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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“So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
Love is pointing to Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Let us not recoil at the sight and sound of the crucifixion. It is the battlefield of victory. It is the throne of the King. It is the symbol of salvation.
Christ our Word, as with a two-edged sword, burst the devil's belly.
This is an excerpt from “The Alien and the Proper: Luther's Two-Fold Righteousness in Controversy, Ministry, and Citizenship,” edited by Robert Kolb (1517 Publishing, 2023). Now available for purchase.
As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."
That great truth of creedal Christianity – that God is man in Christ – is not set forth for our speculative enjoyment.
Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.
Hains offers a novel yet simple contention: Luther is most catholic where he is boldest.
For with God we look not for the order of nature, but rest our faith in the power of him who works.
Whatever else may be said of Advent, it is above all devoted to making Christ known as the Lord who condescends to come as Brother to and Savior of sinners.
The epistle text from Colossians 1 declares how the great drama of redemption and human history ends.