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Five hundred years ago, the church of Jesus Christ underwent a Reformation. The fallout from the Monk, Martin Luther's posting of his ninety-five theses on indulgences was not simply the birth of Protestantism. Luther did not start a new church. Rather, he was trying to reform the church that already existed by reemphasizing its essence-namely, the "good news" (the gospel) that Jesus Christ saves sinners. But, as almost everyone-including conservative Catholics-now admit, the church did need reforming. Some of the issues in contemporary Christianity are very similar to those in the late Middle Ages, though others are new. But if Luther's theology can be blamed, however unfairly, for fragmenting Christianity, perhaps today it can help us recover the wholeness of Christianity. The current religious climate in the twenty-first century is simultaneously highly religious and highly secularized. It is a time of extraordinary spiritual and theological diversity. In the spirit of the anniversary we are observing, this book will propose the kind of Christianity that is best suited for the twenty-first century. The remedies offered here are available by way of the same theology that was the catalyst for reforming the church five hundred years ago.

Being a mom is hard work! Few of us find that motherhood is what we expected it to be. We mothers all need a little encouragement now and then to get us through the days when things feel a little too difficult and we're not feeling the joy in our vocation. This book offers that encouragement, rooted in and focused on Christ. We're reminded of the work of Christ and the reality that he has established the work of our hands brings hope, peace, and sustainability to our work as mother. Encouragement for Motherhood is honest about the struggles of motherhood. Each contributor's words are vulnerable and honest about pieces of their work as mothers. The authors write about their limitations, fear of the future, failures, and relationship dynamics. More importantly, each contributor points to the hope found amid the struggles of motherhood. The hope found is not within the mother. The hope found is freely given to each of us by Christ. Encouragement for Motherhood will not give you 30 tips and tricks to a more successful motherhood. What it provides is the gospel reminder that you are forgiven and free on account of Christ and his work. Being kept in those unfailing promises of Christ we get to live in freedom. Living in freedom we will fail and ask forgiveness, be confronted by our limitations but held by God, and be fearful yet rest in Christ.

In 1933 a group of theological students in Berlin asked Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hermann Sasse to work together with other theologians to come up with a confession that could be used to challenge nazi ideology and its inroads into the church bodies of Germany through the so-called "German Christians" who wanted to reshape Christianity into a worship of German ethnicity. The result was the August Bethel Confession named after the town in which Sasse and Bonhoeffer worked together. Unfortunately, church bureaucrats got a hold of it and watered it down, and then it was forgotten for the Barmen Declaration what was much more heavily influenced by Reformed theology and concerns and failed to even take up the question of what place Jews had in the church. This was a huge disappointment to both Bonhoeffer and Sasse who are largely regarded as two of the greatest Lutheran theologians of that era. In Faith in the Face of Tyranny, Torbjörn Johannson takes a look at the work that both these men brought to the forgotten Bethel Confession to show just what a confessional response to national socialism and racism looks like. Today there are often calls for new confessions and declarations addressing different political ideologies and issues and well as cultural movements. This book shows what such a confession should look like and why as well as what considerations should be taken into account when looking at such a project.

This is a brief biography of Philip Melanchthon, a close friend of Martin Luther's, and translated selections of his work. It is comprised of blog posts on 1517Legacy.com and pairs well with the Thinking Fellows podcasts on Melanchthon.

Suffering engulfs our lives in an unavoidable darkness, leaving answers and explanations obscured like a sorrowful fog. The gospel of Christ, however, gives us something infinitely more valuable than answers or explanations. Finding God in the Darkness: Hopeful Reflections from the Pits of Depression, Despair, and Disappointment is not an attempt to decode or decipher every nook and cranny of sorrow and suffering. It is a journey wherein faith, hope, and love are unexpectedly found along the way, in the midst of darkness. Much to our surprise, that's where God shows up, too.

We hear from the Apostle Peter that Christians should always be ready to give a confession of the hope that is in them and to defend their faith in an ever-changing world. Originally delivered as an address at a synod convention in 1902, Das Wesen des Christentums or What is Christianity? was written by pastor and professor Francis Pieper. In What is Christianity: Faith & Morality Reconsidered, Pieper takes up Peter's task against those who would confess works, moral improvement, and other man-made projects over and against the confession of Christ and him crucified. He boldly confesses what it means to be a Christian and what Christianity looks like with Christ truly as the center. In so doing, Pieper equips the saints to defend and proclaim the good news of forgiveness of sins on account of Christ alone.Pastor Philip Bartelt (translator of Pieper's presentation) says, "For Pieper, to be Lutheran meant to believe in Jesus Christ as the perfect sacrifice for sins in our stead-that Jesus was put under the law, under our sin, and under our punishment, in our stead and on our behalf, so that by faith we may enjoy perfect freedom, righteousness, and salvation."

The theme of freedom is ever-present for those who inhabit the modern western world. To be free, most people assume, means to be free over and against the state and one's neighbor. But Luther's conception of freedom is decidedly different from the usual story we tell about what it means to be a free human being. For Luther, to be free doesn't mean isolation from or opposition to one's neighbor, but freedom is the kind of liberty that empowers human beings to service of those around them. True freedom comes only from the promise of free grace in Jesus Christ delivered through the preaching of the gospel and the delivery of the sacraments. To be free in Christ involves a rediscovery of God's creation: that God has made us vessels of his goodness for those he has placed into our lives.It seems fitting that these essays, delivered at the virtual Lutheran Study Days, were read at the height of the novel coronavirus pandemic, in summer 2020, when we were all feeling that freedom seemed elusive.

The God of heaven and earth is no tightfisted, miserly deity who leaves us starving for mercy and begging for crumbs of grace. He is lavish. He gives and gives, then just when we think he can't possibly have more for us, he heaps on still more. He formed all creation for us, his sons and daughters. He fills us with forgiveness and life in his Son, Jesus, who is love in the flesh. All we are and all we have is from him. What's more, using us as his hands and feet, the Spirit cares for those around us, even as they care for us. United by faith to our Father and by love to our neighbor, we live in the freedom that comes from Jesus, whose cup of salvation overflows into our lives.

The day after Halloween, everything around us-ads, store displays, music, and the like-put us on notice: Christmas is coming. With the announcement of Christmas's imminent arrival comes work, work, and more work. We mutter under our breath for lazily storing the Christmas lights in a tangle; we wring our hands over finding good gifts and planning the perfect Christmas meal; every major checklist item includes dozens of decisions and subtasks, each with their own obstacles and pressures to complete. The biggest checklist item: completing all your work with Christmas cheer. In this pressuring cooker of Christmas preparations, The Sinner/Saint Devotional: Advent and Christmas walks you through these church seasons, shifting your focus from work and checklists and putting it on the work Jesus did and does for you. Each devotion includes an opening Scripture passage, a devotional thought, a closing prayer, and a suggested Scripture reading for further reflection. They present you with the Gospel of Advent and Christmas: how Christ has come for us and will come for us again. You will be reminded repeatedly that these seasons are not mere past events to remember, but comfort for today. Comfort from the God who keeps his promises and sent his Son for the forgiveness of our sins.

So many charges, so little forgiveness. So much fear, so little trust. So many chains, so little freedom. So much guilt, such great condemnation. Such great thick volumes of the law, so few pages granting pardons. This was my day in, day out reality as I worked in the courtrooms as a Certified Court Interpreter. You will enter the courtrooms. The narratives will almost make you believe you are present in the audience. You will follow divorce proceedings, murder felony trials, kids appearing in juvenile hall for truancy, drug trafficking in the schools, and more serious matters.All these narratives become jumping boards for entering the greater courtroom. Here we must all appear before the judgment seat of God. And all our narratives and stories end here, because a new narrative begins. Not our own, but that of Another, our Substitute, our Attorney, our Judge, all in One, Jesus Christ the King of forgiveness!In this courtroom, forgiveness overwhelms the charges. Trust casts out all fear. All chains are unshackled, as the Word of absolution breaks all fetters. "Your sins are forgiven" is the thread that binds all narratives in this devotional. The law gives way to the Gospel. Each story takes us from the earthly courtrooms where we hear mostly sentencing and condemnations, to the heavenly throne of grace. Here, the Judge of the Universe has only one Word: "Forgiven!" But how, on account of what law? Or on account of whom? You will see the answer clearly spelled out in each of the narratives of All Charges Dropped! Forgiven sinners walk away in total freedom, at this jaw dropping declaration of grace from the Judge of the universe. At God's Word, no guilt remains!

James wrote to Christians whose faith was under attack. Persecution, false teachings, and loveless actions were troubling God's baptized people. Things have not changed much for the church in these latter days. Though Luther referred to this letter as "an epistle of straw," James gives much wisdom to Christ's troubled bride. In his foreword to Finding Christ in the Straw: A Forty-Day Devotion on the Epistle of James, Robert M. Hiller writes "[Martin] Luther felt that this letter lacked the focus on the person and work of Jesus Christ to warrant much of his energy. Straw has its benefits but is not all that useful in the long run."However, these forty devotions, based on James, will both challenge and comfort you, while showing you Christ in the straw.

A Shepherd's Letter is Bo Giertz distilled and served neat. He wrote this book to introduce his theological agenda for the Diocese of Gothenburg to which he was elected bishop in 1949. Here, he takes a straightforward approach to the theological themes that guided his writing of The Hammer of God, Faith Alone: The Heart of Everything, and With My Own Eyes. What he wrote for the sheep of the Gothenburg diocese, has applicability for all Christians everywhere even today, and will enrich their understanding of the "faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

Over the course of nine years, our family circumnavigated the globe four times. We led teams of college students on academic, missional adventures that involved learning about culture, literature, and the relentless love of God in beautiful communities all around the world. The stories in this collection recount moments when we experienced the goodness of God on the shoulder of a friend. These are moments when we found ourselves needing to depend upon our team or on the community around us. These beautiful moments occurred when doubts and discomfort threatened to capsize our adventure, yet by an unexpected miracle of God, we were able to see differently, navigate obstacles, and take hold of a deeper sense of trust and understanding. In these moments we did not possess the necessary materials, knowledge, or strength, yet because of the grace of God, expressed through the strength and goodness of friends, we found the tools to continue adventuring.

"Graciously keep me this night." Martin Luther once prayed those words to God. So many others have joined his plea. A man named Job lost his children in a freak accident, then struggled with the point of life itself. A woman named Ruth waited in the dark, hoping the man she loved would reciprocate her love. An apostle nervously watched his life hang in the balance as a storm wrecked his ship. In love, Jesus graciously watched over each and every one of them. In love, Jesus graciously keeps you, too. He has felt the pain that stabs your heart, the betrayals that send you to tears, and the guilt that keeps you awake. He endured them all to make you his own. Let these devotions remind you of that good news -- that you belong to Jesus, even when the darkness comes.