Life And Living. Number 40.

Life is better when we learn.

Life and Living

Part Forty

God’s Power in Baptism

I enjoyed and am encouraged by this devotional. You did well in this writing to bring to mind the things of God's doing that we don't really see even though they are there because he has said they are.

The one very evident one I can see is sometimes missed because of vague teaching or skipping lightly over the evidence God gives to us. I am thinking of the working of God in the act of being baptized. Peter was not just speaking words with no meaning when he told his listeners that if they would repent and be baptized, their sins would be forgiven by God since he is the only one who can forgive sin. Peter was not using the act of baptism as a sign of already being "saved" when they had believed but in the unseen work of God's love in action – the actual forgiveness of sin. Those who were baptized were able to have a clear conscience about their sin since it had been erased from the mind of God. This is something that cannot be seen but is true in the spiritual realm. Then as proof of God then declaring these who were being baptized were his children – and joint heirs with Jesus – He gave them the gift, His gift of the Holy Spirit.

I don't know how to explain this invisible greatness of God's love any better than this, but your devotional has brought it out of my thinking. I just have to give God the credit for using your writing to help me express how the true effect of baptism is the invisible thing that happens and not just the body getting wet.

Thank you for your writing. Keep your heart in heaven and your eyes in His word.

I wrote this in response to a Faith writer’s devotional on about 6/10/2020.

It is good for me to recognize the talents of others and be content and use the measure of the talent God has given to me.

7/26/2020 Larry E. Whittington