I long for the day when we have a full understanding of God.  I think that we are closer today than ever before.  I think that, just as Jesus cleansed the temple, and just as we can see a few periods of cleansing since then, we will have to see some cleaning in the presentchurch of today.  We do not need to worry about missing out on God, we need to worry about not being flexible enough when God reveals the truth for us.  Are we adapting to the truth in humility or are we sticking to the erroneous things of our past.

What we need is a teachable heart.  Please God give me a soft hear after your own heart.  Bend my ears to hear your voice.  Bend my mind to follow your will.

We drove up to Snowbird today.  It is a skiresort.  We love going up there, mostly for the scenic views of the drive.  It is very grand.
Yesterday as I drove to work I truly enjoyed the view of the SLC Valley and the mountains on the other side of the valley.  The valley floor was covered by bright white clouds.  Several hundred, maybe thousand, feet above thouse clouds were one more level of clouds, these were much darker and more dense.  The mountains in between these two layers where mostly covered by snow.  The morning sun was shining through the clouds at some places.  It all just seemed majestic and reminded me of what the throne of God must look like.

Ok, time to go to bed. 
Be Christlike today.  One of the most common things Christ did was to help someone in need. Maybe the greatest help he provided most often was to impart knowledge.  Teach someone about the goodness of God today.

With God’s promises, why does statistcs show that the Christian population is less happy, less successful, less healthy, and often more poor.  Why, and HOW, can people question the existence of miracles?  If miracles do not happen as often as they should, for example the miracle of healing, then there is a lot of room for questioning.

Joseph Smith, the main founder of LDS, Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ AKA Mormonism, argued that the true church came to an abrupt end at the end of the apostolic era (as the apostles died out, so did the true church).  Church history will support this to a certain extent.  Church history does not support LDS, I am saying that it supports the fact that the church changed drastically in the first century.

What I discovered as I studied was that people fell away from the true teaching of Jesus Christ more and more.  People and the church lost the belief and expectancy in the supernatural.  The church started to replace supernatural elements with things that could be understood with a rational logic.  Baptism was no longer a supernatural “becoming” the likeness of Christ, rather, it became a public confession to demonstrate an understanding and belonging to the death and resurrection of Christ.  The Eucharist, communion, became nothing but a remembering celebration of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and teachings. 

Doubt had taken place that there could be a supernatural act and happening connected to a material manifestation.  The baptism, whatever kind, could not be anything more than what was seen and touched, and even heard.
The doubt in a spiritual/supernatural/mystical manifestation/happening in conjunction with the taking of the bread and the wine is stronger today than maybe ever before.  Baptism has lost all its glory.
This loss of faith in God’s awesome abilities and “almightiness” is showing in the lack of the fulfilling of his promises in our daily lives. 
I argue that God has not changed.  He is the God of Genesis through Revelations.  He breathed, do you get it, a little bit of his breath gave you and I life!!! He kept the sun still for a few hours.  He made a man stronger than thousand.  I mean what can this God NOT do!  Well, you might think that he can do anything.  He is constantly limited by a strong force!  Your will, my will, your lack of faith and my lack of faith are all limiting factors for what God can do!

The God that, by a sigh, created life in Adam, is far more superior than what you and I can even imagine.  I want to re-discover what it is all about.  I want to discover the simple rituals of God that connects us with HIM in the way it is meant to be.  I want to see miracles today!

So, yet one more blog update!

We came to touch on baptism of infants.  The argument was whether the faith of the parents and the minister was enough to save the infant through the sacrament of baptism.  And some seem to believe so.  I thought about it to find a match with this scenario in the Bible.  The only thing I can find is tied to circumsicion.  I am typing fast here since I gotta run.
God wanted babies to be circumsiced in order to be part of his covenant.  PArents and the minister conducted this act and the kids were included.  Why would baptism be so different from a God ordained form of “salvation?”

Thanks for today!

PS. Taking a break in the baptism writing.  I need to find a book that explains the history and development of baptism, but I cannot find it.

It is clear to me that baptism was an established practice and the people knew what it meant (the above is not meant to be proof of that). 
Then, as Jesus are leaving the people behind to ascend into the heavens, he tells his disciples to baptize, to teach, and to make disciples etc.
Teaching is nothing we have a problem with, except for the fact that we are teaching alot more than what Jesus ever taught.  Making disciples might be an area we are failing in.
Did Jesus every teach on the baptism?  Did he ever instruct in the practice?  I take it for granted that he did not teach because he did not need to teach much on the area. 

I wonder if it can be so that the baptism (as with communion/eucharist) is more supernatural than we dare to think. 

D. Longshore commented on a previous post and he mentioned the Spirit baptism as well as the enormous act of faith it is to get bapized etc.

IF the disciples practised something else or if they knew something else regarding the baptism, how has it then developed?
More about that next time….

Love You!

We generally baptise to identify with Christ’s death and resurrection.  Further, it is seen as a public declaration of belief.

I wonder, can there be more to baptism?  When Jesus told us to baptise, did he really ask us to do the above?

What do you think?

Well, my bar for setting the truth is the Bible.  In the Bible, I think that the aboslute of the most absolute truth can be seen in the words spoken by the man Jesus Christ, our Savior, and God’s first born Son.
I want to make it clear that this is the bar, this is what sets the standard for this blog.  I will not research the Bible for everything that I write, I will not qoute the Bible in every post, but rest assure that everything will have its foundation in the whole Bible.  If you find that I am wrong in anything, please let me know!

Thank you and let the ride begin!

Let me welcome you to my world of thoughts!