January 5, 2010: The Journey 23

"I baptize you with water for repentance."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. A little boy about the age of 5 sat and watched as his daddy, an Assembly of God pastor, baptized some of the flock by putting them under water.
When arriving home after church the lad gathered up their three house cats and put them in the bathroom and shut the door. Now this young lad, wise for his age about being baptized and the different ways to do it, filled the bathtub with water. He then got on his knees and prayed and got the first cat and put it under water bringing it up and saying, "I baptize you in the name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.". The cat was very mad and ran to the corner of the room. The lad then got the second cat and this was not going to go as smoothly for the cat saw what happened to his brother. After a fight the lad got the cat under the water and brought it back up saying, "I baptize you in the name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit." And the cat ran to the corner of the room.

So now the lad got the last cat, and this little cat was having nothing to do with this, the four legs of this cat clawed and scratched and fought off this dunking in the tub till the lad gave up and held the cat on his lap beside the tub and dipping into the water he placed water on the head of the cat and saying, "I baptize you in the name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, and if you want to be a United Methodist that is just fine with me." And now you know the story of where the saying, "Holy Cats" comes from... MOVING ON. Today is Tuesday and that is Schools day on this line, and folks, some people think that God has been thrown out of our public schools. Not according to what I saw doing Santa this year... Our public school teachers in the most part are believers, and true believers find a way, let me repeat that, TRUE BELIEVERS find a way to get the message out about our Lord Jesus. The way you can help is be sure you tell your children about Jesus, get them to a GOOD Sunday school and church and let them take Jesus to school. Maybe someday we will hear about kids being baptized in the schools swimming pools.

Please also pray today for Vicki and her family.

The Journey 23: Matthew 3:11 - "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." (NIV)

As we talk another day about John the Baptist and once again put our feet into his shoes, we find him going around baptizing people in the Jordan River. We see John preaching and teaching about the coming of our Lord Jesus and how John is not worthy of even carrying the sandals of Jesus. We see that John does not want to take any of the glory that belongs to Jesus. He wants all to know that He is unworthy and He really cannot save a soul. He is just teaching that we all need to repent. Now our lesson for today is as we answer the call, the command, I might say, to take The Good News about Jesus to all creation, we need to be very careful to give all the glory for our work for Him. I have heard some people who really work hard for the Lord make statements about how many people got saved at an event. Folks, we never really know how many people get saved through our work. We might know how many came forward but some of those I am sure go forward every time they are at a place where there is a call, and while there is nothing wrong with coming forward to confess your sins, those in charge of the program do not know who gets saved because that is up to our Lord Jesus. And it is one part of His ministry that has not been turned over to us. God has given us much, very, very much, but He has not given us the ability to SAVE A SOUL, that is still up to Jesus. To enforce that I want to put this scripture before you right now...

John 14: 6 - Jesus answered: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)

Now I want you to go with me to another scripture.

Mark 16: 15 - He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." (NIV)

Read these scriptures and try very hard to understand that we are all to work for Jesus taking this message of salvation to the world, but we must also leave the soul saving up to Jesus and we must be sure that part of the message gets through loud and clear. The part of the message that must get through is that to be saved one must confess unto God his love and belief in Jesus Christ as his/her Savior. I know people who tell me they love Jesus but their works do not show it, but again I am not the judge on this. Jesus is the judge. Folks, this is a heart-to-heart thing between Jesus and each and every one of us as an individual. Brothers and sisters, I want to be very clear on this... SALVATION IS NOT A RELIGION, IT IS A RELATIONSHIP. I do not care what church you belong to, that church will not get you into heaven, in fact if you are working for the church and not for Jesus you might just be in trouble at the end. It is fine to work for your church for a good church is needed and we all need a good church. Notice that four letter word GOOD... There are churches that are not good folks, and I am not making a list of them. But if you go to a church that is telling you things that cannot be supported by The Word of God as found in the Bible you might just need to make a change.

Again at the beginning of this year I want you to know, I want all of you to know, that I believe in God The Father and His One and Only Son Jesus and also The Holy Spirit. I want you to know also that I believe in what is in the Bible from where it says "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth" to where it says. "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen." That would be from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21.
I believe our Salvation has been paid for by Jesus and that we need to trust and OBEY and we need to repent of our sins (and yes I am a sinner). I believe all of this and I believe you all who follow my writings need to know just what I believe.

Dear Father in Heaven... I do believe in You, 100%... and I love You and I today thank You again for trusting me to do work for You. I am humbled by this. Thanks for all You do for all of us... In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Go forth sharing with others from your vast collection of blessings God has entrusted to you.
Love ya, dan.