Wade Johnston, Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis: MO, 2025.
This ancient “tale of two mothers” concerns far more than theological semantics—it is the difference between a God who sends and a God who comes.
This story points us from our unlikely heroes to the even more unlikely, and joyous, good news that Jesus’ birth for us was just as unlikely and unexpected.

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Paul knew that, without the resurrection, the Christian life was a “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video.
This article is written by guest contributor, Christopher J. Richmann.
Regardless of background or beliefs, every American I talk to seems on edge, as if the sky were about to fall. But the sky is not falling.
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.
Sometimes, we get prayer dementia. We can’t remember what we were going to pray for, we can’t put the words together, and, frustrated, there is nothing we can do but sigh and groan.
Regularly reading and hearing God’s Word helps us to keep a song in our hearts.
What if the dissonance in this calendrical coincidence can be harmonized into a deeper melody?
The more I got to know Dr. Rosenbladt, the more I saw that he wasn’t a man divided.
Anyone could tell he enjoyed teaching theology and loved his students.
God never delights in seeing his children struggle or suffer. But God does desire that we trust him no matter what the circumstances might look like.
In normal human relationships, when reconciliation is necessary, we place the burden on the person who did wrong, who disrupted the relationship.
A “good death” and “good life” are not accomplished through personal striving but are grasped by faith in the promises of God.