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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Five promises were seemingly all those apostles, staring into the sky, had to go on. Five promises that were more than enough.
The price was really paid. Your sin remains buried in Christ’s tomb.
The notion that your goodness is “good enough” to make you right with God is a lie straight from the father of lies himself.
Bathed in the waters of baptism, you are placed in God's path of totality, a path he won for each and every one of us.
Jesus continues to do the same for me and for you as he did for his disciples. He still shows up for us. He still speaks his peace to us.
Paul knew that, without the resurrection, the Christian life was a “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video.
This article is written by guest contributor, Aaron Boerst.
You are the baptized, for in Christ we are all wet. The demographic dividers are washed away.
Defy the world with its “oughts” and “shoulds,” for in Christ, it is finished.
The seemingly small, the particular, the previously overlooked, magnifies in importance.
The death and resurrection did indeed really happen. They are accomplished historical facts, and by them, so too is the forgiveness of our sins and justification before God.
This article is written by guest contributor, Christopher J. Richmann.