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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Applying the pressure of law to ensure you do not to take grace for granted squeezes the life and power out of the gospel.
Bathed in the waters of baptism, you are placed in God's path of totality, a path he won for each and every one of us.
Jonah’s biggest blunder was a failure to understand that God’s grace is always undeserved and always falls on those who are unworthy of it.
Paul knew that, without the resurrection, the Christian life was a “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video.
Don’t get in the habit (or, if you already do it, get out of the habit) of saying, “I could never talk about these things the way my pastor does.”
Heaven is yours now.
This article is written by guest contributor, Christopher J. Richmann.
Are you on the receiving end of freedom? Or are you trying to make yourself free?
Sin is a heavy thing to bear. Its jacket is shame, its medals are guilt.
He declared you what you might not always feel you are, but what you were from the moment he knew you, before you were you, when he foreknew you.
Your champion steps forward.
He shows up when we are at our worst to usher us back to his side, lead us to repentance, rescue us, and reclaim us as his own.