April 3

Tonight we had a baptism ceremony during prayer meeting.



I was thinking earlier today about the baptism tonight, how baptism is a symbol of new life. And as I was thinking, my mind went to my dad - a dead, diseased heart that God miraculously made new and alive (if you know me you probably know his story, if not, you can ask). What a physical picture of what God longs to do in our spirits - to take our sinful, diseased hearts and make them new. My dad's healing didn't take place over night; it was a process, a journey wrought with difficulities, questions, and frustration for my parents. Just as God's taking our stony hearts and replacing them with hearts of flesh is a process, a journey that is often hard, sometimes more than we think we are capable of, but always, always worth it.

There's a song by Clint Brown that goes like this...

Where would I be?

You only know.

I'm glad you see through eyes of Love

A hopeless case, an empty place,

If not for Grace.

All of us come from an empty, hopeless place, but God, through his infinite love and mercy, redeems us and gives us hope and a future, a purpose. There were testimonies tonight of bitterness, fear, anger, selfishness, lust, all being erased and replaced by God's gracious, merciful love. As one man put it tonight, "I know now that my purpose in life is to serve the Lord."

Praise the Lord for new life in Christ!