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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This week we are taking a closer look at 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 and what we lose if Christ has not been raised from the dead.
You are not alone if you find it difficult to wrap your mind around the auspices of the Old Testament sacrificial system.
Many people have struggled to understand Leviticus and Old Testament worship in general. Here is a handbook or map to navigate these subjects, and to see their relationship to Christ and his saving work.
If we just say to God, “We don’t get it, please explain,” he will. He will send us a preacher to point us to his words for more clarification.
My fear of this coming darkness only lasts a moment.
The needs of the people remain the same, but now the people are you and me. We still sin, and that sin causes so many challenges in our lives.
Human history, our history, is the story of two Adams with two very different encounters with the devil.
What we discover in O’Connor’s stories and Martin Luther’s theology is that God’s grace is elusive because the human heart is resistant to it.
We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
Nothing moves or drives Paul more than preaching about “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
This is the message of Lent. We are not called to sacrifice for Jesus in order to earn our salvation. Rather, we are called to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.