Last Friday afternoon a young man was the first person to be baptized at our new facility and the first to one use the new baptistery. February 12th, the date of his baptism, also happens to be his Birthday. He said,
“I’m being re-born on my Birthday.” How cool is that!
1 comment:
Gail;
-----When I was fellowshipping with Pentecostals in my late adolescence, I was dismayed at how quickly they turned upon their earlier Christian years. “I wasn’t really saved then,” was the common shtick. This caused me to ponder much upon what salvation really was and when one could really say he had it. And to me, that had everything to do with the new birth and when one really had it.
-----I look back over my earlier years, too, and note beliefs and attitudes I held then which I would not go near now. But I can not by that say I was not reborn then. And by understanding further growth in the Lord will have me also re-examining in the future beliefs and attitudes I currently hold does not leave me denying that I am now reborn. I have come to understand that dating my rebirth can only be applied to the time I committed to accepting the Word as the truth by which life would be clarified for me. I am glad I was baptized in the same hour I made that commitment, otherwise the date might loose focus. But I can’t remember the month, day, or even year. All I remember is that I was about fifteen, and it seems like maybe it was summertime.
-----Even though the young man baptized at your facility has an excellent means to remember the date of his baptism, we all have an excellent necessity to remember the commitment. My years in high school before the final semester of my senior year were not very glorious for the Lord. I could have joined my Pentecostal brethren in proclaiming I had not really been reborn during that time. But during those years, I knew I looked upon what I was doing against a backdrop of what little I knew about the Word, and I admitted the duplicity of my life. I held to my commitment knowing it would eventually dissolve the duplicity. And it did. I still look upon duplicity in my life even now, still committed to allowing the Word to dissolve it, too. And it will. Remembering a date is gravy for the potatoes. Remembering the commitment is the potatoes.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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