Luther neither removed the Apocrypha from the Bible nor discouraged its use. Rather, he received and preserved the ancient distinction inherited from the fathers: the Apocrypha is valuable, edifying, and worthy of reading, but it is not Holy Scripture and therefore cannot serve as the foundation of Christian doctrine.
The confessors at Augsburg remind us that every generation of Christians is called to bear witness to the gospel amid the challenges and pressures of its own age. As they confessed Christ before emperors and kingdoms, so the Church continues to confess Him before the world today.
When Jesus washes you with baptismal water, you can rest assured that the Lion of Judah is on the move.

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It is a strange irony, but in a world drunk on violence, it is only on the cross of violence that there is hope for peace in our world.
The following is an excerpt from “Let the Bird Fly” written by Wade Johnston (1517 Publishing, 2019).
The gelded Gospel is shiny and attractive and compelling, and we can perform the procedure in any number of ways.
Here, we read the mystery and majesty of the incarnation of the Son of God wrapped up into a single package
The real problem with the way we talk about Baptism in particular, and the sacraments at all, is that we are simply afraid of letting God’s Word get us.
Where American freedom shouts for individual rights and liberties, freedom in Christ binds neighbors together because our blessings are for each other.
Growth and maturity in the Spirit doesn’t look like we think it does. That’s because it’s backward.
We are saved by God's grace, apart from our work – so why does obtaining God's wisdom require such work?
When we pray, we should have in mind His name and His provision and His forgiveness. In other words, we ask God to do what God promises to do.
The central affirmation of the Reformation stands: Through no merit of ours, but by His mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of His beloved Son
In this religious Sodom, we had a Jesus with the heart of Moses whose gospel was a new and improved law.