May 3, 2013

  • Almost Right

    I guess it's no wonder that the world is so easily confused and sometimes fooled regarding religious matters.

    A preacher writes: A friend of mine took her 4 year old daughter to a baptismal service at her church. Later that night, her daughter took all of her dolls into the bathtub with her and held her own "baptism."

    As she dunked each doll under the water, she repeated, "Now I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and hold your nose."

    She almost had it right, but not quite! Now, hopefully if you are reading this you are a little wiser than a 4 year old child. But then I guess there are different levels of wisdom and different levels of maturity aren't there.

    I've known some people who have been Christians for years, yet they still don't know many of the basic teachings we read about in the scripture. The apostle Paul wrote about the change that should take place in Christ in 1 Corinthians 13:11. He says there: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

    There needs to be some growth in our spiritual lives. There comes a time where each of us are accountable before God for knowing what his Word says. I understand that we will never know everything, but God does expect growth from us. If we had a child who never grew mentally or in maturity we would know they had a problem. If we don't grow spiritually in our understanding, there is a problem.

    The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: "There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don't seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food." (Hebrews 5:11-12)

    Yes, "in the name of the Father, the Son, and hold your nose" is cute for a 4 year old to say, but where are you in spiritually maturity and understanding. Getting it "almost right" just may not be enough when you stand before God.  ~Russ Lawson