This is an excerpt from the third chapter of By Water and the Word: God’s Gift of Baptism for You by Brian Thomas (1517 Publishing, 2026), pgs 52-60.
Even when the bitter places sink down deep into our bones, the Restorer never relinquishes his grip on you.
To Live Well is therefore not a general advice book, but a message suffused with the gospel.

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Theology is not to simply adopt the positions and presuppositions of philosophy, nor should it reject philosophy.
Preaching is simply the verbal bestowal of what Scripture has already given us in written form
Divine election is nothing other than God’s freedom and power to choose, and He has made His word the instrument by which He makes His choice about you.
Only the ministry of the Gospel can forgive sins, even while civil government rightly carries out retribution for lawlessness and disobedience.
I’d like to offer a short reflection on the theme of “worldliness” as it appears in his later work and how that’s connected to an item of his Lutheran heritage: the theology of the cross.
For Luther, Jesus does something much better for those who grieve than simply identify with them: He brings suffering and evil to an end in His own death.
Being a member of a church connects people to the whole reason the church has for existing: that we might obtain justifying faith in Jesus Christ through Word and Sacrament.
This blog is a part of our Advent series on the hope we find in, through and given by Christ. Each week’s installment will look at hope from a different perspective with special emphasis on corresponding passages of Scripture.
The death and resurrection of our Lord has indeed removed the power of all these things. But they remain for now, even so.
What we notice less often is that this same fear wonders about both the efficacy of the Gospel and the Law.