This is an excerpt from the introduction of Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Christopher Richmann (1517 Publishing, 2026).
We can bring our troubles, griefs, sorrows, and sins to Jesus, who meets us smack dab in the middle of our messy mob.
Confession isn’t a detour in the liturgy. It’s the doorway.

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The sight of indulgences being bought and sold is just not something I witness on a regular basis.
There is a mirror that we Christians look into with daily repentance.
One thing that makes John different than the other three Gospels is the absence of the Lord’s Supper.
The truth is, this church’s eyes wander very easily. You are there to make sure Jesus is clearly and constantly placarded before those eyes.
Our Lord has told us not to make these fine distinctions in grades of sin.
We sinners share a common problem when it comes to Jesus’ parables. We read them with an eye to our own righteousness.
Every age gives cause for both hopefulness and despair.
The conversation between four year-old Jackson and his mom in the car after dropping off his siblings at school was all-too-typical.
A confessing church is a church more worried about souls than appearances, family lines, or institutional bottom-lines.
Just when we think we had it all under control, Christ breaks into the midst of our futile efforts to save ourselves.
How did you become a Christian? This question is frequently asked in many Christian circles. Ask it and you will get one of a thousand different answers, but each will probably start with the same pronoun.
For every child in a mother’s womb, the whole host of heaven and earth, indeed God himself, intercedes.