The Turk at the Door: Luther, Islam, and the Fate of Christendom in the 16th Century
By Adam Francisco
06/19/26
10mins

The Turk at the Door: Luther, Islam, and the Fate of Christendom in the 16th Century

It is within this charged atmosphere that Luther’s writings take on their full significance. His responses to the Turkish threat were not merely reactions to military events; they were rooted in a deep theological reflection on the nature of God’s rule over the world, the responsibilities of Christian rulers, and the role of the Church in times of crisis.
AI Can't Save You
Erick Sorensen
Erick Sorensen
06/17/26

AI Can't Save You

Your God is not artificially intelligent, but the source of all intelligence (including yours).
No One Builds Alone: Why the Future of Lutheranism Must Be Built Together
Russ Lackey
Russ Lackey |
Mark Mattes
Mark Mattes
06/15/26

No One Builds Alone: Why the Future of Lutheranism Must Be Built Together

The church is not renewed when one pastor tries to do the work of the whole body. The church is renewed when Christ’s body begins to act like a body again.

All Articles

Daniel Emery Price
Daniel Emery Price
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Tattoos With Mom

The lighting is fluorescent, the music is loud and heavy. There is a table in the corner with bottles of iodine, rubbing alcohol, and a biohazard container full of used needles.
Jessica Thompson
Jessica Thompson
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Inexhaustible Grace for Exhausted Women

Moms, your worth is not determined by what present you get on Mother’s Day. Everything that is true about you was said on the cross thousands of years ago.
RJ Grunewald
RJ Grunewald
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To Those Beaten Up by the Church

Bloody, bruised, and burnt out—our friends, family members, and coworkers are walking out of churches, giving up on God’s family, and at the same time giving up on the message that the Church has been entrusted with.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
04/28/15

Called and Ordained Sheriff of the Word

What is most amazing to me is not that Jesus welcomed public transgressors into his company. What astounds me is that they came to him with the full expectation of not being turned away.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
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Married to the Cross in Divorce

In divorce God married me to the cross. I didn’t want it; indeed, I hated it. But upon my shoulders God laid it. The ring of nails. The veil of darkness. The kiss of death. When we are stripped of all the good we think we are and have, we come face to face with the evil within. We fight and wrestle and gasp and die and become nothing.
RJ Grunewald
RJ Grunewald
04/07/15

How God Cures My Daily Amnesia

In The Journal of Neuroscience, there was a man referred to as E.P. He was an 84-year-old retired lab technician. E.P. suffered from one of the most severe cases of amnesia ever documented.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
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I'm One of those Lukewarm Christians

On Sunday mornings, when I confess my sins, I say that “I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them.” But those adverbs are like two accusing fingers pointed at my less-than-heartily-sorry, less-than-sincerely-repentant heart.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
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It's Okay to Pray for Oreos and Ice Cream at Breakfast

What James really desired was to be beside his Lord Jesus. He wanted to sit not twelve seats away, not six, but smack-dab beside him.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
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What Bible Story Has CSI’s Fingerprints All Over It?

If Abel’s blood is spilled all over the ground or if a mere speck had been lodged in the fabric of Cain’s shirt, that blood cries out. It has a voice and it will speak to whomever is willing to listen.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
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The Dark Sacraments in My Jail Cell

I don’t mean simply that I “loved the darkness rather than the light because my deeds were evil,” as Jesus says (John 3:19). While that is true, there was deeper magic at work. I loved the darkness because I feared all the good things in the light.
Sam P. Schuldheisz
Sam P. Schuldheisz
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Sundays are for the Walking Dead

There are several reasons why I nerd out when it comes to AMC’s The Walking Dead.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
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Who Are You? Why Are You Here?

Mark Twain would have been proud of me. He once quipped that the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you figure out why. Not only had I figured out why I came into this world; my answer defined me.
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