"Why did you get so choked up?"

Some of my best memories of my time as pastor of Northside have been the baptisms.  I will never forget baptizing four young students from China.  They had come here to do graduate work and our Chinese Fellowship had befriended them and they had accepted Christ.  That was a big moment for me to see the world has come to us and that anyone in the world can come to Christ.

In some ways my most memorable baptism was one I had a hard time saying anything because I got choked up.  You can't imagine me doing that can you?   A few weeks before, a young African Muslim woman came to my office.  Her name was Maria.  She briefly told me of her treacherous and deadly journey leaving a war torn country in Africa.  She and her family, who are all still Muslims, somehow made it through a series of harrowing moments, through some refugee camps and finally to the United States. 

Maria was very much to the point of her coming to see me though.  She wanted to become a Christian.  She had seen the violence and brutality that had hidden behind a veil of religion in Africa.  She had heard about Jesus in the refugee camps.  She had attended our church, it was within walking distance of the apartment she had found to live in while she attended college here to become a nurse.  Maria was truly ready to give her heart and life to Christ knowing that it would be very costly to her.  Her decision led to her family disowning her and counting her as dead.

As we stood there in those waters for her baptism, I was overwhelmed by the thought that I have never in all my years baptized anyone who had to pay such a high price to follow Christ.  I usually baptize people with the blessing of their family or at least some sort of acceptance.  There was none of that for her.  Yet, there was a joy in her that brought us both to tears.  Several people asked afterwards,  "Why did you get so choked up?"  If you read this and still don't understand, I am not sure I can explain it to you.

Today, August 14, Maria graduates with her RN degree. She remains steadfast in her faith.  There has never been any family help but yet there has been help from her spiritual family at Northside.  Sometimes God brings a person with great needs into your life and you think it is so you can be a blessing to them.  But in reality it is so He can show you how that person can become a blessing to you.  Congratulations Maria, you are that blessing.  May there be many more like you that God brings into our lives and into the family at Northside.

for the journey...

Tim

Rituals: Right or Rite?

Not long after I became pastor of one of my previous churches, one of the deacons came to me after a baptism and said, "Preacher, you are baptizing people wrong."  I asked what he meant by that, I was sure that I had gotten our last candidate totally immersed which I thought was pretty much the only real point for Baptists.  "They are facing the wrong way.  When we baptize people here they face the other direction" he said.  I wondered if there was some verse in Titus of Philemon that taught the proper direction to face when being baptized; perhaps I had been absent that day in seminary when they covered that.

I did not really understand what he meant and after a few more questions that only made me look worse in his eyes something dawned on me.  I asked him if my predecessor had been left handed?  The previous pastor had been there for many years and, yes, he was left handed.  I told him that I was right handed and wanted my right hand underneath people when they were baptized.  That was the reason they were facing the way they were when I baptized them.  That really wasn't good enough for him but we left it that this may in fact be a "disputable matter" not clearly spelled out in Titus, Philemon or even in the various interpretations of Revelation.

It is interesting what becomes a sacred to people and why.  I have had similar conversations with people when the Lord's Supper elements where not covered with a white sheet and when a baptismal candidate wore something other than white as they were being baptized.  It seems to often happen around our two "ordinances" that we observe as Baptists - baptism and the Lord's Supper.

This Sunday, we are going to do both and I will preach about both - how there is a common thread shared in baptism and the Lord's Supper.  From time to time we need to ask ourselves why we do what we do.  Is it out of ritual or out of a relationship?  

The truth is I think most of us who go to church often have some things that have become rituals to us.  We may not realize it until a new pastor comes in and baptizes people facing the wrong way.  Then what we have made sacred is revealed in our disappointment and we are forced to examine ourselves.  That self examination seems to be something I have read a verse or two about.

What is sacred?  What is not? What is right and what is simply a rite?  I hope you will be there.  I am sure there will be some comments.  I will even let you weigh in on whether our baptismal candidates faced the right direction or not.

for the journey...

Tim

Lottie's Prayers

 "...and a little child will lead them.  Isaiah 11:6

Over the past few years, we have been privileged to baptize around twenty students who have come from China to Victoria to study.  Our Chinese Fellowship has done a great job of reaching out to them and loving them to Christ.  This Sunday, there will be another baptism of Chinese visitors but this time it will not be a student but parents of a student.

A while back a young lady from China - I will call her Lucy - came to Christ while here in Victoria and she was baptized at Northside.  When she went home to visit, her parents could see a change in her life.  They wanted to know more about what had happened to her.  She began to tell them about Christ and the difference he makes.  They also were witnessed to by a sister-in-law here in the Chinese Fellowship.  They have found a church to belong to in China.

Sunday, they are being baptized here while in the U. S. to see their daughter graduate with a Master's degree and begin her career in New York City.  Lucy is a very small, quiet young lady but her life spoke volumes to her own parents.  I watched intently as I met with her parents about baptism and she translated and shared Bible verses in Mandarin from her phone.  There was a joy about her in being a part of this moment.

My, if pioneer missionary to China, Lottie Moon, could see this today!  A Chinese girl came to Victoria, Texas and met Christ.  Went home to lead her parents to Christ in China.  Now she takes the gospel with her to New York and her parents get baptized in Victoria and return to take the gospel to China.  God does answer prayers beyond anything we could 'dare to ask or even imagine.'

It all produces a joy.  A joy that the gospel can travel so far, overcome so many barriers and keep spreading through so many different circumstances.  It is the same joy the came into Paul in jail in Rome as he wrote back to the church at Philippi.  It is that joy that we can celebrate Sunday and everyday because the gospel does not stop working.  It is that joy that we can know because God wants us to experience it.  I hope you can be here to share it, but also know His joy knows no barriers.

for the journey...

Tim