Dipping or drowning

They were baptised (1:6) 

I felt an urgent need to pray. So I went gardening. Some of you will be nodding in understanding. Others will be going, Huh. For me, as for many, prayer needs focus. And gardening gives me something to focus on. My current garden job is scarifying the lawn, or possibly raking - you lawn boffins will know which. This involves raking a sprung tined fork over the grass to remove moss and thatch. It's a surprising satisfying job, requiring lots of effort and producing weirdly large amounts of, you guessed it, moss and thatch.

As I scarified I found myself praying, 'Lord, scarify your church. Rake out all that is not of you so that your people can grow'. This prayer lasted many rows. As I reached the last row, I sensed a question, 'What will you do? If it is best for my church that you leave now, will you go?' 'Now, Lord, are you sure?' 'Yes, now' 'Okay, if that's what's best for the church, I'll go now'. Immediately I sensed a reply, 'I just needed to know. Stay'. So here's my question for you. What will you do to allow God's church to grow? Are you prepared to leave something precious behind? 

Baptism is not a dipping but a drowning, death to an old life and resurrection into a new one. Too many of us have only been dipped. 



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