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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You are the baptized, for in Christ we are all wet. The demographic dividers are washed away.
The seemingly small, the particular, the previously overlooked, magnifies in importance.
This day and its meaning provided the opportunity for an anonymous author to write a poem for Sheer Thursday about Judas' betrayal of Jesus.
St. Patrick was great but only because he was a slave to Christ.
Patrick's breakthrough came when he began to leverage his knowledge of the native language and customs to build a bridge between Irish lore and the Christian mythos.
We can interpret "be the Church" as either law or gospel.
A truly Lenten mindset sees the season as preparatory for the resurrection life of Easter as opposed to the mortification of Good Friday.
He declared you what you might not always feel you are, but what you were from the moment he knew you, before you were you, when he foreknew you.
The number forty calls to remembrance narratives of God’s great acts of redemption, but also our conformity to and participation in those narratives.
Regularly reading and hearing God’s Word helps us to keep a song in our hearts.
The driving impulse of Lent isn’t so much “giving up” things as it is “putting on” something.
He was rooted in his own tradition but gracious with others when they wanted to learn about his faith or their own.