Sunday, January 15, 2017

immersed

As I was making grits for breakfast for the family, I began to think about how the grits are made. In the box, they are dry, but I guess you could say they are good and you could try to eat them, but they become really good to eat once they have been immersed into boiling hot water.  Cold water doesn't suffice.  It must be hot.  I know we generally think about baptism when we say the word immersed, but it can mean immersing yourself in your work or into your area of interest. Its to be completely absorbed in something.  We are often absorbed by sports, crafts, activities, work, family,  or whatever keeps us busy and interested. Now, these things may not be bad in and of themselves, but are we taking time to become immersed in reading the Word of God, in obeying His call or His guidance?  The word immersed is a verb and according to the dictionary means:

1. to plunge into or place under a liquid; dip; sink.
2.to involve deeply; absorb:
3.to baptize by immersion.
4. to embed; bury.
Wow, that is cool.  I found my thoughts going to how we can be good, we can be doing things that seem right and know how to act right, but until we are immersed in the Spirit of God and His Word, we really cannot be really effective in what we need to be for God. 
Revelations 3:15-16 says:
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

God wants us to be heated up and passionate about Him. He wants us to be immersed in His Will. In 2 Kings chapter 5 we can read about Naaman, who had leprosy. He was told by Elisha to go dip seven times in the river Jordan.  Once Naaman was convinced to go ahead and go dip in the muddy, dirty river, he did and was healed. If he hadn't immersed himself completely and fully in obeying Elisha, he would not have received his healing.  We can read about the Apostle Paul and the other disciples who risked life and limb, were beaten, boiled in oil, and eventually killed for the preaching the gospel. They were sold out and fully immersed in the obedience to the Word of God.  

When we become fully immersed, we become who God has intended us to be.  The grits in the boiling water become softer and delicious.  When we become immersed in the Word and Spirit of God, we also become softer. We become more sensitive to the hearing the voice of God, to seeking His will and to obedience of his guidance. We become more like Him. We become flavorful. Matthew 5:13 says: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
We are the salt of the earth. We season, we preserve, we cannot lose our savour. 

We need to be fully immersed in the Word and Spirit of God.  Paul stated in Philippians 3:7-9:
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

There is much to gain when we fully immerse ourselves in the power of God and allow His Spirit to operate in us.  We can be effective in the area of our calling, in being an example of the believers, in our prayer life, in our living for Christ. I want to be effective. I want to be immersed in God. I want to be hot and fervent for the cause of Christ.  I want to be in His will.  I want to run toward Him, full force and reach the prize. 

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14



 

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