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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We walk to the cross by the faith that God bestows on us, not by our own power, reason, or might.
“Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.” Those nine words could serve as the Bible’s subtitle.
We would expect Jesus to be delighted people have responded to the master’s invitation. Instead, Jesus asks these people to reconsider whether they should be following Him or not.
After the glory of our flesh has gone the way of wilted grass and faded flowers, and we’ve long forgotten all our efforts at self-justification, the word of the Lord remains.
The distinction between Christ-for-you and Christ-in-you can present a misleading dichotomy.
The question that this text poses for us today is “What does it mean to believe in the resurrection?”
Christ’s death is sufficient for all, even Christians.
This is the God of the Holy Scriptures. He is the one who repeatedly saves, always preserving his people by providing rescue in situation after situation...
Luke does not tell us who asked it. But it’s a good question. “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”
The Holy Spirit is not ours to hunt down; rather, we are the ones relentlessly pursued by the word of Christ.
[Luther's] Catechism is at home in the evangelical pulpit, guiding and shaping what the preacher says so faith might be created and love given direction.
Jesus is still in the business of dividing. He has come to divide us from our sinful thoughts and habits. He has come to divide us from false views of the world and distortions of His Word.