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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Christian peace is not the absence of problems, but it is the presence of God amid our pain and sorrows.
Luther’s Christmas sermons remind us that unless Christ is proclaimed FOR YOU, He is not preached.
The way through loneliness will lie in the blessing of solitude and the care of God.
Hannah’s story is the story of God’s great reversal.
The well-meaning advice “time heals all wounds” is offensively false when we confront the overwhelming evidence that the constants in our lives are death, taxes, and suffering.
Praying this prayer every day reveals this painful truth, I am guilty in need of forgiveness every day.
It turns out the family trait of not being able to wait runs deep and wide in the family of God. We do foolish things while we wait for promises to be fulfilled.
Christ urges us to love our neighbor as He loved us, forgiving all of their sins - giving them the absolving, shirt-pulling, embrace that we would also want.
He assumed the weakest form to do his greatest work.
"Come to me, all you who are weary of being you, and simply be mine."
We have needs every day, but we also need a daily reminder that God loves us and he wants us to depend on him for our everyday stuff.
Jesus does not seek out Peter to condemn, but to restore his precious lost sheep, His dearly loved prodigal son.