Fridays are for… Newspaper Articles

Here is my weekly article in the Canyon Lake (TX) Times-Guardian:

                     “I Admit I Was Jealous!”            

Last Sunday, we broke our church service off in the middle, left out building and finished the service at the Gaudalupe River.  In fact, I preached two points of a three-point sermon at the building and the third next to the River.           

What were we doing?  I was preaching on baptism because we had scheduled the baptism of several people—it turned out to be four, because one family did not show up, due to a misunderstanding about the schedule.             

How was this somewhat radical approach received by the congregation at large?  Well, as could be expected, not everybody made the several mile trek from Comal Country Church to the River, near Maricopa Lodge.  However, I do think at least half were there, filling up the standing area (where there is a kind of concrete “porch”) and a good bit of the hill leading down from the home of the lady who lets us baptize there.           

Most important, there was a wonderful spirit of love and celebration in the air.  It was not at all a spectacle of watching people go into the cool water of a river fed by a deep granite-bottom lake whose dam is only a little over a mile upstream from this location.  Almost everyone there was indeed genuinely touched by the professions of faith and initial steps of commitment of these four, three of which were children under 12.             

And, yes, I am freely admitting that I was jealous—I wished I could have been among those being baptized at that beautiful site.  You see, I got baptized in a heated baptistery at my home church in Mississippi shortly after I trusted Christ at the beginning of my senior year at Mississippi State University in the Fall of 1970.  But, my brother, Billy, got baptized in the Jordan River in 1973, while on a trip to the Holy Land, at the traditional location where John the Baptist baptized Jesus (see Matthew 3:13-17).  And, I have been at least a little bit jealous of Billy for that ever since!           

Now, here I am doing baptisms as part of my pastoral ministry here at Canyon Lake.  And, whenever I look at our location where we do our baptisms, I think of that spot in the Jordan River—and I wish I could have been baptized there… or here!           

Why does it strike me that way?  Some of it purely emotional, I’m sure.  But, I think it is because a baptistery in a church building is such a controlled environment.  And, I freely admit that I would rather swim in the ocean—or the Gulf of Mexico—or a lake than in a swimming pool.  A pool is not “the real world”—and neither is a baptistery!           

Let’s face it: A heated swimming pool or baptistery is not a very realistic introduction to the hard realities of living out faith in Jesus Christ in a world that is rapidly becoming spiritually darker all around us.  Instead, it is the sort of environment that says everything is going to be made as easy and painless as possible.           

But, that is not the way it is—or is ever going to be.  Living for Christ is the opportunity to be His faithful “ambassadors” (2 Corinthians 5:20) in a world lost and dying in sin without Him and His redeeming death on the Cross.  It is world full of people that Christians are to love because God loved them first (John 3:16).  But, it is also a world that is no longer truly ours, because our citizenship is now first and foremost in heaven (Philippians 3:20) and we are left here primarily to serve the Lord.           

Will I ever get over my “jealousy?”  I don’t know.  But, one thing I do know is that, in my desire to be where they are, I must remain just as passionate in my own life about the admonition I gave to each as they went under the water, then came back up: Now “walk (i.e., live moment by moment) in newness of life.”  That command must never become old hat for any believer!

Coming Monday: “An Applicational Review of J.P. Moreland’s Kingdom Triangle (continued)”