Here's a song...have you ever heard it?
"Obedience is
the very best thing
to show that you believe...
doing exactly as the Lord commands
doing it happily...
action is the key
do it immediately
Joy you will receive!
Obedience is
the very best thing
to show that you believe...
O B E D I E N C E
Obedience is
the very best thing
to show that you believe..."
So, now for a story. Yes, it will be a good one!
*****
My husband and I were with our son last year
when he knelt by our bed,
and prayed and asked the Lord
to come into his heart
and to forgive and cleanse him of his sins...
John chapter 3 verse 16
But
for some time now...
My son has been struggling...
with anger and rebellion.
He's had many (normal) questions about his faith...
What does he believe?
Why does he believe it?
Does he believe it?
Perhaps...he thought...he didn't want to be a Christian.
We have had some really hard days here in our home...
his anger and rebellion were escalating
because he had many ideas to process...
and the processing of all of those ideas...
was
a difficult task...
it was hard on all of us.
He is saved from paying for his sins...
but he was struggling with
identifying with and living as
a Christian...
now...
as a healthy young man.
So...
What did he really believe?
Why should he believe what he had been told all of his life?
Did he believe it?
Perhaps...he thought...he didn't want to be a Christian.
*****
On our recent trip home from visiting Bob Jones University,
Robbie had a long airplane ride
to process all that he had seen, heard and started to understand...
***
the young Marine...fit and handsome
who loves the Lord deeply...and wants to spend his life serving Him...
and was so very cool to hang out with...
and
the host roommate who loves calculus...and pizza
and God...but not in that order...
and
the evening of running around, goofing off and playing games
with his perfectly normal host roommates and their friends...
***
Soooooo...
my son listened...
and listened...
while he was there...
for complaints about the rules.
There were goofy remarks...but not complaints
in fact...they didn't seem to mind the rules.
***
Soooooo...
my son looked...
and looked...
while he was there...
for proof of hypocrisy in the faith of his hosts...
but only saw imperfect, young men,
eager to serve God.
For. Real.
***
He watched them..
laughing and joking...
yet...
when it came time to be serious...
about their love for God
and for others...
he saw
that they were truly committed.
He listened and watched as they individually,
without force or dragging their feet,
but wholeheartedly...
studied,
prayed,
meditated on
and discussed God's Word...the Bible.
Each night, before bedtime, several rooms of hearty, happy young men
got together and prayed together as a group...
he listened as
they brought their problems to God and
fully trusted Him
to be in control of their lives
and he saw what his heart had been telling him all along...
faith, trust and commitment to God
brings a
joy and peace
in your mind and heart...
that you can't get anywhere else...
(motorcycles, a girlfriend, independence...
no matter what you want to think...)
because the source of this joy and peace
is like a well that never runs dry
because
it only comes from
God.
He looked around and saw these young men
eager to serve God with their lives...
and had what he had been searching for all this time...
an example.
God gave him not just one or two...
but many, many examples of what life
as a young man who is a committed believer
looks like...
not perfect, not sinless, not nerdy...
but simply filled with a kind of peace and joy
that only God can supply.
***
Soooo...
on the plane ride home
our son prayed...
and asked the Lord's forgiveness
for his sins of denial, anger and rebellion...
and begged Him to take him back as His child...
and found forgiveness...
and was flooded with
an amazing, unspeakable
peace,
joy
and
contentment.
On the way home from the airport,
my son gave me a big, happy surprise.
He apologized in detail
for his anger and rebellion towards me.
And when we got home...
we went to where my husband was waiting for us,
and my son apologized in detail
for his anger and rebellion towards him.
And we rejoiced.
The next thing he said was...
I need to get baptized.
Last Sunday,
my son
did something to show everybody
that he has turned his life around 180 degrees
and has
decided
to follow Jesus.
Baptism is not some complicated practice, but it means much.
The person being Baptized must simply believe upon Jesus Christ as Savior
and Resurrected only begotten Son of God
whom died for his/her sins.
Mark 16: 15-16
15 And he [Jesus] said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (KJV)
When we get Baptized, it is an act of faith and obedience;
obedience because our Lord told us to do it, and
faith in that when we get Baptized
we are declaring publicly that
we believe that Christ Jesus died and rose again.
In the picture below, my son is in a baptismal, which is in the front of the church.
You can see a corner of the pulpit to the right of the photo.
The baptismal is filled with water.
This is Pastor Fountain with Robbie.
When you get baptized,
you are put fully under the water
just as Christ
-who was dead-went into the tomb,
and then you are brought out of the water
just as Christ
rose from the dead.
It is a statement of faith as much as it is obedience to our Lord.
It's a public statement...that you identify with Christ and are His follower.
My son was fully immersed into the water
just as it states to do in the Bible.
The pastor is saying;
"I Baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...
Laid in the likeness of His Death...Raised in the likeness of His Resurrection.
and then Robbie was up out of the water.
My son is now Baptized into the body of Christ.
It is not the Christian officiating the Baptism that makes him Baptized,
it is the Lord that accomplishes the Baptism,
for we do it in His Name
thereby asking His seal upon it.
We have a different young man here in our home...
happy,
respectful
and obviously filled with
God's Love and Peace.
He's still not perfect...
but neither are we.
Thanks for reading my story.
It's one of my favorites.
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