Denial

Tonight Janice showed us all how duplicitous the human heart can be. If you are watching "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!" you know what I am talking about. I am torn between feeling badly for her and being nauseated by her shenanigans.

Any time I see something that reflects such base human behavior I have the same reaction... because that is me too. Here is the first "super model" who is beautiful on the outside but ugly on the inside. Please don't try to tell me that we are all basically good either. That argument just doesn't hold water if you read the news or live in the same world I do. So if we are all messed up, what's the use pretending everything is good when it isn't?

Well there is hope and here is how it works. God has given us a free pass on our ugliness if we will let Him. Granted no one is ugly all the time but if you served me up a three egg omelet using 2 perfect eggs and one rotten egg, what kind of omelet would it be? So to be honest we are all rotten and fall far short of perfection. Let's admit that much anyway.

I need God and so do you; to get us out of the mess we are in. He can do it and we cannot. So why all the stalling? Let's get down on our knees and beg for forgiveness and healing from the filth of our lives. And when we mess up and jump back into the dirt from which He pulled us, so what? I expect nothing less; knowing what kind of person I am. But I also know something about God and He will keep on helping us as long as we want Him to do so. His compassion and love are never ending.

There is a price to be paid for failure - but He paid it all for us. The only thing we need to keep in mind is that when we keep wallowing in the mud and filth, there will be a consequence and our growth into the person He wants us to become is slowed or stalled.

God places His Spirit in us when He adopts us into His family. So you can be sure that if you belong to Him, He will not let you rest if you aren't living right. But that's a beautiful thing; to think that He wants to help us that much.

So buck up Baby and when you see ugliness in other people, remember that's you too and only placing your trust in God will get any of us straightened out.

What is Baptism?

Tonight, my friend and brother in the Lord, Stephen Baldwin, baptized a young man on the reality show he is currently filming. As I watched, it occurred to me that for many this was a silly exhibition by a "born again" Christian; but as a matter of fact, it may not have been.

You see baptism is an outward expression to onlookers of an inward reality and transformation. Baptism does not change a person's relationship with or standing before God. It does not wash away your sin, nor is it a religious formality that has no real meaning.

When a person comes before God and acknowledges their need of forgiveness for their independent spirit and actions (sin) and expresses a desire to no longer live apart from Him, they are said to be "born again." This phrase comes from the New Testament story when a learned religious leader of Jesus' day came to him to find out who Jesus really was. In describing what it meant to be a follower of God, Jesus tells the Rabbi that he must not only be born in a natural way but also in a spiritual way - this is being "born again."

When we are baptized we are entering into a symbolic act that represents dying and coming to life again, just as Jesus did. The water is symbolic of death and cleansing. We go into the water as a lost and condemned sinner and come up out of the water as a new person who has been cleansed and brought into the life God originally intended - one of surrender and submission to Him.

No one in this life is perfect or even close to it, but being born again is how we secure a place in heaven based on what God has done for us. That is not something we earn but it is a free gift we simply receive from Jesus who provided the way by dying in our place on the cross of Calvary.

Baptism is how we broadcast our new relationship with God to the world. It is a powerful statement that we make to the world, staking out our covenant with God that has unconditionally changed us forever.

Some may be baptized as a religious formality, but to most this act means that something real and vital has taken place in our spiritual life and before God. I hope this clarifies what many saw on television in the jungles of Costa Rica tonight. If it was a genuine personal expression of faith, then it was a marvelous way to tell the world that something very significant has taken place in the life of the participants.

Check out this Trace Adkins video on YouTube: http://bit.ly/QD6B9