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A lady stopped me after church Sunday to talk about baptism.  She enjoys our church, wanted to join, but grew up in another tradition where she was sprinkled, not immersed.  She told me she was scared of going under the water and that was big obstacle.

I used to make light of such fears.  I have heard others - people hate to get up in front of a crowd, people don’t want to speak in front of people (we ask people to declare out loud, “Jesus is Lord” before baptism).  But I have fears too.  Not of water or speaking in front of others, but a fear of gettng stuck in a confined space and a major fear of heights. 

This is what I have learned - one of the reasons God asks us to be baptized is so we prove to ourselves that our desire to obey Him is stronger that our fears.  Once you do this, following Jesus is a positive reaffirmation of the your decision to be baptized.

I walked this lady through the mechanics of baptism — and when she found out she could hold her nose, she was okay.  And she can share in the joy of obedience.

I confess, I have been a bad blogger the past seven days.  BUT I was on vacation, getting some much needed rest - accelerated by the fact that I strained my back at the Y during an exercise class.  The lesson?  Don’t exercise!

Easter was a great day at ADBC.  We had over 1600 - but the best part was seeing four people baptized because of their faith in Jesus!  We also had a couple of folks profess their faith in Jesus - what better day than Easter to take that next step!

Today, we avoided the typical post Easter let down with a strong worship experience in all three services.  Even though we had some folks not back from Spring Break, it was a good crowd.  Best of all, we welcomed Todd and Penny Fleming and their family to our team. Todd will begin serving as our new Education and Disicpleship Pastor.  You will love his warmth and his passion! 

 It was an order from the Roman government – extra large nails.  The blacksmith knew what they were for, but business was business.  He fired up his forge, heated a cold slab of iron, and began the pounding of the glowing metal.  As was so often true, his customers wanted quality work, but they wanted it yesterday.  It was late in the evening when he plunged the last nail into the cooling water.  The Roman centurion would be there in the morning, first thing, to pick them up.  How could the blacksmith know that these nails would hold the Son of God to a cross – that it would his sins that would forgiven, while his Savior was held by his nails?
She had a reputation for quality work – there were no picks or skips in her weaves.  Her cloth wasn’t cheap – she aimed for the high end of the market.  Her customers were the elite woman of Jerusalem, and the aristocrats who prized her burial linen – it was the finest that could be had.  So it was no surprise when Joseph of Arimathea came by her market stall in a hurry one Friday afternoon.  He needed six yards of burial linen – he didn’t say why.  She was shrewd enough to eye his anxiety and knew he would not haggle.  She cut the cloth and called out the price – 100% over what she would normally settle for.  He didn’t bat an eye, but paid, took the cloth and hurried away.  She cursed herself for not asking for more – the man clearly would have paid whatever price she asked.  How could she know that her cloth, from her loom, would wrap the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords?
His hands were permanently curled, always ready to receive a chisel and hammer.  It was the fate of ever stone mason.  He had apprenticed during Herod’s great building expansion and had moved up from cutting building blocks to creating masterpieces.  As a Jew, he could never chisel a statue, for that would be a graven image.  But he could take stone outcrop, and fashion a tomb with gentle curves and smooth surfaces.  It was that kind of care that gave him a waiting list of customers. Just last week, he finished a project that a rich out-of towner whose dream was to be buried near the Temple.  He had been well paid, but it was time to start on another tomb.  It was near his last project, the one he had done for Joseph of Arimathea.  He heard that Joseph had not used that tomb for himself, but for some crazy rabbi from up north.  Funny what people do.  When he went to work that Sunday, after a Sabbath of rest, he noticed all the commotion by Joseph’s tomb – people running around, soldiers coming and going, even a priest or two dropping by.  How could he know that the tomb he carved out of a mountain would be used once – and then discarded by Jesus, who conquered death a little earlier in the day?
You never know when God will touch and use what passes through your hands.

I have started in Deuteronomy - Moses begins by telling the people the story they already know - but that’s important.  We need to know our story - the story of how we encountered God, and what He’s done for us.  Do you know the high and low points of your story with God?

Psalm 63 - Does your soul hunger and thirst for God?

Matthew 26:17-35 - the Last Supper.  As I read this, I wondered:  “Did the disciples know this was coming?  Did it catch them by surprise?”  It seems like it.  In a few hours they went from normal to unusual, to hearing Jesus tell them the worst about themselves and them living up to it.  Link this back to chapter 25 - be prepared to live your faith in a moment.

Romans 10 - Classic statements.  “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  “How will they hear without a preacher?”  “Faith come by hearing.”  This chapter is core to understanding the process of a person becoming a believer.

Sunday was a great day to finish the series “Would You?”  Funny thing was we weren’t sure how spending a seven weeks on the last day of Jesus’ life would go over.  It’s hard to have happy time around the torture and crucifiction of Jesus.

But this is what we found:  Attendance moved up.  God answered specific requests.  More people professed their faith and were baptized.  Giving went up.

Here’s what I learned about church through this:  people really do want to know Jesus and they want to know the truth.  Packaging is good - but what’s inside matters.

Personnally, I was moved throughout the whole series.  It amazes me how Jesus took our punishment.  I realized that God’s love overcame pain.  Sure, other humans have suffered as much - maybe longer.  But they suffered because they didn’t have a choice.  Jesus did.

Al Mohler and I go way back - We’ve been friends a long time.  I don’t agree with Al on many things, but I thought his comments on the Elliot Spitzer situations were especially appropriate:

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=1113

Numbers 26- A second census - which marks the death of the faithless generation.

Numbers 27 - Two things in this chapter - God includes women in the line of inheirtance - an important development!  Women share in the promised land.

Second, Moses is thinking about succession.  When God reiterates that Moses will not go into the Promised Land, his first reaction is:  Who will take my place?  The mark of a good leader is to be thinking about who takes your place.  This, by the way, is not something Baptist Churches do very well.

Psalm 58 - Never let injustice inhabit your heat.

Matthew 24:36-51 - Again Jesus drives home the point - be ready for the master.  Focusing on the timing of the second coming means you forget to be ready.

Romans 7:13-25 - In the clearest scripture passage on the subject, Paul explains his struggle with sin.  We know the right things to do, but sin pulls us in the other direction.  Jesus alone can resolve this for us.

 Every room in our home has been re-done since we moved in almost 14 years ago – every room but the kitchen.  The original wallpaper was long out of date and the colors simply didn’t fit the rest of the house.  We had put off renovating because we knew it would be a chore – stripping wall paper, spackling, sanding, priming, and painting.
I finally bit the bullet and started stripping wallpaper about three weeks ago.  Last week, I gave a couple of late nights to spackle over huge sections of the damaged wall.  Then on Saturday, we lined up for the main event. 
We had invited some teenagers to help us, offering to pay them a little.  We started with the sanding, then we wiped down the walls, and then we primed the space. 
The clock registered 6:00 PM and we faced a choice – quit and go eat (my vote) or push hard and put on the paint.  I was outvoted.
We painted fast and furious.  Fast and furious painting also means paint gets on the floor (in spite of drop cloths), on the counters, on the ceiling, on our clothes, in our hair (or in my case, on my scalp), and on the furniture.  But by 8:00 PM, we were done!  The transformation was startling.  The room looked fabulous.  Sure, we had to touch up the white trim, but overall, things looked great.  We went to eat and celebrate.
When I got up the next morning, things still looked great, although a little dark, due to time change.  It was in the afternoon with the sunlight streaming through the windows that we noticed the thin spots, the streaks, and the places we just out and out missed.  Oops.  It didn’t take us long to decide on a second coat.
This is what I learned from that experience.  When God first comes into your life, the transformation can be startling.  You feel a peace you have never felt before.  You find old temptations no longer attractive.  The truth is you are different and things look different.  Then God’s Holy Spirit shines a stronger light to show you places where you are not done.  We need another coat of grace, we need to touch up the unfinished parts, we need to let God complete His work in us.
Many believers chicken out here.  They feel its too much work.  But God wants to bring you to completion.  Let Him finish His work.  Let His light show you where you are not yet done.

I’m still thinking about Sunday.  In case you missed it, the long fabric hanging from the tech balcony reminded us the Temple curtain was torn into the moment Jesus died.  It represented two things:  First, sacrifice is no longer needed.  Our relationship with God is not based on what we do, but it is based on what Jesus has done.  Second, nothing now separates us from God.  Jesus’s death has bridged that gap!

What a great day to remember God gifts through the Lord’s Supper and the message!

For whatever reason, many of these passages spoke to me of leadership:

Numbers 15 - What impressed me about this chapter is right after the people have been punished for their lack of faith - not going into the promised land - God gives them instructions about sacrifices they are to offer when they get there.   His mercy is amazing.

Number 16 - In any church or any organization, you can bet there is some one who thinks they should be in charge.  I’ve had to deal with folks like that.  Sometimes the hardest piece of God’s will is to accept you will not be number 1.  I can be like that myself.  And if you do not accept this reality about yourself, you will damage you, your family and and your future.  It certainly did for Korah.

Numbers 17 - God always has a way of validating his chosen leaders.

Numbers 18- Priests and preachers are not the same, but every minister needs to read this chapter and think about how it applies to their lives.  God has given you responsibilities.  Be respectful of what He has given you.  He also provides for you- you get to share in His offering, and from the choicest part.  BUT remember you are to give as well (v. 26).

Numbers 20 - this chapter scares me - because Moses had done so well - but he and Aaron mess up and they pay a big price.  Why?  The margin of error is smaller for leaders.  Simple as that.

Psalm 54 and 55 - what to pray when you are under attack - and remember that attacks often can come from those closest to you.  I remember years ago hearing Rick White of the People’s Church telling about a close friend leaving the church.  I vowed it wouldn’t happen to me.  Guess what? It did.

Matthew 23:13- 39 - a leadership check list:

1.  Are you the barrier between people and God’s best?

2.  Do you convert people to the right things - to religion or relationship?

3.  Are you right about all the wrong things?

4.  Is your obession with the details getting in the way of the most important things?

5.  Are you expressing what is really inside or just trying to fake your way through?

6.  Have you cleaned up your inner world?

7.  Are you playing that most useless of leadership games - “If I had faced that choices, I’d have done it different?” 

8.  What kind of legacy are you leaving?

Romans 5:12-21 - Paul’s elegant argument - Sin came by one man - Adam - and contanimated all.  Salvation comes by one man - Jesus - and saves all who will take the gift.

Romans 6:1-14 - If you are in Christ, don’t let sin have dominance in your life!