This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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If you are going to lose your life for the gospel’s sake, you must begin by hearing it.
Cranach became the evangelical interpreter for the masses
God is consistently rooting us in reality—both what is seen and unseen—because that is where he is.
Our challenge today is to inspire trust and curiosity so this generation will openly ask the question, who speaks the words of truth?
At the heart of The Idiot is Dostoevsky's confession of faith and the confession of all Christians.
Sometimes I think we should be more tempted to laugh at the gospel than we are, not in derision but in sheer surprise and awe.
With every bone in our bodies, we declare war on grace. We declare war on the gift.
The world hates Jesus because he comes to lead us to love and forgive all, including our enemies.
FLAME uses Scripture and church history to argue that baptism is a gospel gift, not our work.
Ethics begins not with our doing, but with the Triune God’s giving.
For Japan’s highly secularized elite, alienated by collapsing opportunity and the materialistic void left behind, Bach’s music was a balm.
The relationship between faith and prayer or belief and worship is mutual. Faith produces prayer and prayer expresses faith.