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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Erasmus and the Unintended Reformation
With the Spirit we will get lost in the world. We are on a new track.
This is a companion article to “Johann Spangenberg on Dying Well”
God does not give us an undebatable answer to suffering. Instead, God suffers, too.
Five promises were seemingly all those apostles, staring into the sky, had to go on. Five promises that were more than enough.
Don’t get in the habit (or, if you already do it, get out of the habit) of saying, “I could never talk about these things the way my pastor does.”
Sometimes, we get prayer dementia. We can’t remember what we were going to pray for, we can’t put the words together, and, frustrated, there is nothing we can do but sigh and groan.
Regularly reading and hearing God’s Word helps us to keep a song in our hearts.
It would serve us well to embrace the beauty of our diversity within the unity of the body of Christ.
How’s your ticker?
God has a hall ready for us, for us and for so many more
If poetry elevates its subject, we could also say the reverse: the subject, in this case, the Most High God, elevates the language.