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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We have seen a vision better than an angel. We have seen God on the cross. A God who is willing to suffer for us.
Our sadness is never inconvenient or unimportant to Jesus.
That is the good news that ifies all hand wringing and wipes away every tear from every eye.
In our attempts to flee from our fears and escape death, we will become imprisoned by them.
The disciplines of history and archaeology have assisted in demonstrating the integrity and accuracy of the Bible.
Love is to be the interpreter of law. Where there is no love, these things are meaningless, and law begins to do harm.
We cannot control the resistance of people to God’s Word, but we can trust in God’s power and promise to work through His Word.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is also a declaration. It is a declaration of something that has already happened, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day."
Ever since the tragedy of the Garden, God’s plan of redemption has been in motion. His movement upon this world has never ceased, and it never will.
Love for our neighbor can be taxing. We may even decide it’s not worth the cost. But in this moment I found a blessed reminder of how different God's love is, and how our value rests in Christ alone.
Jesus did not come to be first. He came to be faithful, faithful to His Father’s mission for you.
The God whom I met without a preacher is neither revealing nor hiding—but now, with a preacher, he has become my hiding place!