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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Jesus does not give as the world gives. With Jesus, everything is guaranteed and has been finished from the start.
Paul says that the power of sin is the law. The more clearly we understand the law, the more sin oppresses and stings us.
The primary point of Joseph’s life (and every story in Scripture) is to point us to Christ. To tell us something about what God is like and how He interacts with His Creation.
Ashes and dust do not need the services of spiritual EMTs; we need a Second Adam from whom we regain life itself.
Christ has forgiven you, and all of your worship, all of your prayers, all of your offerings are accepted because they are built on the foundation of Christ’s forgiveness.
Christ teaches that we are not lost, but have eternal life. That God has so loved us that he allowed the ransom to cost him his only beloved child.
God and love are synonymous. Any talk about love that is not talk about Jesus is, at most, a half-truth.
The original sin of Genesis 3 was not gutter-style-sin, but glory-style-sin. It was more of an upward grasp than a downward fall. - Nathan Hoff
What the law is powerless to do, Jesus accomplishes for us. Jesus delivers what the law demands.
For what end does the Law exist? The Law exposes us so that we might find the remedy in the person and work of Jesus.
The end of the pursuit isn't regeneration, but degeneration. We're fighting fire with bottles of gasoline.
God says, “Cross,” and we say, “Glory!” Sometimes – a lot of times – he knocks the glory glasses off our faces.