Whispers from my Inbox

Some tidbits that arrived in my email inbox this morning...

From the Moravian Daily Texts:

You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand has supported me. Psalm 18:35

Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. 2 Corinthians 2:14

Father, you are our salvation, our strength, and our shield. Answer us in the day of trouble; send us help from your holy place. Come in the glory of your saving light and shine upon our pathways. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From John Fischer's "Catch of the Day":

I wanted to get all wet. I wanted to identify with the death and resurrection of Jesus and I wanted to identify with my new family in Christ.

When you are baptized you go down. You put yourself in the hands of someone else and they fold you back under the water. Now they could keep you there and you'd really die, but they pull you back out as a symbol of your death to your old way of living, and your rising to a new way of life trusting in the Spirit of God. And there is great joy in this.

You go down a sinner and come up saved. You go down guilty and come up forgiven. You go down dead and come up alive. You go down alone; you come up in the family of God. It's really a big deal. If it hasn't happened to you, you need to consider it. If it has, you need to remember.

That's a big part of this—remembering. Whenever you are tempted to doubt your faith, remember. Whenever you think that God could never forgive you, remember. Whenever you are tempted, remember. Whenever you think you are alone, remember. It happened to you in time and space. You were baptized into this new life and you have witnesses. Just as Jesus was crucified and raised again at a point in time in the real world, you were identified with Him as well, and with all those who have believed in Him from all time all over the world.