From tracking stats on this site, I know that some of you readers were not there on Sunday night – specifically because you follow from other states or countries. I just wanted to fill you in real quickly on what went down at our Baptism Gathering. We planned to do the baptism outside at an amphitheater on the Riverwalk in West Columbia, but God had better plans and rained us out. We quickly packed up shop and moved over to our secondary location – inside a parking garage at the state museum. We set up a baptismal and as many chairs as we could find and watched over forty people publicly proclaim “JESUS IS MY LORD.” Now here’s the thing about Midtown, we like to celebrate, and I don’t mean with a golf-clap. The crowd of five hundred people sitting and standing shook the garage each time one of the forty-three were raised out of the water.
Without a doubt, baptism gathering has to be one of, if not my absolutely favorite night of the year. Watching family and friends gather around the baptismal while their loved one was being baptized -- seeing brother baptize sister – husband baptize wife – teammates baptize each other – fraternity brothers – the whole night was beautiful. And for refreshments we all kicked back on glass bottled cokes and moon-pies.
“God is God”
Based on all that recap, this is a pretty hard claim to make, but I think my absolutely favorite moment during the whole baptism gathering was when a member of the USC track team who told his own story from the pool, said this simple statement: “Last October I finally admitted that God is God.”
Go Read Romans 10:8-13
<> What does the word confess mean?
<> Where else do we use the term regularly?
The funny thing about confession is that somehow we’ve relegated it to the thought of admitting when we’ve done bad stuff. The word is a much bigger idea. Confession is admitting that something is true when you’ve been denying it. Whether it’s confession to a friend or to God of a behavior past that we wish wasn’t true, or whether it’s confessing your love for someone – confession carries the notion of no other options. There’s a certain desperation to confession. “I’m tired of acting like this isn’t true when I know that it is . . . I’m a liar if I keep living like this is not true . . . hey wait a minute, I need to say something.”
Can you imagine a more simple confession than “God is God”? And yet, at the same time it changes everything! There are so many implications and truths wrapped up in that simple admission. God is not me. God is an external reality. God reveals Himself to me. I am not God. I'm desperate to confess it's true.
<> What life changing confessions have you made in your life?
<> How much of your life is a living confession of the fact that “Jesus is Lord”?
<> Does the confession of your life carry an appropriate nature of desperation?
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This was the most true/striking paragraph so far:
Confession is admitting that something is true when you’ve been denying it. Whether it’s confession to a friend or to God of a behavior past that we wish wasn’t true, or whether it’s confessing your love for someone – confession carries the notion of no other options. There’s a certain desperation to confession. “I’m tired of acting like this isn’t true when I know that it is . . . I’m a liar if I keep living like this is not true . . . hey wait a minute, I need to say something.”
For me, this comes at a vital time, a time when confession of pride, sin and my true need for a Father have come forefront. I pray that my words of confession would be sincere and real, flowing from the deep.
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