Dunked Into The Name

I'm old enough to remember VCR tapes, cassette tapes and even fax lists as methods people used to spread ideas. The internet and social media have replaced those methods.

Someone would give you a tape and say listen (and/or) watch this and then say, 'Tell me what you think.' or you would get a fax from an unknown number and somewhere on it there would be a statement something like, 'Please send this to everyone you know.'

I don't know about you but my mailbox is still full of junk I have to sort through.

I love Jesus' prescribed method of spreading information to the masses...

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.' " - Matthew 28:18-20 ESV

I like this translation very much the only thing I would change is that it says, 'baptizing them IN the name' but a better translation would be. 'baptizing them INTO the name'.

Jesus said dunk them into the culture of my name (which carries the idea of character and nature). People get the information but they get it with a simultaneous dose of fellowship that has the Savior who will never leave right there in the middle of it all.

I remember hearing the Gospel and thinking that the people who gave me the information were just well-meaning simpletons. My culture and even my ethnicity excluded me from buying what they were selling. My ancestors had been killed 'in the name of Jesus' but as a group, they had something that fascinated me. Then one day as they sung their songs at the start of Church I sensed something more... a purity... a holiness... a love. As vessels of clay, they had a treasure. It was God's name on display and I was dunked in it subjectively during the song service and then objectively in the clear message of redemption.

Later, still before my rational acceptance of the message, a man who came to Church with us began mocking the Pastor by imitating him and I remember getting so angry that I confronted Him in a brutal way that shut his mouth. Even as a heathen I instinctively knew that mocking God's man was wrong. I didn't yet have The Spirit making my spirit alive in a continual quickening.

There are many causes out there begging for our attention. Many are good and many are not what they seem to be. Nothing has changed my life like the Gospel of Grace has. Jesus' cause has become intertwined in my life. He took someone who was disqualified and baptized him into the name above all names.

Perhaps this blog is my VCR tape and you are my fax list but this is no impersonal communication to get you to change your mind and funnel resources my way. This is just me talking in awareness of the great 'I AM' hoping your day will be touched by holiness from above. My God wants 'whosoever will' to taste and see that He Is good so that He can be a covering.

"...Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by." - Psalm 57:1b ESV

The 'shadow of His wings' is a refuge for you in your personal storm. May you be safe under them today and all of this week.

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