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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In the upside-down wisdom of God, the place of the cross becomes the place of life, absolution, and triumph.
In grace, God chooses to love his people.
The wrong god means love remains frail, fickle, or a fiction. The right God means love is the most reliable thing in all the world.
Wisdom lurks in the outer places. Rich gratitude sprouts from the impoverished and forgotten.
It is impossible to live our lives in a way that would convince God of our value because he already knows our value. He is the one who gave it to us.
Jesus rests in a manger in the days to come, but don’t be fooled.
The love of God is creative, always giving, always reviving.
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”?
No amount of ritual, sacrifice, devotion, or money could ever do what Jesus of Nazareth was sent to accomplish.
More certain than death or taxes and more certain than “anything else in all creation” is the fact that God loves you.
Let your soul grieve, yes, but don’t let it be eaten alive by worry.
God’s creatures on four legs are some of the greatest storytellers of the Scriptures.