Title:  A Child's View

   As a minister, I conduct many baptismal services. My denomination baptizes in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. One Sunday, my family and I went to a friend's home in the country.
   Our four children went outside to play with the others. After a short while, we heard only silence and wondered what the children were up to. We found them behind a barn quietly playing "church."
   Our 4-year-old daughter Susan was conducting the baptismal service. She held a cat over a barrel of water. Trying to be as solemn as her father, she repeated the phrase she had heard many times: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and in the hole you go!"

   -- Focus On the Family Magazine Rev. Charles Foster, Elwood, IN.

Title:  The Jordon

   The River Jordan flows southward through the Holy Land.  For the most part it is neither beautiful nor peaceful.  It's 25 percent mud and plunges downhill at a furious pace, falling nine feet per mile.
   The 158-mile river begins in the snows of Mount Herman at a point 260 feet above sea level.  By the time it empties into the Dead Sea, at a point 1,287 feet below sea level, the water has reached the lowest point on earth.
   Ironically, the river that has inspired thousands of hymns sung by millions the world over, and on whose banks the words were uttered that influenced the course of mankind, today serves as a barrier for thirty miles for the hostile nations of Israel and Syria.
   Amid the unbeautiful, sometimes furious river, east of Jericho, there is a lovely bend called Makhadet-Al-Hijla, or the Ford of the Partridge.  It's a place of great beauty, shaded by willows and eucalyptus trees, much as it was in New Testament times.  Here, according to tradition, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
   How symbolic.  The place of our baptism is a spot of beauty and peace amid a furious flowing river of hate and strife.  When Jesus was confronted by those who sought to take Him, He "went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode" (John 10:40).
   Whether at this location on the Jordan, or another, Jesus found frefuge from the trials of life, at the place of His baptism.  And we can, too.  When difficulties seem more than wwe can bear, going back to our baptismal experience puts it all in perspective.

Jack Gulledge, Ideas and Illustrations for Inspirational Talks, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1986), 10-11

Title:  Dip 'em agin' preacher

On a cold January day down in Tennessee they were having a baptism in  the river. the Preacher said to one man, "Is the water cold?"

"Naw!" he replied.

Shouted one of the deacons - "dip him agin' Preacher, he's still lyin'."

Title:  Close to, Round About, or Nearby

One Sunday, the "Minister" was giving a sermon on baptism and in the course of his sermon he was illustrating the fact that baptism should take place by sprinkling and not by immersion. He pointed out some instances in the Bible. He said that when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the River Jordan, it didn't mean in - it meant close to, round about, or nearby. And again when it says in the Bible that Philip baptized the eunuch in the river, it didn't mean in - it meant close to, round about, or nearby.

After the service, a man came up to the minister and told him it was a great sermon, one of the best he had ever heard, and that it had cleared up a great many mysteries he had encountered in the Bible.

"For instance," he said, "the story about Jonah getting swallowed by the whale has always bothered me. Now I know that Jonah wasn't really in the whale, but close to, round about, or nearby, swimming in the water.

"Then there is the story about the three young Hebrew boys who were thrown into the furious furnace, but were not burned. Now I see that they were not really in the fire, just close to, round about, or nearby, just keeping warm.

"But the hardest of all the stories for me to believe has always been the story of Daniel getting thrown into the lions' den. But now I see that he wasn't really in the lions' den, but close to, round about, or nearby, like at the zoo.

"The revealing of these mysteries have been a real comfort me because I am a wicked man. Now I am gratified to know that I won't be in Hell, but close to, round about, or nearby. And next Sunday, I won't have to be in church, just close to, round about, or nearby. Thanks. You have really put my mind at ease."

(Matt. 23:15) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Title:  Hot Dog, Hot Dog

 My favorite illustration comes from my own pastoral experience. It took place on Sunday morning at Bible Baptist Church in Elkton, Maryland. The Sunday morning service was just ready to begin when in came a man who had never attended our church before. He looked around with awe and amazement at the great number of people packed into the large auditorium.
 He came slowly down the aisle looking from side to side and seated himself on the second row from the front. As I preached he listened with the keenest of interest.
 When the invitation time came, I said, “Now how many of you are not saved, but you would like to be, and you want us to pray for you? Will you raise your hand?” He shot up his hand and waved it back and forth persistently until he was sure that I had seen it. When I asked those who would claim Christ to come forward, he literally bounced out and darted to the altar.
 He stood stiff and erect: I asked, “Sir, do you believe that Christ died to save sinners?” “Yes, Sir, I want to do just that,” he said rejoicing, with a beam of triumph about him.
 When he came into the baptistry, I dropped him into the water and out again to walk in the newness of life. He came up out of the water clapping his hands and shouting, “Hot dog, hot dog, hot dog.”
 Our people roared with laughter. I quickly asked them for silence as I explained that this poor man had not been around the church and didn’t know about “Amen, Praise the Lord, and Hallelujah”; his word was “Hot dog,” and he was praising the Lord with the only vocabulary he knew.

--Tom Wallace

Title:  Considering Growth

by Robert G. Lee

Consider the matter of the growth of Southern Baptists. Usually the subject is approached from the positive point of view. “How shall we grow?”

View the subject from the other direction“How did Southern Baptists not grow?” What are some of the courses which may lead to mediocrity if not to oblivion? Several suggestions may be listed:

1. Practice open church membership this will devaluate our Baptist position.
2. Disregard the Scriptural meaning of, and invitation to, the Lord’s Supper this will cheapen communion.
3. Play down the importance of baptism this will stifle our testimony.
4. Emphasize ecumenicism this will erase our distinctives.
5. Be apologetic regarding the use of the name “Baptist” this will weaken our prestige.
6. Deny direct kinship with the New Testament Christians this will cut the root of Biblical and doctrinal strength.
7. Minimize the importance of training this will close the churches on Sunday evenings.
8. Take the side track of fanatical conservatism or radical liberalism this will produce a series of splinter groups.
9. Solicit financial support from non-Baptists this will make beggars of the churches.

There are other roads which might open the way to denominational nothingness, but this combination would probably make others unnecessary.

Church/Growth of/733
Baptist/Distinctives

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