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 following practices will prove to be beneficial for a preacher’s weekly sermon preparations.
Walking in the light doesn't entail a spotless moral record but rather an honest appraisal of who we are.
If you are going to lose your life for the gospel’s sake, you must begin by hearing it.
Cranach became the evangelical interpreter for the masses
Our value and our values, our life, our everything is from Jesus Christ given to us as a gift.
There is only one antidote to the venom of sin and death: the Savior who becomes the serpent so that every snake-bitten-sinner might live.
In Haidt’s findings, we have plenty to learn as preachers who are proclaiming God’s Word to His Body in its varied composition of reds, blues, and other hues.
We need to know the Christian faith—such as it does not capitulate with Zeitgeist—always comes with a price of being maligned, persecuted, marginalized, blamed, you name it.
When offering encouragement to His disciples to follow Him, Jesus did not promise a pain-free life in this world. Instead, He highlighted the struggle and the difficulty. Why?
As is often the case in Scripture, creation is about a renewed, restored, and redeemed relationship with the Creator.
God is consistently rooting us in reality—both what is seen and unseen—because that is where he is.
To “trust in God in trial” means we fight our battles by kneeling and praying to “the Holy One of Israel,” who works out our deliverance by himself.