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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The angriest people I meet are former Christians.
To see faith as a noun in Christianity, one must ask the question of what is faith and whence does it come?
The story of Christ crucified has a happy ending. Jesus has conquered the grave. He beat the death rap.
Last night was one of those nights when I had an unscheduled 3:00 a.m. Life Assessment session.
What on God’s green earth does dynamite, a chemical explosive, have to do with the Gospel of Christ?
This had been a lonely year, though. She could keep herself busy for a while with friends and she could distract herself for a few weekends by leaving town, but something was definitely missing.
True faith, saving faith that receives the good news about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is a faith created in us by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel (Eph 2:8-9).
If you don’t believe Jesus Christ—that is, God in the man born of the Virgin Mary—died for the sins of the world, then you can’t evangelize.
Inside our heads is a courtroom where our whole lives are put on trial. And we are declared guilty of things. Big things, little things. God things, human things. True things, false things. We never can measure up.
Looking at our dining room table most days, you might think we were running a cartoon factory out of our house. Drawings. Everywhere.
I don't remember the first time I heard the gospel, but I do remember the first time I began to understand it.
We just can't stop ourselves from putting the brakes on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.