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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Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
There is a revival, no less real and even more definitive, taking place in every church, every weekend, where God’s people gather around his gifts.
Authentic proclamation, then, is the love of Christ for our souls, which we have seen and experienced through the under-shepherd’s pastoral care put into the words of Christ Himself.
The sign of the cross, according to the earliest centuries of Christians, is “the sign of the Lord,” and every baptized Christian was “marked” with it.
The answer to our messages is God's "yes," Jesus, who sends his preachers to proclaim that there's no place for us now other than in the grip of our God and Savior.
The sermon takes place in the context of a multi-facetted set of relationships experienced through the weeks and months of being together in congregation and community. Those relationships shape the credibility of the preacher in the pulpit. 
The usual acclamation when one becomes King is: “Long live the King!” But this King of kings, this son of David, has come to die.
Despite our best efforts to avoid him, King Jesus remains very much unavoidable.
God the Father sent us – his wayward, sinful, and naughty children – his own series of Father Christmas Letters.
Psalm 8 is a trailer for the entire biblical movie, and the entire biblical movie centers on Christ.
Hains offers a novel yet simple contention: Luther is most catholic where he is boldest.
O weary ones, O long-time waiting and watching ones, O ones who are late to the game, he is your rest this busy season, and always.