Got Jesus?

We are to be baptized as a sign that God has forgiven us for our sin. We are baptized to be cleanse and as a sign of our renewal and fresh start.

When asked what it meant to be baptized, one woman responded, “Its like being a pumpkin plucked from the pumpking patch. First you are washed clean on the outside, but then you are made clean on the inside too. All that muck and slimey stuff within is scraped off and taken out. Then you are given a new face to face the world, and God’s light begins to shine from within you. Just as the pumpkin is transformed into a jack-o-lantern, you are transformed into a new person in Jesus Christ.”

We are to be bapitzed in the name of Jesus, who is the head of the Christian family... the one through which we receive eternal life, as he is eternally alive...

who provide us with ample examples of how to live our lives and how to live with, and treat one another...

who gives us the power to grow in our relationships - the one we have with God, and the ones we have with other people.

And then, Peter says, we receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what empowers us to be different from the person we were before. It empowers us like a spiritual battery to live in this corrupt world we live in, but live differently than the corruptness calls us to live.

The Holy Spirit counsels us, guides our thoughts and actions.

The Holy Spirit is our connection with God. We are baptized in the name of Jesus as a sign of our desire to start again, to be in right relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of that relationship we have with God.

This is God’s promise made to each of us and our children, and to all who are far away, to everyone God calls.

Peter spoke in reference to those who were far away geographically, but we have become a global community. Peter spoke in reference to those who were outside of the Jewish heritage, the gentiles, but today there are those who are much further away in their hearts, much further away spiritually - lost from God, living in the middle of a bustling community.

Some are so close, but still have so far to go.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement was an Anglican Priest. He studied at Oxford and was ordained in 1728. With his brother Charles he began a systematic plan of Bible study and service initially refered to as the Holy Club and later derisively labeled the Methodists.

In 1735 John and Charles went as missionaries to Georgia in the colonies. Their trip was not a successful one. John returned to England feeling he had fail in his ministry there. To top it all off, there was a terrible storm on the trip home and John was extremely frightened for his life.

We can understand the fear, but there was a religious group on board called Moravians in which John Wesley saw that they had something in their faith that John did not have.

He was a minister and a missionary, yet he lacked assurance of his relationship with God.

On May 24th, 1738 - 10 years following his ordination and ironically at the same time of year we celebrate the Pentecost experience today - John was to know such an experience, which he described in now familiar and famous words.words -