TIM E HOLDER

 

 

 

The denomination I grew up in was a blessing. It was a great place to learn a lot about Jesus. I was raised memorizing the books of the Bible, the names of the 12 apostles, the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm as well as a slew of other stand alone verses that have remained cemented in my conscious and sub-conscience, rising to the surface when they are needed.

This denomination was also excruciatingly strict in it’s theology and practices. Baptism was extremely important and the biblically accepted form of baptism was immersion. Total immersion. Total and complete immersion. In a few ultra-extreme, hard hat, conventional congregations, it was believed that if any molecularly small part of the body was not completely submerged during this beautiful statement of faith, the baptism did not “take.”

Watching baptisms today is still one of the most emotional and magnificent experiences I sit through, whether it’s in a church service, a swimming pool, a lake or stream. And although I’m nowhere near as legalistic as I was growing up, when I watch a baptism, I still lean to the right, doing my part to make sure the baptizer is shoving the baptizee as close to the bottom of the baptistery as humanly possible.

I once received a note from a lovely friend, Cathie. She said, “Last Friday night was such a special night for me. My choice to be baptized was an act of worship for me and a moment of great beauty on my walk with the Lord. I very much felt the solemnity of offering my life as a sacrifice to the One who has redeemed me with a price. My heart was feeling the beauty of being led by the Spirit to make the choice to truly follow Jesus. As I stood in the baptismal pool I looked out on the people who were gathered to witness and I was struck by such an expression of tenderness in your eyes. Your eyes looked like you were gazing on the baptism as though it were something of great beauty. I felt as though God used your expression as a mirror to reflect His beauty that I was feeling in my heart. The decision to be baptized remains solid but the actual event seems like a blur. I was thinking about it this morning and the two things that I remember most are the way the water felt and that expression in your eyes. You gave me a gift that I’m sure you are not aware of and I wanted to thank you.”

And Cathie was right. I wasn’t aware. I responded back, “Oh Cathie, thank you. What a precious thing to say. And I promise to carry that memory with me forever. To be honest, I get very emotional every single time I watch a baptism. I know that it’s the single most profound public statement that a person will make in their lives. So, I watch…always in amazement and wonder that the very God who hung the stars in the heavens looks down on us during that moment with even greater wonder and amazement. What love and joy and pride he, I’m certain, felt for you at that moment, when you, unafraid and unashamed, told everyone there that you belong to Jesus. My heart just swells up to bursting every time I see that. I love that over all these years of being a believer, that is the one aspect of my walk with Jesus…well that and communion, that never gets rote of trite or commonplace. Thanks for your note Cathie. And thanks for letting me be a part of it. Just remember, God loves you right where you are right now. And I know He’s very, very proud of you.”

I wonder how many times, walking down a sidewalk, sitting across a conference or supper table, pushing a grocery cart, waiting on the AT&T representative to pick up, accidentally running into someone who has hurt or wronged us, how often have we been given the chance to bless someone, sometimes without ever even knowing we did it.

Matthew 5:16 says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to you and know that you’re a good person.” Is that what it says? NO!!! It says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

One of my favorite traditions that was given to me by Carol Skiba, who leads our Creative Living Sunday School Class some 4 years ago. I’ve never liked making New Year’s resolutions. In fact, I read that every year, 87% of adults will make New Year’s resolutions. And 50% of those resolution makers will fail by the end of January. So, I used the idea I got from Carol, which she got from a book called, “One Word That Will Change Your Life” by Jon Gordon.

Simple is best. So, every year, I pick one word that will be my life word for the year. As I sat and prayed and asked the Lord to give me my word for the year, I wasn’t getting a clear answer. But, I felt like I would go with “giving” a couple of weeks before New Years. But, sparks began to ignite all around me that it was to be a different word.

A little more than a decade ago, the week before thanksgiving, I became gravely ill. I went to several different doctors, none of whom could figure out what was wrong. I wasn’t diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis until the next April.

Five months of not knowing. I was scared. One Sunday morning, right smack dab in the middle of the “not knowing,” between services at church, I was in the gym area. People were swarming around in all directions. I almost ran directly into my friend, Lisa Fischer. She smiled and almost yelled “how you doing” over the typical echoing din of a gym. I’m not sure why, but walking with a black rain cloud of fear and uncertainty, ready to burst open at any second, I fought back tears and told her. She listened, and then said, “I’m praying right now.” Right there, in the middle of total chaos, Lisa raised one hand to heaven and put the other on my shoulder and blessed me with a precious petition to the Lord, asking Him to not only ease my distress, anxiety and fear of the unknown, knowing that HE knows and that I would find supernatural peace while waiting. I’ll never forget that “vacuum” moment. But, the funny thing is, Lisa has no memory of it.

Flash forward to last month. I ran into a friend of mine in Wal-Mart before Christmas. I knew he was having some health issues, so I asked how he was doing. He told me the fall he took caused him to have constant headaches. There is a slight bleed on his brain and he is in constant pain, migraines, more often than not. In the moment, I remembered the moment with Lisa 10 years earlier. And I heard the Lord say, Remember Lisa’s blessing.

Right there, in the food storage container aisle, I raised one hand to heaven, put my other hand on Andrew’s shoulder and took him to the throne. He messaged me later and told me what a great blessing that was.

A few nights later, a friend that I’ve known since childhood responded to one of my posts on Facebook and said that several years ago, I brought her back into a relationship with the Lord. She said it was truly a blessing. Again, I have no memory of what I said or did to encourage her to look again toward Jesus. But, in that moment, the Lord changed my word for the year. It is “blessing.”
I don’t know all the ramifications of how that one word will enhance and change and enrich my life and my walk and relationship with Jesus. But, I know it will. As in past years, I’ve wondered where I’ll see the opportunities to use my word. But, I’ve learned that it’s like buying a new car. A few weeks ago, I got a Nissan Rogue. Never really noticed them before. But, now that I have one, I see them everywhere. My hope is that when I get to heaven, there will be many people who come up to me and remind me of a moment when I blessed them, even if I don’t remember it. My hope is that I will have more of those moments than the alternative, where someone walks up to me and reminds me of the time I was angry or short, or rude, or cruel. I want “blessing” to become a habit.

Proverbs 11 says, “The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are blessed. Curses on those who drive a hard bargain! Blessings on all who play fair and square?

The one who seeks good finds delight/ the student of evil becomes evil. A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree. Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air. Common sense tells you it’s a stupid way to live. A good life is a fruit-bearing tree; a violent life destroys souls. If good people barely make it, what’s in store for the bad!”
This year is my year of “blessing.” What is your word?

Back to baptism. Remember, I told you that it was a matter of salvation for the denomination I was born into. And that salvation was, at best, questionable if every centimeter of flesh wasn’t “covered in the cleansing flood.”

When my father first started preaching, he went out many nights to hold what was then called, “Cottage meetings.” He would go to a home and teach the family about Jesus. If they chose to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, they were taken immediately to the church and baptized. I loved going with Dad to the church on those special nights.

At one of his “cottage meetings,” the wife said she would think about it and make a decision by Sunday morning. After retelling her the stories of the rich young ruler and Acts 26 where Agrippa was almost persuaded, dad went home, disappointed, as this would have been his very first baptism.

But, sure enough, come Sunday morning, the lady went forward at the end of the sermon to be baptized. There was general excitement in the room, as this was to be dad’s first baptism as a preacher. She was a formidably built woman and very tall. She and dad walked down the blue painted steps that matched the water into the baptistery together. The lady wearing the angelic white baptismal garment. Dad with his starched white shirt, sleeves rolled up and chest high waders. Dad placed a handkerchiefed hand over her mouth and held the other hand in the air as he announced the usual proclamation. “I now baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, for the remission of your sins, Amen!” She pinched her nose shut and leaned backwards.

Unfortunately, she held her head up, keeping it from going under the water. Dad tried again to push her down, but each time, she held her head just short of complete immersion. Complete, total, soul saving immersion. Dad must have pushed her down at least 5 times, putting more and more muscle into the endeavor, possibly out of irritation that the more he leaned, the more water trickled inside the front of his waders.

Finally, dad realized there was a light blue painted step about 2 inches, just under the surface of the water. So, basically, he was beating this poor tall woman half to death. And an entire congregation of people were rocking back and forth like they were in a row boat in the middle of a squall. Many of them were okay with “buried with Christ.” But, certainly, no one was comfortable with the “raised to walk in newness of life” part. It would have been a shame for

her to miss getting into heaven just because her nose wasn’t submerged. Or maybe, everything but her nose would make it. Who knows. Maybe that’s where grace comes in.

So, what is your word for the year?