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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If the season of Lent is a journey, Holy Week is the destination.
Many people have struggled to understand Leviticus and Old Testament worship in general. Here is a handbook or map to navigate these subjects, and to see their relationship to Christ and his saving work.
Today I would like to share The Legend of the Dogwood, inspired by the words of Stoney Cooper.
The needs of the people remain the same, but now the people are you and me. We still sin, and that sin causes so many challenges in our lives.
It’s scary to share my struggle and to show that I have cracks because once I’ve shown my cards, I open myself up for judgment.
We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
Some explanations are better than others, but they remain our explanations—except if we had some perspective from outside, above, and behind nature.
When I finished this book, I loved the Bible, and the Bible’s author, even more. And I can’t imagine a better endorsement than that.
To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus stands before the disciples as the bridge between heaven and earth, and between Old Testament and New Testament.
His love for you is so deep that in his mercy, while you were yet a sinner, God sent his only begotten Son to die for you.
“So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.