Wade in the Water...

We had a wonderful day in church today. 6 people got baptized. 3 of them were believers who had never been baptized before and the other 3 were new believers in Jesus! I always get teary at baptisms but this time I was so elated! These people had decided to follow Jesus and their lives really show it.

I remember my baptism as a teenager. I was fortunate to be baptized in Lake George in May. For any of you unfamiliar with Lake George, the ice doesn't completely melt until July (exageration)! It was cold. Really cold. The coldest water I have ever been in. As the brother put me under I remember my breath being taken away. It was as if I died. And as he brought me out of the water I inhaled as if I had ascended from 100 feet below. It was like a baby's first breath.

I have realized over the years that the picture the Lord gave me in that frigid baptism is one of the reality of my life in Christ. I died with him and just as he was resurrected to new life, so was I (Romans 6). I was born again. Baptism united me with him in a real way. The Old Ed was left at the bottom of Lake George. The new Ed lives on through Jesus.

24 years later I'm moving forward. Jesus is all to me. Sometimes it takes the baptism of another to remind me of all that my HERO has accomplished for me. Thanks Lord!

Jump Off...

I looked at the cliff in front of me. The clear blue sky formed the horizon and off in the distance I could see the ocean. “Jump off,” I heard the voice say. “Foolishness,” I thought. I would never survive the jump and I had no plans to kill myself. I chalked it up to a million and one things why I would have heard such a command. “Jump off,” the voice repeated. There was something compelling about the voice, something assuring yet what a crazy idea. “Why would I want to do that,” I thought. But then something changed in me. I believed this voice. I don’t know why, but I did.
I took a deep breath, walked backwards for a few steps and then charged at the cliff. As I jumped off I closed my eyes, expecting to hit the hard earth so far below. I did hit something, but it wasn’t hard. It was like landing on a big warm pillow. I opened my eyes to see that I was standing on the top of a huge hot air balloon. Not in the gondola, on the top. I hadn’t seen the balloon from the cliff. Who would have expected a balloon, there, at that time.
We were floating towards the sea by a swift wind that blew us along. I couldn’t see who was operating the balloon. Maybe it was the voice. Eventually we traveled so far out to see I could no longer see land. “Jump off,” the voice said again. This time there was nothing except the green hue of the sea below me. What would save me now if I jumped? But even faster that the last time, I ran off the balloon. I fell and fell for what seemed to be minutes. I watched the sea rise to meet me. Then at the last second, inches away from the water and my uncertain death, a giant eagle swept down and grabbed me with its talons. As it flew it stayed close to the water, so close that a felt the mist of the waves against my face.
It took me up to a high place. A craggy, brown mountain. It dropped me in a nest that was about 15 or 20 feet from the top. “Go up.” Now I’m no mountain climber, but fresh from my experience I stood up and began to climb. The wind that pushed my balloon was strong against my back. It held me in place as I ascended, almost like a hand that was keeping me from falling.
The top of the mountain was a lush carpet of the greenest grass I had ever seen in my life. I looked out over the mountain range that stood before me. I gasped. Literally my breath was taken away by its beauty. I sat there in the grass just looking. I felt blessed to be able to see what I was seeing. The wind blew against my face.
“How did you get here?” I knew the Voice was asking me to thoughtfully consider what had just happened. I sat there silent, thinking. “ I got here because I jumped off the cliff.” “That’s right,” and then the Voice left.

During Meditation on Proverbs 3:5,6