Immersion Baptism

I am a member of a church that practices “Immersion Baptism” of believers. It is not a tidy event with a few drops of water on an infant who does not know what is going on. When we baptize it is a soggy messy affair. The person being baptized must be able to confess with understanding, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and my Lord and Savior.” The person must really want to be immersed into Christ.

It is a reminder that being a Christian means that we totally belong to Christ. In going under the water we die to our old life and are buried with Christ and being raised up out of the water we are resurrected to a new life in Christ. Baptism is our first obedience to Jesus and it is here that we receive our gifts of the Holy Spirit to do the ministry God calls us to carry out.

Soaking wet we know that from this point on we belong to Jesus and that we can go to God in prayer and claim our baptism and forgiveness of our sins.

Is the Dash Really A Straight Line?

Older tombstones will often tell you something about the person buried there but modern stones usually have a date of birth then a dash and date of death. You may see 1901 – 1998 under the name and that is all there is for that life.

The dash there fore contains all those years and events and leaves you to wonder what it was all about. Now is that dash on close inspection really just a straight line? If we magnify it by researching the life of the deceased what will we find?

I think that we will find a long series of interlocking circles of people, relationships, and events. People come into our lives and we share things and events and then we go our separate ways and they become one of our circles. Later we cross paths again and a circle interlocks. One example is found in our online social networks’ like “Facebook.”  Since joining facebook I have been contacted by hundreds of old friends and family and the circles come back around and interlock. Going to my high school reunion did the same thing.

So you see I think that that life dash on the tombstone is really a series of interlocking circles. 

Polygamy

The word polygamy means many wives. There are some countries in the world today that allow a man to have more than one legal wife. Most of these countries but not all of the countries are Islamic and their laws allow for four wives who must all be treated equally.

The Christian Bible states that a Bishop must have one, and only one, wife but leaves an option for a man to have more than one wife if he is not a bishop. The bible tells us of many men both in the old and new testaments that had more than one wife. King Solomon had hundreds of them.   

The culture of the first century and before permitted polygamy. Western European countries after the fall of Rome passed laws allowing only one wife at a time. Before Utah became a state it allowed polygamy because the Mormon Church permitted it. In order to achieve statehood the Mormon Church abandoned the practice. There are groups of Mormons today who still who hold to those old ways. There is even a TV show called “Sister Wives” that touts the “lifestyle” as though it is a good thing.

Should marriage laws be tied to religious beliefs? Should US laws allow for religions to set and practice their own standards for the number of wives? What do you think about this?

A Very Spiritual Retreat

A Very Spiritual Retreat

I spent this past week-end on a very spiritual retreat singing with the Kentucky Regional Men’s Chorus. I joined a hundred other Christian men at Lake Cumberland State Resort Park in one of the most spiritual events a man could enjoy. It is an awesome and powerful feeling to sing the songs of our faith with so many men.

From Friday night through Saturday night we sang, prayed, worshiped and experienced Communion. Then on Sunday morning we provided a sermon in music for First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Somerset, Kentucky. What a blessing that was!

I have been participating in this chorus for eight years of its nineteen years of existence. Each year we are in a different part of the state often in one of the state parks but sometimes in hotels in the larger cities. This is an annual retreat that once a man experiences he won’t want to miss. For the most part the men are from Kentucky but we have men who come from may other states and Canada. Some are men who have moved away but come back for this and some are like my brother who at my invitation drives up from Louisiana to sing with me.

I am already looking forward to next February in Henderson.

Check out the web site at http://www.kyregionalmenschorus.org/

Living Proof

Living Proof

As Disciples of Christ we are all called on by the “Great Commission” to seek the lost and bring them to Christ by proclaiming the Gospel. Then we are to baptize them and teach them all the Christ has commanded us.

Some followers of Jesus do not do this because they are afraid of offending people, or doing it wrong and not being successful.  There are many reasons for not being evangelist. Fear is one of most powerful reasons given.

I remember an old saying from a preacher who mentored me in the 1960’s.

“Become living proof of God’s love, one person at a time.”

How easy is that? Simply live out the gospel life in such a way that others see Christ in your life. When they ask you about your faith you can respond to them in love. Not all of us are called on to be powerful evangelistic preachers. Some of us are called on to live the life of love quietly as witnesses of God’s love and grace.

Gambling In Kentucky?

The governor of Kentucky has been trying to get slot machines and casinos legalized in Kentucky. This is supposed to help our budget woes. There is the old argument that because states that border us have gambling [now called gaming] Kentucky money is flowing to those states.

In my mind this is NOT a good thing!

It is said that once Bugsy Siegel, who built the Las Vagas early casinos for the “mob,” was asked by a friend which games they should play and which games to avoid. His reply was, “They are all bad bets.”

The only real winners are the owners of the gambling establishments. Yes some money would flow into state coffers but you know what politicians do with more money. We already have lottery and that was suppose to solve all our state money problems and hasn’t.

There is a very real social cost in the form of the poor to see gambling as a way out of poverty and can not see that it only get them into deeper debt. There is an addictive side to gambling that creates even greater problems.

The gambling organization will keep pressure on our government and on voters by spending a lot of their profits made in other states on ads and lining the pockets of our politicians. We must resist!

Uniforms for Congress Members

A dear Texas friend Lesley sent me the following statement ---

"I think Congressmen should wear uniforms, you know, like NASCAR drivers, so we could identify their corporate sponsors."

I agree completely! We should know who is lining their pockets and paying for their re-election.
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And perhaps single term limits would be a good idea.