What Does Baptism Do?
By Brian W. Thomas
05/01/26
21mins

What Does Baptism Do?

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.
The Tree That Sweetens Every Sorrow
Bradley Gray
Bradley Gray
04/30/26

The Tree That Sweetens Every Sorrow

Even when the bitter places sink down deep into our bones, the Restorer never relinquishes his grip on you.
A Review of
Amy Mantravadi
Amy Mantravadi
04/28/26

A Review of "To Live Well: To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times" by Alan Noble

To Live Well is therefore not a general advice book, but a message suffused with the gospel.

All Articles

RJ Grunewald
RJ Grunewald
04/14/14

God Makes Pizza

A couple of weeks ago I ordered pizza for dinner. I didn’t pray, “Lord, give me pizza.” I called the store. The pizza did not drop down from heaven at my doorstep like manna from heaven.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
04/12/14

What Would You Want for Your Last Meal?

I am lord of all I eat. I lord it over meat, potatoes, pecan pie. I make those foods serve my body, transforming them into me. But it is not so with the meal of Jesus.
Jeff Mallinson
Jeff Mallinson
04/10/14

Theology of the Cross and Gardens

For all our best efforts—political and evangelistic—our approach should always be through the Theology of the Cross. Our gardens are still bloody, but the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world will one day restore peace to our gardens.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
04/09/14

What is That in My Casket?

What we confess concerning a corpse confesses much about how deep, or how shallow, is our understanding of the importance of the incarnation of Jesus, his death, and his (as well as our own) resurrection.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
03/14/14

"I Love You" is an Incomplete Sentence

We love because we find in the beloved something that is lovable. We see, we know, and then we love. Or, at least, we promise to love.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
03/12/14

Adam's First Sunset: When All You’ve Known Sinks Away

For who of us, at some point in our lives, has not watched with horror and grief as our own “sun” vanishes? You stand around a rectangular depression in the ground to watch a box of wood that cradles your beloved slowly lowered into the dark earth.
03/12/14

More and Religious Liberty (Part 2)

Even putting to the side More’s purposes in the writing of Utopia, and Bolt’s in composing A Man for All Seasons, certain contexts pertaining to each are revealing.
Rick Ritchie
Rick Ritchie
03/10/14

Life Together Under the Cross (Part 2)

As with many teachings, the Lutheran teaching on Mutual Conversation and Consolation of the Brethren fits in with other teachings. The various teachings don’t stand alone, but they fit together as an organic whole.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
02/24/14

Smut and Smug: Secret Religious Delight in Society’s Moral Degradation

I think the chief reason that a faction within me welcomes the disintegration of the American ethos is this: it makes me feel so much better about myself. The smut makes me quite smug.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
02/21/14

Look Who I Found in the Grave

God must kill me. He’s got to slay me, put me six feet under, and shovel dirt atop my corpse. Then, it’s like, “Hey, I finally understand! You’re God and I’m not.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
02/19/14

Tripping Helen Keller

Why, given all the things we wish God had told us, but didn’t, does he “waste our time” by stating the patently obvious? Was there, in Moses’ day, an outbreak of violence against the disabled?
Jeff Mallinson
Jeff Mallinson
02/19/14

Ethos Matters

Ever experience a congregation with the word "Grace" in its name that was nonetheless ironically ungracious and legalistic? I have.
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