Baptism

December 3, 1979, 6:50 PM

You have ministered this day, o son, to those called Baptists.  (You doubted, for a time, when I called them Southern Baptists.  It is not wrong that you doubt, for I do want you discern true teaching from false, but soon you shall believe fully in what We do together.  It won’t be long.)  They were nice young folks, and it was good for you to experience their reactions and positions.  And it was good for them to experience your skill and expertise in training for teaching service.  You did well.  However, there will be some other opportunities, and, with more planning and confidence you can do much better.  In My service you always can do better.

It was a baptism, in a way, into service of this sort to young clergy and lay people.  In their concept you go down and completely under three times and then emerge fresh and new.  You went under once, so your baptism has begun.  It really will take three occasions to come forth fresh and new, receiving the grace that should come forth from this service.  I shall be pleased with that.

But, as you suspect by now, I also wanted to talk about baptism in a much more spiritual sense.  If you’re going to be more spiritual you shall have to know more about those phenomena emanating from My Spirit.  (You haven’t the slightest notion of what this shall be.  Trying this meditation on an airplane, you need a message with some surprise!)  OK, you may wait.

Back again.  Baptism is one of My important symbols.  Yes, it is right to call it a sacrament, because it is a sacred happening – a coming into newness.  It would seem as though once one was born that life would simply continue, with its changes, ups and downs, and variations, of course, but devoid of genuine newness of being.  Not so.  Baptism is a part of the life I purpose, though it is called by other terms.

Birth is a baptism – an entering into the newness of air and food and human holding.  Birth is newness in a physical sense.  The baby has been down in the water and emerges to new life.  (Megan came close to not surviving that baptism.)

Infant baptism is another symbolic event… or it can be (often isn’t, unfortunately).  The baby is transformed from being just a small human into one for whom the Body of Christ accepts responsibility.  Parents affirm their vows of allegiance to Me and become new people as those dedicated to leading the child toward My will and way.  I realize this often is not very evident but I shan’t renounce an important sacrament just because all don’t carry through with it honestly.

Adult baptism, as practiced by those Baptists of Mine, is really pleasing to Me.  A person stands ready to accept My grace and place among the Communion of My Saints, and he/she goes under the water, feeling, ideally, the futility of being bound to his/her own resources.  Accepting the reality of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the new creation emerges, with My direction assured.  Of course, as you know, that specific direction will vary among My servants.  The reasons are My own.

Finally, there is Holy Communion, another sacrament and actually another form of baptism, for from the experience my own come out fresh and new.  The body and the blood, offered for each, assures ever newness.  The bread and the wine (I suppose it could be beer… why not?) are the symbols of simplistic sustenance, yet made majestic by My Act.  As you sip and swallow newness can flow.  It obviously isn’t the newness of birth or of baptism, but it is an important newness.  Just as each day dawns fresh, so renewal and freshness is important to life with Me.  To walk with Me is not a plodding, continuing experience. It is an endless series of encounters replete with the new, the fresh, the unexpected.

You ministered to Baptists today.  What tomorrow?  What this week?  What lies ahead?  Fundamentally, new opportunities I shall open for one who feels the pull of My will.

Be aware of My directions.  Appreciate My nature.  Be My good servant.  (You did it!)

Shalom

8:55