"The Safe Place"

  My final meeting of the year which was near my hometown in Texas is history. What a great opportunity the Lord gave me. People who I had not seen for years came and those whom I had never met opened their lives up to me. I tried my best to present to them lessons of hope and praise of the Lord. There were visitors at each lesson who had never responded to the gospel of Jesus. The Lord opened the doors of their heart.

  It stuck me as I was speaking on evening that what people need is newness. Now that might not come as a surprise to you. It hit me! Newness...there can be no newness until one is willing to give up the oldness. There has to be a cleansing before there can be newness! It's not just an attitude adjustment but a complete heart cleansing.

  Jesus' commissioned His disciples before His departure back to His heavenly Father to go and speak the gospel message to all and they who believe it will be baptized and they will be saved (Mark 16:15-16)! Why would the words of Jesus speak such? Why did Jesus speak of a message and associate baptism with it? Baptism is where faith and Jesus come together. Peter didn't argue anything with the Jew's asking what they were to do after hearing they had killed the Messiah for whom they had been waiting. Paul didn't argue with Ananias when he was told to arise and be baptized to wash away his sins while calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16). People want to argue things, twist things or make things what they aren't rather than accept the simple message of salvation and respond by faith, trusting their union with Jesus at the time and point of baptism. Being buried with the One who has conquered death is the safest place to be in all the universe.

  Baptism is a burial, the ending of old life so one can raise in newness (Rom. 6:1-7). It was Jesus who spoke the words to His own disciples to preach the good news and faith in them would stir them to respond. Have you been to the cemetery to be buried with Jesus? Let's not argue, just believe! The Lord spoke it, the apostles preached it and those who believed the message received it and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. That's where our safety lay and God calls people from a world of sin into the safe place called the Lord Jesus. Believe His word!