Mike’s Musings …..
“There’s a Lot of Water Out There”
My dad returned from the European Theatre of Operations after WWII on the Queen Mary. It is said there were thousands of more soldiers on that vessel than it was equipped to house, but somehow they all made it home. Dad related a story that happened to him while returning home. It went something like this:
“I was on the top deck, and noticed that the railing around the deck had been broken, making it easy to fall if you weren’t careful. We were still under ‘brown out’ orders as not every enemy heard of the war’s end. On the deck below me were some soldiers gambling. I was just trying to think of home and how soon we might get there when a soldier came up to me and said, ‘There’s a lot of water out there.” I responded, ‘There was a time when there was a lot more.’ It began a good visit and lots of Bible talking. That was a particularly pleasant time of the trip.”
That story comes to mind when we’ve experienced generous amounts of rain, as we’ve recently done. Still, God’s promise remains (Gen. 8:21). We can still see the token of His promise (Gen. 9:12 – 17). Its radiance continues to shine brighter than any other image in the daytime following a storm!
God used water to do two things with the flood: destroy His enemies and save the righteous. He uses water to do the same today. Notice Peter’s statement: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. “ (1 Pet. 3:18-22)
I muse on the reality it takes enough water to bury us in baptism (Col. 2:12; Rom. 6:1-6). I muse on the reality it isn’t the water itself, but our obedience to the gospel of Christ that permits baptism to save us! (Rom. 1:16 – 17). Yes, there’s a lot of water out there … but it’s just enough to permit the penitent’s soul to be immersed into Christ for the remission of sins. I muse on why so many refuse the obedience!