Tara, Krystle, and I have been meeting with a group of gypsy women in the evenings for Bible Study, encouragement, and praying….whatever the Spirit leads. Yesterday Tara led the class and spoke on a simplistic matter that marks this year of my life.
She had a glass of water and said it represented Jesus. She held up another cup for us to see saying it represented us. She said when you make a commitment to follow and believe Jesus you add your life to His. With that, she poured the cup into the water. It was oil. Obviously the oil plunged into the cup of water and immediately rose to the top where it stayed…. and didn’t change. Tara explained that many Christians live separated from Jesus after we tell Him we will live for Him. But then we don’t change, and we make no effort past going to church and lifting up a prayer once in a while. She had another example after this one.
She held up a glass of water, again representing Jesus and held up another cup representing us (the believer). This time it was red food coloring. As she poured the coloring into the water it immediately mixed, they were one.
If we are in Jesus we should be One with Him, changed forever, and in constant communication with Him. Not only that but it should be the desire of our hearts because we love Him more than life, more than anything, more than ourselves. A three minute prayer before bed just will not cut it, because He should be on our mind all the time, our first love. Much like falling in love, you think of that person all the time and think of ways to meet with them, talk to them, honor them. That is where Jesus wants us to be.
This lesson Tara taught resonated with me. I am getting baptized this Sunday (Easter is celebrated on the 19th here) with a group of gypsy men and women. I have lived most of my life separate from Jesus, (like the oil) even though I had “committed” it to Him. Where was the proof? I have tried with my own strength to become One with Him, and inevitably failed miserably. This past 10 months on the World Race, God has challenged me to surrender; my home, my family, my money, my comforts, relationships, my hobbies, my pride, my selfishness, my insecurities, my fears….the list goes on. Some of these things are great, and some are sin. The point is He wants it all, no exceptions. Good, bad, ugly, pretty it all belongs to Him. I have never made the decision to be baptized, I guess I always thought my infant baptism had me covered and the alter calls were good enough. But scripture convicted me. “Whoever believes and is baptized, will be saved…” Mark 16:16
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, <sup value='[a]’>[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin- 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
