THE STORY OF JESUS: Acts 10:44-48
“Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water.” (Acts 10:47)
I have a very simple view on the symbol of baptism.
Grace is not bound to the symbol, as we see here in this story.
There’s nothing supernatural about the water, it is not ‘holy water’.
It is like a wedding ring, it symbolizes and seals vows, but doesn’t make marriage.
You can get married without wedding rings; you can be ‘graced’ without baptism.
I find Christians too worked up about the particulars of the symbol.
How and when to baptize, who to baptize, how much water, who may baptize…
My concern is not when or how a person was baptized, but if they experienced Jesus.
Is the Spirit of Jesus at work in them, is God’s grace at work in them?
Someone baptized as an infant is not somehow lesser graced, or disobedient.
If helpful, use the symbol of baptism (even repeat it) to encourage in faith.
If a person is not baptized, don’t sweat it, God is not limited by our symbols.
As a Jesus follower, my job is to convert people to Jesus, not to my views on baptism.
**Read here about how the Salvation Army does not normally practice baptism.**
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, thank You that Your work is not bound by our limitations. Help us to focus on You and Your Spirit, and not on our religious traditions or practices.
There is no distinction when the Spirit of the Lord is at work. We are the ones to share the Story and God does the rest. It is God at work in and among His people and He is in charge, not I. I just need to be an instrument of His peace, an enabler, a stepping stone and not a stumbling block for those called by Him. Let the ‘children’ come to Jesus.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is dispair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.