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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That week, I began to doubt myself. Did I really believe?
The goal of Christian living isn't to gather in and store up two, three, four barn-fulls of good works for ourselves.
It seems like the sky is falling every other day now. From politics to culture to religion to about anything else, there’s one purported cataclysm after another on the horizon.
As a pastor I am often asked if pets go to heaven? The question may sound childish, or even sentimental, but it is extremely important for those who ask it.
Every Christian face-plants. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been saved by grace, we still face-plant.
Likewise, when God says, "Do this and you will live," we go about under the illusion that we have the ability to accomplish what God demands of us.
Beware the lament, dear readers, that is not soothed with the good-goods of Jesus.
I'm always surprised to hear people say, “If I could do it all again, I wouldn’t change a thing.” But we’re all sinners and we all sin every day.
You can talk to me about how Jesus is really forgiving and how you want me around, but what happens when things don’t change in a month?
If he was not flesh, who was hung on the cross? And if he was not God, who shook the earth from its foundations?
Last night was one of those nights when I had an unscheduled 3:00 a.m. Life Assessment session.
Apart from bare, naked faith in Jesus' atoning work for us, no sinner is, or ever can be, holy.