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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Thanksgiving is never out of place for the Christian.
Show me a sinner, and I’ll write you a story of a God who saves them.
One Christ rules over all of it. He is the constant, the root that nourishes every estate and every vocation.
No matter how many times we hear this good news, it never stops being good news.
Mary looms large in our theology, our liturgy, our confessions and creeds.
Salvation doesn’t hang in the balance of a voting booth.
To preach Christ and him crucified is to keep the message simple and accessible.
Jesus Christ is relentless. He does not give up. And with him comes the certainty of redemption.
Jesus came for little children, and that is what we are. We are children of God.
Let your soul grieve, yes, but don’t let it be eaten alive by worry.
God’s creatures on four legs are some of the greatest storytellers of the Scriptures.
This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.