The Washing

There he was.  Down in the river called Jordan.  Stringy hair, wooly beard, and hairy.  Hair everywhere.  He was known mostly as The Washer.  It seemed like his eyes were staring at you no matter which direction he was looking.  Common folk were drawn to him, religious leaders were conspiring against him, and the King was fuming.  He wasn’t actually yelling, but you could hear every word as if he was…”Turn, turn to God.  His kingdom is here.”  It caught everyone off guard when all of a sudden he fell silent and his gaze turned away from the people and to the lone figure walking down the bank toward the water’s edge.  It was as if the air itself stopped moving to pay homage to the one approaching The Washer.  The crowd made room as the wild man gently lowered the man into the water and then raised him up.  With water streaming down both of them, the clouds parted and a dove maybe, or wind, or maybe just our imagination, but something or someone it seemed had come from the heavens and covered the man who had just been washed.  The voice we heard next could not be missed, “This is my son, I am pleased with him.”  Then The Washer went one way and the man went another.  The Washer kept pointing people toward the one he kept calling the lamb.

What do you think about Baptism?  Share your thoughts.

Hope for Finances

Crisis, lowest since, hard times, bailout, job loss, bankruptcy, fear, recession…depression!  These are the words that we hear while we listen to the news.  And as we look at our personal account balance it might be what comes to mind as well.  As I listen to God’s voice in the scriptures I hear another story…food, blessing, open floodgates (in a good way), delightful land (see Malachi 3).  It’s not that God is living in a fantasy land either, these words of hope are found in the context of judgment, poverty, perverted justice, bondage, corruption, and in a landscape that sounds like the one we hear on cable news.  In the midst of fear and depression God springs into the scene with HOPE!  The challenge is that we are called by God to trust him.  One of the central ways we show that our trust is real is the way we use our money.  It sounds old fashioned, but giving our tithes and offerings to God first is an act of trust.  And God promises to bring blessing into our lives when we do.  That’s been my real life experience.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.