There we were singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" every night of Vacation Bible School at the Baptist Church we attended in Yuma, Arizona somewhere around 1961. I asked Jesus to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior!
Then of course, on the last night of Bible School there was a baptismal service. It was an incredible spiritual moment for me. They placed me in a white robe and put a wreath of small velvet flowers that had red bead like anthers atop the filament. They gave me instructions on what to expect and how to hold my nose when I went under the water. I was afraid! Then, when the baptism was over, there were ladies waiting in the wings with towels to help dry me off, and I was shivering as much from the cold water and air, as I was this moment of death that I just experienced.
As a five-year-old I didn't fully understand all the symbolism attached to baptism, but I full well understood that Jesus died on a cross to save me from my sins! In our Bible School room, there was a picture of Jesus on the Cross with blood spilling down His face from the crown of thorns on his head. I looked at it intently every night that week!
As I got back to the room to change into dry clothes, I reached up to wipe away some of the wet that was starting to run from my head and hair, into my eyes. Instinctively, I looked at the wet in my hand which was full of a red liquid, I thought was blood. I asked one of the ladies if I was going to die like Jesus . . . and at that moment, I was recalling what the pastor said as he put me under the water about dying.
Come to find out, the red liquid was the dye in the little bead-like part of the flowers in the wreath on my head mingled with water. But, as I look back on it now it represented exactly what was required during that baptism . . . that I die so that Christ in me can live! And wow . . . that is not as easy as being baptised! John Wesley called the grace with which we live after baptism "sanctifying grace," which is the work of the Holy Spirit helping us to live a life that is sanctified with Christ. It's that grace that helps us lay down the flesh and live into faithfulness and righteousness. This requires nothing more . . . than surrender! Absolute surrender of our will to the will of the Lord! And surrender like that requires a conscience decision many times a day! Would it be that we would all surrender and serve Christ like that . . . Yes?
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