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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Whether one believes Jesus to be God or not, His words and actions proclaim that He did not come to be served but to serve.
Don’t let anyone tell you the academy denies the concept of truth...good gracious, I hope by the end of the semester they are still alive.
Forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and eternal life aren't handed out by God because we deserve it.
Though they have never left the church, they have been lost all the while.
In Christian terms, this is a perfect example of the doctrine of vocation, where God calls us to serve our neighbor.
I don't remember the first time I heard the gospel, but I do remember the first time I began to understand it.
She wasn’t so much giving up on her husband as giving up on herself. She was giving up trying to be the person who changes another person. It was going to take more than her to reform the man she loved.
Today, people often bemoan the loss of children in the church.
It's difficult enough for us to bear anothers' burdens, but carry another person's sin for him? Why would we do that?
Their love story was a long time in coming. He was 82 and she 74. And this was the first, and the last, marriage for both.
Life is too short to dream big dreams. They tend to devour everything that gets in their way, including family.
But one key theme that kept surfacing again and again was love: Jesus loved people, the Church showed me genuine love, and above all, God’s love in Christianity is unconditional.