A MORE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING

I love it when God opens my eyes to something in Scripture I haven't seen before. That happened while I was reading a devotional about the life of Christ by John MacArthur.

When John the Baptizer was baptizing in the wilderness, the idea was that people were coming to repent of sins, desiring to change, in preparation for the coming Kingdom of God. Some came without true repentance, and John rebuked them in no uncertain terms. But here comes One who had no sin, asking to be baptized. John protested, understandably. But Jesus insisted. He knew that repenting and desiring to change was not enough to get us into God's Kingdom. We were born sinners, and we needed to be “born again,” to have our sins taken away.

Jesus had a plan to fulfill, His Father's plan. He (who knew no sin) was to “be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” By being baptized, Christ was identifying with us and our sin. He knew at the time of His baptism that just as He went down under and rose up out of the water, He would die, be buried and rise out of the grave for us.

Our sin had come between us and God. Only removal of sin would bring us together again. God came down to us as His Son Jesus to take our sins away. That's how much He loves us. His baptism showed His willingness to identify with us in His death, to be our substitute, to die for us, to take the punishment for our sins.

When we are baptized (by immersion) we, in turn, are identifying with Him “who bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness.” He identified with us so that we could identify with Him and be reconciled to God. 

Repentance alone cannot get us into God's kingdom, but paves the way for us to accept Him as our only Savior from sin and death. Baptism is a wonderful opportunity to give testimony of our faith in and obedience to the Father's plan for us, even as Christ fully obeyed the Father's plan for Him. "Through baptism we declare, “He died for me - I'll live for Him!”

SEND ME!

For years my husband and I languished because we were not called. We had purposed to be full-time missionaries in the early years of our marriage. Home missionaries (in the USA). Opening closed churches. Helping struggling churches. But God had other plans. At every missionary conference we cried bitter tears inwardly as the altar call asked for those who were willing to give all to go to a lost and dying world. We prayed that the embers of our passion would die out.

“Here am I, send me” seemed to fall on deaf ears. We were not equipped to be the laborers to be sent to the white fields of harvest. Others went, while we stayed behind.

Now, years later, at my kitchen table over breakfast, I contentedly whisper the vow again, “Here I am, send me, Lord.” My eyes sweep over the scene outside the windows overlooking my neighborhood: The muddy trailer park road we have walked up and down countless times in our 20 plus years living here, greeting neighbors along the way. The trailers and RV's that house utility workers who move from job to job or young struggling families who stay until they are evicted or able to move up a step. My mind wanders to the Tuesday morning Bible study I attend, the ladies I am getting to know, the way we share burdens and grow together, those who need uplifting and encouragement. I see in my mind's eye the trailer across the street that is no longer there, that my husband and I emptied out and sold after the dear mother and daughter who lived there were admitted into a nursing home nearby. The mother has since gone home to heaven. And to think that God used me to share the hope of Christ with her when she was hopeless! There is no greater joy! And I thank God for the many and varied opportunities He has given us to help struggling churches we have been involved in over the years.

Maybe you, like me, often pray for God to send someone to come alongside wayward or lost loved ones to show them the love of Christ, to lead them to Him. But do we make ourselves available to be used by God to be the answer to such a prayer? Pray for God to show you how and whom, and He will. The fields are ready to harvest, but the laborers are few. “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”