Tag: Baptism

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The scripture for today, April 9, is 1st John 4:9f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

We human do not have the will to live perfect lives. We give in to sin. We can never get it right. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. In the Old Testament era, God let people kill an animal in their place whenever they sinned, but it had to be done over and over.

Then God put a stop to that by sending his Son to us for awhile with a body, so his Son’s body could be killed (paying our wages) in our place.

Finally, God invited mankind to “live through him” ~ that is, become Christians. How do we become alive through Jesus? Of course we know about believing Jesus was the Son of God and repenting of our sins. Also Romans 6:4 says when we are baptized, we begin to live a new life, we are born again.

But it does not stop there. We must try the best we can to live as Jesus lived, speak as Jesus spoke, love as Jesus loved. We are not saved by good works because we are still sinners, but we do demonstrate our salvation through the love of God by good works (James 2). With Jesus living in us, we are his mouth, his hands, his feet. It is then that we offer our own bodies as daily sacrifices (Romans 12:1).

This is love.

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The scripture for today, March 5, is Titus 3:5 in the New Testament of the Bible:

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE

God is perfectly good and cannot dwell with imperfection. How, then, can we ever live with him in his heaven? After all, as hard as we try, we cannot be perfect. But God loved us so much that he solved our dilemma. He sent his Son to live that perfect life that is impossible for us to live.

Then, his perfect “Lamb of God” took our punishment for our sins by paying the fine. Romans 3:23 says the wages of sin is death ~ physical death (separation from this world) and spiritual death ( separation from God). Jesus took all of God’s anger, terrors, rage, fury saved up from the beginning of time and about to burst ~ all hurled down on sin to destroy it. That would have destroyed us, but Jesus took it all for us. And that included being completely separated from God. At the worst of it, Jesus cried out to God, “Why have you FORSAKEN me?” That’s when Jesus died spiritually. It was we who deserved to be forsaken by God.

Sin and its power now destroyed, God said if we do as Jesus did and follow what he said, he will consider us perfect also. Such amazing, amazing love!

And this washing mentioned here. It is interesting that here is the “washing of rebirth”, for in Acts 22:16 it says, “Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins” and in Romans 6:4, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism in order that…we too may live a new life [rebirth].” God took care of the hard part. He gave us the easy part.

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WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLEThe scripture for today, February 19, is Ephesians 2:19 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.”

Let us pretend there is a nation called Occland and we want to become a citizen of that nation. Of course citizenship would not be automatic. And in the same way, citizenship in the Kingdom of God (being a Christian) is not automatic.

Just living in a Christian nation does not automatically make us a Christian any more than just living in Occland would automatically make us a citizen.

Owning a Bible does not automatically make us a Christian any more than owning a copy of Occland’s constitution would automatically make us a citizen.

Going to church meetings every Sunday does not automatically make us a Christian any more than going to Occland’s meetings of parliament or the senate would automatically make us a citizen.

It just is not automatic. We would need to be invited into Occland, and then do things to accept Occland’s invitation. God invites us into his kingdom, but we must do things to accept his invitation. Romans 6, Acts 2 and 1st Peter 3:21 in the New Testament are good places to check it out. Do so.

God has already done the hard part. Our part is easy ~ our part in accepting his invitation to be citizens in his kingdom.

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The scripture for today, November 26, is John 11:26 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE” ‘ And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

Jesus was talking to the sister of his close friend, Lazarus, who had just died. Of course we understand he was talking about spiritual death ~ the death of our souls. And death in the original Greek means separation; so in the case of our souls, it would be separation from God.

Revelation 20:6 & 14 refer to the second death which is the lake of fire. So what is the first death of our souls?

In John 3:3 Jesus said we must be born again of water and the spirit. Romans 6:4 says “we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death [of that sinful life] in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a NEW LIFE.”

Someone has said “Born once [physically], die twice. Born twice [physically & spiritually], die once.” If we emerge from the waters of our mother’s womb, that is the first birth of our souls. If we emerge from the waters of baptism, that is our second birth.”

So when Jesus said believers would never die, he meant their souls would never die. How reassuring!

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The scripture for today, October 22 (10/22), is Hebrews 10:22 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

The previous verse said that Jesus is the great (high) priest over the house of God (the church). Therefore the sprinkling refers to the sprinkling of blood the high priests did on the Day of Atonement once a year. (See Leviticus 16 in the Old Testament.) Now our hearts (which we cannot see or touch) are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus.

And how are we to be cleansed from that guilty conscience with our bodies (which we can see and touch) being washed? I Peter 3:21 says, “Even so does baptism now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience toward God.”

We do not have to guess whether we were sincere enough when we gave our heart to the Lord. Our conscience never has to wonder if we did it right. For God gave us something we can actually do to give us a good and clear conscience toward him.

From hence forth, we can draw near to God in full assurance. Full! Not partial. Not wondering. Not with ups and downs of faith. But full! God thinks of everything!

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The scripture for today, September 24 (9/24), is Luke 9:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”

Romans 6 explains this phenomenon best. We are to put our old self to death ~ to crucify that part of us that sins and doesn’t care, that part of us that puts ourselves first (verse 7) ~ in imitation of Jesus dying. Once we decide to put that part of ourselves to death, we are buried, just like Jesus was buried (verse 3 & 4a).

And then, “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (verse 4b). Why? “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (verse 5). Having been “brought from death to life” (verse 13) through baptism, we have been born again!

This is a spiritual death, of course. There is another spiritual death called the second death in Revelation 21:8. If we go through the first spiritual death at baptism, we will not have to go through the second spiritual death. We will have lost our life of sin and in the process saved our souls.

How amazing this is.

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The scripture for today, September 19 (9/19), is Acts 9:19f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food he regained his strength.”

This is the story of Saul, as he was known to the Jews and to us as Paul, who became an apostle. Notice the order he did this: He was hungry, but that wasn’t important. He had to do what was important first. He was baptized.

Why was Paul baptized? In Acts 22:16 Paul recalls that day when he was told, “Get up: be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”

Further, notice who baptized him. Was he part of the clergy, someone with an ordained title in the church? Acts 9:10 says, “In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him…Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.” What title did Ananias have? None. He was just another disciple, disciple simply meaning follower.

Little did this otherwise unknown disciple realize that day, that the person he baptized would end up writing much of the New Testament.

Do you feel like you are an “unknown disciple” to followers of Jesus around you? Find something to do, and God will make it great. And remember, do the important thing first.

The scripture for today, June 8 (6/8), is Romans 6:8 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

We all want to live with Christ, but how do we die with him?  Earlier in this same chapter, God inspired the writer to say this:  “We died to sin….don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead…we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:2-4).

So, just as Christ did a physical action to die for us, we do a physical action to die with him.  And just as Christ’s physical death overcame spiritual death, so our physical action overcomes our spiritual death.  Then we are born again, or as this verse says, we “live a new life”.

Some say this is water salvation.  But it is no more water salvation than the cross was wood salvation.  God put us in a physical world, and God has us sometimes do physical things in order to obtain a spiritual outcome.  Our singing praise songs is a physical thing, but it is no less spiritual in its outcome. Our eating the Lord’s Supper is a physical thing, but it is no less spiritual in its outcome.

Have you died with Christ?

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The scripture for today, June 3 (6/3), is Romans 6:3f  as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life….because anyone who has died has been freed  from sin.”

Oh!  Baptism does all that?  Some people say no, but God says yes.  Indeed, in baptism we obtain a “new life” ~ are born again.  And in baptism we are “freed from sin” ~ forgiven.  Look at it this way:

Just as Jesus died carrying our sins on himself, we die to our sinful nature ~ the part of us that sins and doesn’t care.  Then just as Jesus was buried in his grave, we are buried in our watery grave.  And just as Jesus came up out of his grave the Savior, we come up our of our watery grave the saved ~ with a “new life”, having been “freed from sin.”

Everything works together beautifully ~ hearing, believing, confessing, dying to sin, being baptized.  What an honor and privilege we have been given to imitate what he did for us!  And for those reasons!

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