher” ask you these questions. If not, consider yourself blessed.
If there is no resurrection, then we have no true hope, and the arts above all vocations would be the folly of follies.
In an age when families are already fractured beyond comprehension, are we seriously going to separate parents from children in the one service in which God himself is present to unite us to himself and one another?
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.
The Law must attack because nothing outside of Christ can enter Heaven—nothing!
We are no longer controlled by sin as He moves our lips to speak love and forgiveness. We are passive as He acts out His words and His salvation for us.
Give us eyes to see the face of Jesus in that little child wriggling in front of us, tugging at his mom’s sleeve, wanting a drink of water.
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.
Jesus becomes who you are and you become who he is. His kindness and patience and courage are given to you, and your lust and meanness and impatience are reckoned to him.