Jordan says he's decided to be baptized soon in the near future! Praise God!
But do I feel joyful?
"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." - John 15:10
Now I realize there are many factors that could contribute to my apparent apathy (sounds harsh, but I can't think of another word :( ). For Jordan's prayer request, he asked us to pray for his baptism that he planned on going through with and that he would have peace about it because of his parents' disapproval. I have never asked Jordan for how he came to know Christ, but I remember someone telling me that Stephanie Chang had spoken to Jordan about the Gospel and that was his first repentance. I don't know much from there, but I feel that I should be so happy for Jordan! But...I didn't realize that I didn't even process what Jordan said until after our prayer was over and Jason asked all of us, "Hey can I pray for Jordan? I want to pray for his baptism". So we all put our heads down (I know I was happy to hear Jason say that) and Jason began to pray for Jordan. And I just kept thinking during his prayer, 'Did I not hear that Jordan is getting baptized?! What was I thinking?!' I feel that sometimes, we as members in the fellowship, focus so hard on trying to evangelize, we forget that some of our consistent members are new believers. Our in-reach only goes to so far as, "Oh you're going to SG, LG, DPM, and church on Sundays? Good, good everything sounds good." Do we forget the powerful transformation of the Gospel that leads people to repent and what Jesus' salvation leads us to? Do we forget about the new believers that we have in our fellowship and do we realize the role we play on campus to further God's campus? That we, just normal college kids, are affecting other people's lives; that we, as average students trying to get by in life, are altering the course of people's lives as they go through this university? If Stephanie had not spoken to Jordan, what would he be involved with now? No idea, but LOOK at where Jordan is today! And I'm just using Jordan as an example, I'm not focusing specifically on his situation. We should CELEBRATE when we hear him say, "I want to be baptized". What does that mean?! He has repented and he wants to live a NEW life, washed clean of his sin and living purely in light of God's righteousness! LOOK at the work that we're doing here people. Isn't it exciting?! What sort of feeling do you get knowing that YOU, possibly YOU, are altering someone's life forever just by representing Christ, stepping out of your comfort zone once, and speaking through the Holy Spirit about God's gift of salvation? Can you believe that God would use us...US to be a part of how He is furthering His kingdom? I'm kind of ranting now with my thoughts so I'm going to return to Jordan's baptism.
Let us celebrate. Let us rejoice! When a new believer comes to know Christ and repents and desires to be baptized, let's celebrate! You might ask why I brought this up? Because (from what I remember), the only reaction that I heard/saw when Jordan said he wanted to be baptized was, "oh cool" (and Jason's prayer afterwards). And that my friends...reflects the sign of apathy in our hearts. I'm not saying let's break out into gospel singing and dancing every time someone says they've decided to repent of their sins; no, but I want us to look inward and ask ourselves how much we care about furthering God's kingdom and how much we care about our fellow brothers and sisters. Let's ask ourselves...what are we really trying to do here? Where's our heart placed?
Speaking of gospel singing...:
I LOVE this song :) Love me some gospel choir singing haha tell me what you feel when you get to 1:35 ;) hahahahaha
PS. I promise to not post in spurts from now on :( lol
I liked this post.
ReplyDeleteThere's joy to be had, for sure, but don't beat yourself up about it. We grow up in churches where baptism is almost a milestone. Also, you've never known a non-Christian Jordan, so it may be more difficult to feel that deep joy for a "Chinese-church milestone." But as you say, rejoicing is a choice, not dictated by circumstances, and we should all learn to rejoice over the same thing God rejoices over, in the big things and in the little things. It's easy to rejoice for a baptism, and even easier for a conversion, but can we bring ourselves to praise God and rejoice in a mere sharing of the Gospel, or even a failure of any kind? That's something we all need to struggle through (rejoicing, the whole way through!).
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like Diane's comment.