Category: Baptism

A Crown for a King

8/3/2014

Psa 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.

I just finished watching "Robin Hood" with Russel Crow. A fine movie, excellent acting, realistic costumes and a well told story.

As with most things in my life God has used this story to remined and teach me somthing about Him and His story

This telling of Robin Hood is a bit different than most. Robin returns to England on the heel of King Richard's death and impersonates Sir Loxley when in fact he is but a lowly archer. He becomes a hero by defeating the French as they invade England and then is declared a criminal by the New King, King John, because Robin had dared to unite the nobles to defeat the French by getting King John to promise freedom from tyranny by law to all Englishmen.

Jesus was a common country carpenter. He brought a message of freedom. He was declared an outlaw by those with whom freedom threatened their tyranny and He was hung for his message upon a cross.

But God the Father was watching from His Holy Temple and He Declared Jesus innocent and raised Him from the grave and sat Him on the Throne of David forever.

Jesus accepted a crown of thorns in humiliation and humility to receive a Crown and a Kingdom that will never perish. His message is still the same; freedom and equality for all men from the tyranny of sin.

Sin is a tyrant, it doesn't seem like it at first, it promises freedom from feelings of inadequacy or fear. Sin promises things it cannot deliver like power, and happiness, but like all tyrants it demands a tax in return, it steals true happiness and freedom. Sin takes from us our very best.

If you want to be truly free, free inside and truly happy and confident then there is only one solution; become a subject of the True King. Repent of your sins, Confess Jesus as Lord of your life, be baptised and accept the Holy Spirit.

Life will not be easy as a new subject in this Kingdom, but as you grow to know Your King He will become your friend, you're helper, you're confidant and you will share in His riches , you will become free and happy.

May God Bless you and Keep you

Les

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More on Repentance

4/20/2014

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Act 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

In last weeks post I had stated that Peter was asking the listening crowd to repent from their unbelief, I think a bit of understanding concerning the culture may shed some light on why this is an important part of the discussion. Most of what I am about to say is pieced together from many sources over the years so it may not be exactly accurate, if you have some good sources I would love to hear about them.

It seemed that most folks in the days of Jesus had some kind of belief in the supernatural. Of course Jerusalem at that time was mostly a Jewish community. Temple and the local synagogue played an important part in their daily lives so if some Rabi went rogue most of the community would know about it, and this Jesus was a real rouge. He taught about faith in God, He taught about a loving God who judges mens hearts, not their actions, He even claimed to be the promised one of God, the Messiah. This was a very different message than what the priest taught whose real concern was their pomp, power and pocketbooks.

Many if not most of the Jews had attended synagogue school while growing up where they learned about their history, God and the prophets, and of course the prophecies concerning the Messiah who would restore Israel to it's former state of glory they had had during King David's reign. This basic understanding is what Peter was appealing to. He demonstrated from the scripture that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and that all the Jewish people were guilty of rejecting Him. They felt that guilt, they wanted to do something about it, Peter told them to repent, to change their minds about this Jesus and recognize that He was God made man, then be baptized for the remission of their sins.

Last week we also saw that repentance was a deep sorrow for a word or deed from the past that leads us into taking a different action to demonstrate that change of mind. Initially, for the new convert, that is public confession and baptism, then we are promised the gift of the Holy Ghost. I had also stated that repentance needs to become a lifelong habit for us. This flies in the face of the once saved always saved crowd, or does it?

Let me use an analogy here to explain why I believe that our conversion experience is to be the beginning of a lifelong process of repentance.

Suppose, for a moment you and a friend had purchased a wonderful old Victorian mansion. It was run down, filled with trash and cobwebs and tons of dirt. Your friend had put up the money for the purchase and you both were going to live there. In the first week you come in and in gratitude you bust your rear end to get the place cleaned up, you haul off the trash, fix the windows, polish the wood , you even mowed the lawn.

So the next week you both move in.

Then a few weeks later without realizing what you were doing you start packing boxes of trash back into the house. You stop cleaning, cobwebs start collecting and before long it's beginning to look like it did when you and your friend bought the place.

So how does my story relate. When you convert, when you first realize that Jesus is the Christ, that place in your heart that was designed for the Holy Ghost to dwell in, is swept clean and He comes to live with you. But before long you lose your temper with some one, box of trash, you said something you shouldn't have said about another person, oops a cobweb. You feel resentment about helping your folks, oh no, a truck load of dirt. Get the picture.

Now, what happens if you don't clean house? Won't that place in your heart that the Holy Ghost lives in begin to get too full for Him to stay. Of course it will. Of course, the Holy Spirit will not let you keep filling your heart with trash, He will convict you. But if no one taught you how to clean house what are you to do? This is why we need strong discipleship programs for new converts in our communities, the church is supposed to be a community not a once a week social club like many churches of today have become.

What Biblical proof do I have for what I am saying? The whole book of James. Read it, love it, live it.

This Sunday is the day we celebrate the Resurrection, a day of new beginnings, the day when God ratified the New Covenant, signed with His own Sons blood. Jesus was the first born of the New man, the next stage in the evolution of the Human Species if we accept His gift through faith and repent and be baptized, we will be made like Him and live in the joyous rapture of God's presence forever.

May God Bless you and may you be a blessing to others.

Amen.

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Repent, and be baptized

4/14/2014

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Act_2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

In the picture to the left a young man is preparing to be baptized.

In Christian churches all over the world this symbolic re-enactment of Christ burial and resurrection is performed as a rite of passage into the Christian fellowship. Yet I wonder, are we as the body of Christ assuring that the initiates who accept this act truly understand what it is that they are committing to. And, furthermore, do our churches have discipleship programs that will guide these young in Christ to mature Christian living?

I question this because in my own experience, I would have to say a resounding "No" to both questions.

I accepted Christ on the last night of church camp, during a moving and powerful rally. I didn't know what overcame me as I began to cry, not just a few tears but torrents of tears, when the call was made my legs moved as if they were not my own and before I could object I was standing before the other campers with several others, wiping tears away. After that all is a blur but, before I knew it I was in the pool getting dunked as I was told I would be made a new creature through the death, burial and resurrection with Christ.

Then I arrived at home.

My parents had had a bad experience with the church and when they found out I had been baptised they had a fit. No one had prepared me for this kind of experience. The fire that had been light that night soon became a barely warm coal. Sunday school alone was not enough to keep that fire lit. The coal never went out and over the next few years it kept trying to reignite and did for a brief period of time until I rebelled, purposefully. The following years from 13 to 21 were filled with witchcraft, drugs, alcohol, and sin of all kinds.

At 21 years old I was broken. I was a hopeless drunk, living in the backyard of my mothers house in a tent. My then wife of 4 years with my two children had disappeared with another man. I was bankrupt in every sense, yet even in this condition I refused to come home to the Lord. I think I may have prayed while I was in jail that year for drunk in public and other charges and in hindsight I now see how God began changing me at that time.

Christmas Day 1979, Christ gave me a gift, a gift of grace. That was the day He began slowly reeling me back into His Kingdom, that was the day I had my last drink. I credit the prayers of my Grandmothers for that gift as they had been praying for me and even though I did accept the gift of sobriety it would take another 25 years before I would fully recognize who gave me that gift and begin the slow process of growing and maturing in the Lord.

This blog is already getting longer than I had planned so I will split it into two or three parts, for this part I want to focus on the word repent.

The Greek word that was translated as repent in the above passage is:
metanoeō
met-an-o-eh'-oto
think differently or afterwards, that is, reconsider (morally to feel compunction): - repent.

Our English definition from the 1828 Webster Dictionary is:
REPENT', v.i. [L. re and paeniteo, from paena, pain. Gr. See Paint.]
1. To feel pain, sorrow or regret for something done or spoken; as, to repent that we have lost much time in idleness or sensual pleasure; to repent that we have injured or wounded the feelings of a friend. A person repents only of what he himself has done or said.

It is clear in the speech that Peter gave on the day of Pentecost that what Peter had been asking the crowd to do was to repent from their disbelief. Peter convicted the crowd by first reminding the Jews that God had made a promise to King David that one of David's descendants would sit on David's throne forever, He then demonstrated through the Old Testament scriptures that they had rejected and allowed their King to be killed, that they themselves bore that guilt. That message, "pricked their heart" (v 37) which is a term that comes from a Greek word that means, "to pierce thoroughly". That message filled them with such sorrow that they asked the disciples "what should we do?" About 3000 of them repented, they admitted their wrong, then they were baptised.

In English the word repent is a verb and as we all know from our school days a verb is an action word.

Our first action is to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the promised one of God. That is then to be followed with baptism for the remission of sins, another action.

But this is only the beginning of what should become a lifetime exercise. An exercise that will be in concert with the Holy Ghost.

What do I mean? Well, tune in next week and I shall attempt to explain.

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A Crown for a King

More on Repentance

Repent, and be baptized

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