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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The gospel is best understood in terms of those two most important words: for you.
It's a new year, and you are still the same you: a sinner who is simultaneously perfect in every way because Christ declares it to be so.
The love of God is creative, always giving, always reviving.
Longstanding tradition must be bolstered by something outside of ourselves that also lies outside of the traditions of men.
In Scripture, laments are raw expressions of grief, but they always point to hope. What if our culture’s obsession with holiday lights is an unconscious way of crying out, “We need good news, and we need it now”?
Instead of a “how-to” manual, the Bible is a “what-you-didn’t-do” story.
What do we learn from the widow? We learn how to be dependent upon God.
This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.
No matter how many times we hear this good news, it never stops being good news.
If we picture the New Testament as a divinely painted masterpiece that hangs in the middle of a museum, then all around it are other works of the period, in different corridors of the museum, in many styles, painted by diverse artists, with variations of color and technique.
Salvation doesn’t hang in the balance of a voting booth.
The difference between God's gospel and man's could not be greater.