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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Their love story was a long time in coming. He was 82 and she 74. And this was the first, and the last, marriage for both.
There is no Psalm as well known as Psalm 23
We have now reached a point where many believe so strongly in individualism that nothing else matters.
Life is too short to dream big dreams. They tend to devour everything that gets in their way, including family.
Then He went to the coffin. He touched it, like a carpenter sizing up the piece of wood He plans to turn into some sort of new creation, running His hand down its side.
But one key theme that kept surfacing again and again was love: Jesus loved people, the Church showed me genuine love, and above all, God’s love in Christianity is unconditional.
Yes, how good it is for you to have enemies, for without them, when would you ever have the opportunity to fulfill, joyfully and willingly, the law of Christian love?
He barely wakes to find himself nearly dead; even so, he can’t feel a thing.
Far from being un-Christian like, the discipline and training that go into learning and practicing various martial arts can have direct application to the spiritual discipline needed for the Christian life of faith characterized by Israel.
The truth is, a Christian's holiness is hidden outside himself in Christ through faith.
Inside every relationship, there’s a gap.
The question is not can I lose my salvation, but can salvation lose me? No, it can’t.