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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What the gospel does is take people who were enemies of God and transform them into lovers of God
The one who delights in the law of the Lord learns to fear his own good works and trust God outside of them.
God can never really be said to be ignoring us, even if our experience with God at any given moment is that he is.
The good news for Jacob is that God humbled himself so that he could lose a wrestling match to a man with a dislocated hip so that he could give him a new name.
When the historical importance of revivalism is understood, one can appreciate that the question, “Could America experience another revival?” is also a question about the fate of Christianity in America.
God’s words do things. When God blesses you, you are blessed.
The Lion of Judah, Christ the King, Jesus of Nazareth, will not be away from us for one night.
It is Jesus himself who is the ladder by which sinners get to God, not by them climbing up but by God climbing down.
It is your privilege—we may even say “right”—to call upon this Father and to call him Father.
Success is emphatically not your primary identity.
Like Jacob, sinners approach the Heavenly Father wearing the clothes of their older brother, Jesus.
What we do much less of, even in Christian circles, is recognize just how pervasive sin is, such that it has thoroughly corrupted us.