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Daily Devotionals
Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
Devotional: February 21st

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I love little children. My wife says its because we're on the same mental level. I remind her that it's not nice to insult little children that way. Little children can ask the most womderful questions and do so with an honesty and curiosity that is refreshing. Plus, they can keep you on your toes. Take the instance of little Peyton this past Sunday morning.

When Peyton and his family came in and sat down I went back to greet them. After all the greetings were out of the way Peyton looked up at me and asked, "Why did you drown that little boy?" His mother and father were shocked. That was evidently the first time he had mentioned the baptism of a young boy in our church since the day of the event.

"I wasn't drowning him," I told the little fellow, "I was baptizing him, and he is still alive." That seemed to satisfy him for the moment. But my words caught me. The number of times that I have baptized someone and told them what their baptism was have escaped me after almost thirty-five years of ministry. But here was a little child who, in his simple three year old understanding, grasped what was going on.

"Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection." Romans 6:3-5

A three year old grasped the understanding of the death, burial and resurrection that are baptism. We bury the old man of sin in a water grave as the blood of Christ cleanses us and makes us new. Then we arise a new creation in Christ, "in newness of life," to live for the Lord of Calvary who died for us and in whose death we just participated. And someday, when that three year old gets older, I hope to drown him, too.

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