Dipping into the start of our journey in "baptisms", we covered the aspect of "John's Baptism", which, is a baptism of repentence and how it occurs prior to the cross of Jesus Christ. John came prior to Jesus and, in part, prepared the way in people's lives for The Way. Jesus came to "fulfill all righteousness" and to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. The "fulfill all righteousness" that Jesus accomplishes (with the aid of John) is the full acceptance of being the servant of God and obeying every word that comes from the mouth of God. We continued to splash about in the topic pool of the "Believer's baptism", which, is a baptism taking place after the cross of Jesus and is for those who acknowledge their need of a saviour and dedication of obeying God even as Jesus did. This "believer's" baptism is essentially an outward act signifying our inward change via repentance and agreement to follow God. We then lightly touched upon the aspect of being baptized in the Name: the Lord Jesus Christ. Though this is teaching that is controversial, it is something to be considered in light of scripture.
For 4/11/2011:
Brief: My naiveté would have us completed by now with the topic of baptisms - not so much! So, this week we'll begin our dive into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As our topic title suggests, "wind" is an appropriate term in helping to describe the dynamics of the Holy Spirit. The Greek word, "pneuma" (breath) begins to help us understand this a little better - think of "pneumatic tools" or air tools which are usually driven by compressed air. Another, perhaps more appropriate, analogy is the wind which sailboats use to generate a force to power them. I like this one best because the boat is at the complete mercy and dependence upon the wind to move. This is how it ought to be for the Christian - totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit - "For in him we live and move and have our being". I don't expect we'll get through both baptisms of "Spirit" and "fire" this week, but, we'll give it a go! Repeated here are the starter scriptures to use in your preparation for our meeting.
Homework
Note what scripture says about the baptisms and be prepared to discuss them in our group time. For each of the following scriptures, find others in the Bible which complement or expand on the topic.
- Acts 19:4 (AMP)
- Matthew 28:19-20 (NLT)
- John 3:5-7 (NLT)
- Acts 19:1-7 (NIV)
- Luke 24:47-53 (NIV)
- Acts 10:43-49 (NLT)
- Romans 8:29 (MSG)
- 1 Corinthians 3:9-15 (NLT)
“God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!”
-- Genesis 2:7 (MSG) --
No comments:
Post a Comment