On Life’s Uncertainty and on Baptism

This has been a strange week. Tropical Storm Fay would not go away. Schools were closed, and Fleda has been at home working on our kitchen and cleaning the house. All of our church activities were canceled. As I write this note on Thursday morning, I am ready for things to get back to normal. I hope that Sunday when you read this Fay will be gone for good.

A tropical storm reminds us of the fact that we are not in control of many things in life. As we make our plans, we have to keep in mind how limited in knowledge and power we are. I think of The Book of James 4:13-15 in the Bible: “What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears.”

James teaches us the wisdom of being humble about our plans. An event like Tropical Storm Fay is an opportunity to remember how unpredictable and uncontrollable life is. That leads to the wisdom of humility. There are some reasons to thank God for this strange week we’ve had with Fay.

Baptizing Bobbi Frederick is postponed until Sunday, September 7. I look forward to baptizing Bobbi, because she is so enthusiastic about it.

Here is what baptism means to us Baptists. We baptize those who are believers in Christ as a way of symbolizing that they are making a decision to follow Jesus and to trust him to save them. We baptize only those old enough to think it through and make a clear choice to commit their lives to Jesus.

We baptize by immersion under water because Jesus was baptized that way, because every baptism in the Bible is by immersion, and because it is a good way to show the meaning of salvation. Romans 6:4-5 describes it this way:

"Don't you know that all who share in Christ Jesus by being baptized also share in his death? When we were baptized, we died and were buried with Christ. We were baptized, so that we would live a new life, as Christ was raised to life by the glory of God the Father. If we shared in Jesus' death by being baptized, we will be raised to life with him."

When we go under the water, we die with Christ. When we come up out of the water, we are raised from death to our old life in order to live a new life with him.

I love to baptize people, because when we baptize them we are helping them to say, “I am giving my whole life to Jesus Christ.” Baptizing people by immersion is also, quite frankly, a lot of fun.