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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Repentance is meaningless unless we are willing to acknowledge who we are: sinners needing mercy.
Rejoice with Mary as she would rejoice with you. Be blessed, like her, with humility from God, so that you may serve joyfully and willingly wherever and in whatever role God has placed you.
You are the friend in low places. It’s only from this place that you are free to look outside yourself for the remedy to the issues that plague you and humanity.
We live again, not so that we will now pay our debt, but to proclaim that we live because our debt was paid!
You are a child of God. You’re blameless, holy, perfect, and righteous. Don’t feel that way? Too bad. God is greater than your heart.
Through water, blood, and word, the Spirit never stops pointing us to Christ, and even more, giving us Christ.
Even though All Saints is a day for remembering the dead, it is not a day of mourning.
The good news is that with our God there is always more: more than we deserve, dare, ask, or expect, more than we can see, hear, feel, or think.
There is no true life and meaningful community apart from forgiveness.
The reason that God’s commandments are not burdensome is that Jesus has fulfilled them.
The love mentioned in 1 John 4:15-21 fourteen times (!) is a love that needs no apology but is determined at all times to sacrifice for the other.
We can appreciate what we have received from God, we can receive it all as free gift, but only when we stop investing in fool's gold.