I find myself returning to the Nicene Creed this Advent season
This is an excerpt from this year’s 1517 Advent Devotional.
Thanksgiving, then, is not just about plenty. It is about redemption.

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This is an excerpt from “Confession and Absolution” by John T. Pless in Common Places in Theology: A Curated Collection of Essays from Lutheran Quarterly, edited by Mark Mattes, (1517 Publishing 2023).
With the Spirit we will get lost in the world. We are on a new track.
This is a companion article to “Johann Spangenberg on Dying Well”
Success is emphatically not your primary identity.
We know we are made for something great. We humans were created in God’s image and restored through Christ in his perfect image.
We can do nothing to warrant entry into the kingdom of God nor are we getting in if we think a seat at God’s table is something to which we are entitled.
Now that the Lord of Sabaoth has involved himself, something ends, something is born.
The gospel is for sinners – both the tax collector and Pharisee, both in need of the Great Physician.
The profound significance of Christ’s resurrection comes from the threefold justification it provides: it justifies the sinner, the sinner’s hope, and God himself.
Five promises were seemingly all those apostles, staring into the sky, had to go on. Five promises that were more than enough.
Some part of us always wants our ability under the law to be just as important (or more) than grace.
The notion that your goodness is “good enough” to make you right with God is a lie straight from the father of lies himself.