BAPTISM

The sun was shining, despite the weather forecast, as people began to pour out of Hope Chapel and make their  way  down Beach Road.lWhat began as a trickle turned into a river of people, who soon flowed out over the sands until eventually reaching the receding shore line.

An extra crowd had gathered with us in the chapel that morning because they knew that a very special young lady was to give her testimony before being baptised. It was she who had insisted that it was to be in the sea, and had boldly invited so many of her family and friends.

We had reached the shore line, - yes, me too, with a lot of help from my friends,- just as the tide was on the turn. There was a hasty shuffling back from the now gently incoming waves, but our eyes were on our heroine as, accompanied by our Pastor and his wife, she was stepping boldly into the waves.

No, we could not hear the pastor’s prayer or declaration, but we saw her well and truly dunked and yes, raised up again, - that was the important part.

But we had heard our heroine tell us her story, before Tom preached his sermon explaining the significance of the ordinance of baptism.

The youngest of a Christian family, and the only girl, she had risen from Bubbles to Kids Club, to Explode for the teen agers and now had become a helper. A loving carer of old and young alike, surely she of all people was  a Christian?

Yes, brought up in a  Christian family, as a little child, as much as she understood of the Lord Jesus, she had loved him. But now she was about to step out into the big wide world, and she needed a faith that was her own, to know that she had a Saviour who forgave her sins and who would never led her go. Out of her struggles she had found peace.

She was ready to demonstrate to the world her complete faith and trust in her Saviour. As she allowed Tom and Laura to hold her beneath the waves and then to raise her up again, even so she was yielding her life to God and trusting him completely for her future.

How very different was her experience of baptism from mine. In       my teens I too had been baptised my immersion. We had gone to an ornate Baptist church and been allowed to use their snow white robes as well as their baptistry. It was certainly an awesome l occasion Yes, but joyful? No.

You see, I had never been taught that I was a sinner and that Jesus had died as my Saviour. I had been taught to be baptised to show that I was consecrating my life to God.

But God is merciful. He knew that as far as I knew him I loved him and wanted to serve him. It was when Billy Graham first came too UK that I understood that I was a sheep who had been going its own way, and that if no one else had sinned, that Jesus would have needed to die on the cross that I might be saved. Now he was giving me power to live a Christian life.

So did I need to be baptised again? I had not thought so, but I did need to learn to yield myself to God, as this young woman had symbolically yielded her life as she placed herself there in the ocean, waiting to be plunged into the waves.

Later I believed God was calling me to go abroad as a missionary. I was praying, even fasting, asking God to show me where he wanted me to go. He answered me, telling me that it was not about people or places, but he wanted me to know a ‘joyful abandonment to my God.’

Yes, our candidate’s joyful abandonment is a life time commitment, and I know that as I eventually arrived in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, having had no sense of call to that particular place, that almost immediately I felt I had come home and came to realise that he was giving me the desires of my heart.

In every change of circumstance I have had the same experience. And I know that she too, and all who joyfully seek to follow the Lord, will also find that God is giving them his very best.

God wants each one of us to find his very best for our lives, to yield ourselves to him in every situation, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and he will direct your paths.’

THE UPPER ROOM

I wonder what comes to our minds when we mention ‘the Upper Room’? There is a story in the Old Testament about an upper room that a woman had built onto her house where the prophet might stay. It was there that she took the dead body of her beloved child, and her faith was honoured. But probably most of us think of the Upper Room as the place where the disciples were sent to prepare for Jesus, so that he might gather with his disciples to eat that special Passover meal before he, as God’s Passover Lamb, was slain for us. And was this the very same room where the disciples who had gathered around our Lord in Galilee and who, having seen him ascend into heaven, had now gathered together at Jesus’ command to wait for the promise of the Father?

We don’t know whether it was the same upper room or not, but I do know that when I inherited my husband’s upstairs room which had been his study, commanding a view over the rooftops to the hills in the distance, it became to me a very special place.

But when eventually I had to leave our well-loved family home and knew God had led me to this my top floor apartment which immediately became my ‘Eagle’s Nest’ I knew that this was to be for me a place where I would know God’s presence and blessing in a very special way.

But there is another ‘Upper Room’ which is also a special blessing in my life and which I would like to share with you.

I don’t remember how long ago it was, and who it was who introduced me to this blessing, but some

dear friend had placed this small booklet of daily devotional reading, ‘the Upper Room’ into my hands.

When I was first married, the church we attended all began our days with ‘Every Day with Jesus,’ but, after I was widowed, ‘Daily Bread’, ‘Daily Light’ and especially ‘The Upper Room’ became part of my pre-breakfast diet. The Upper Room is particularly special in my life, because those who contribute are not necessarily well known writers but people who bring us thoughts out of every day experiences and who come from far flung places all over the world.

It has become a special blessing in my life not just because of the messages that it brings but because it also welcomes new writers. Called by God to write, it has been a joy to write of special happenings – God incidents, from my own life.

Having received my next issue, I began to thumb through, to see if maybe there might be one of my contributions, but then I closed it, telling myself there was no way I would be there if I had not been informed. But, just a few days later I turned the page to read this my story of the lonely lamb who had somehow wandered away from the flock. As our bus drove on we had been so comforted to catch a glimpse of the shepherd in the distance, a new born lamb already on his shoulder, aware of the need of this wayward one. Yes, it had been a special incident on our holiday and such a privilege to share it, and to have it accepted for the Upper room. But perhaps the greatest thrill for me was to write out another God incident in my life and email it to our UK Editor, and receive an immediate  reply saying how it had spoken into her life just when she had needed it.

Which reminds me of something God had told me many years ago, that it is not what we do but where he takes it to that matters.

So to you writers, or would be writers, I recommend The Upper Room, and to those who are in need of a gentle read first thing in the morning or before you tumble into bed I recommend it too.

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