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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Christmas is not only about a cradle in Bethlehem, it’s also about a cross outside Jerusalem where salvation was won for us.
To know the cure is not to become immune to sorrow.
Was Jesus ambitious or unambitious? We have to say that the answer is…yes.
It is death that deserves derision, not the disciple who reaches through sorrow for his Lord.
The unity of God’s people is grounded not in lineage nor land but in the promise of the coming Christ.
This is an excerpt from this year’s 1517 Advent Devotional.
Thanksgiving, then, is not just about plenty. It is about redemption.
“The well that washes what it shows” captures the essence of Linebaugh’s project, which aims to give the paradigmatic law-gospel hermeneutic a colloquial and visual language.
Why would David write this psalm for all to read when he was no longer God’s greatest king, but rather God’s greatest sinner?
It is by his perfect surrender that our true Exodus was accomplished.
When we fail, our first impulse is the same as that of our spiritual ancestors: to sprint headlong into the bushes.
Resurrection does not start in sunlight. It begins in the dark.