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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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."
God the Father sent us – his wayward, sinful, and naughty children – his own series of Father Christmas Letters.
Psalm 8 is a trailer for the entire biblical movie, and the entire biblical movie centers on Christ.
Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.
If Jesus shows up and you are a sinner, ‘tis more blessed to receive than to give
For with God we look not for the order of nature, but rest our faith in the power of him who works.
We live again, not so that we will now pay our debt, but to proclaim that we live because our debt was paid!
The epistle text from Colossians 1 declares how the great drama of redemption and human history ends.
We don’t start with behavior and work toward Christ. We start with Christ and everything works out from there.
The name of God invites us on a journey to see how God will remain present with his people, listen to their cries for salvation, know their sufferings in such an intimate way so as to incarnate them in Christ.
The words of Jesus shine with a graceful brilliance among the broken fragments of this world.
Even though All Saints is a day for remembering the dead, it is not a day of mourning.