Still My King
Today marks the 79th birthday of my beloved father-in-law, Bill Vaught. We call him "Daddy Bill," a name given by his first grandchild. I plan to give him a call later today and bless him with a birthday wish.
March 21 is also a reminder to me of another sort of birthday. Thirty years ago on a Monday night in Camarillo, California I was riding in a red Dodge Dart with one of my surfer friends, Rob Grenville, and Larry Fuller, an elder in the church I had been attending. For several weeks I had been convicted of my need to pledge my faith in Christ in baptism. Finally one day I felt it was time to "take the plunge" and so I called Larry and asked if Rob and I could come out to his ranch house in Moorpark where we had spent many evenings together studying the Word.
We sat in his living room and I told him I was ready for him to baptize me. It was a joyful ride in his Dodge Dart as Larry talked to me about what an important decision this was. A handful of people were there at the church as they celebrated my vow to Christ, my body going down into the water and resurfacing. I certainly wasn't aware of all the implications of what happened that night. It would take years of study and prayer and experiences, both joyful and painful, to work out the implications of dying to myself and living under the Lordship of Jesus. But it has been an amazing journey.
I recall so well the next day. My boss and I played tennis on a beautiful Southern California day. And I was deeply aware that something happened deeply in my soul. In years to come I found myself feeling less at home in this world, hungry for Christian fellowship and times of corporate worship of my King, and being enamoured with the word of God.
Though I allowed myself to take some sad detours into legalism and sectarian thinking, I've witnessed Christ being so faithful in drawing me closer to Himself. And helping realize that only He can satisfy and only He is worthy of my trust and praise.
That Monday night, through this beautiful and mysterious sacrament of water baptism, I was declaring to Jesus in front of the world that I want Him to be my King. And by His grace, I'm still finding myself making that confession today. No one or no thing can be richer than knowing and serving and loving Jesus. And being loved by Him.
With Christ in our hearts, what better birthday celebration could there be?
Jim
posted by Jim Clark @ 7:56 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Jim, dear friend,
Oswald Chambers is used for one of God's "coincidences" for you today. His entry in My Utmost For His Highest is as follows:
March 21, 2007
Identified or Simply Interested?
I have been crucified with Christ . . . —Galatians 2:20
The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to myself. Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ . . . ." He did not say, "I have made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ," or, "I will really make an effort to follow Him"-but-"I have been identified with Him in His death." Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all that Christ accomplished for me on the Cross is accomplished in me. My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.
". . . it is no longer I who live . . . ." My individuality remains, but my primary motivation for living and the nature that rules me are radically changed. I have the same human body, but the old satanic right to myself has been destroyed.
". . . and the life which I now live in the flesh," not the life which I long to live or even pray that I live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh-the life which others can see, "I live by faith in the Son of God . . . ." This faith was not Paul’s own faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith the Son God had given to him (see Ephesians 2:8 ). It is no longer a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable limits-a faith that comes only from the Son of God.
Wow! I think I'll print that quote, take it with me to the Men's Walk this weekend and ponder it for awhile.
I'm signed up to pray for the Walk at 3:30pm every day this weekend. As a result, you will be in my thoughts and prayers. May everyone there, both pilgrims and team be blessed beyond expectations.
In His love, grace and mercy
Kathy
Thanks for telling us about your baptism. What a beautiful memory.Our physical bodies are growing older and worn out, but our spiritual bodies are just getting better, being transformed to look more and more like Jesus. We see His likeness in you, Jim,
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