I was a new believer in Jesus, barely 3 months old in the Lord, and while listening to country gospel radio, I heard a few things about water baptism. Pretty soon, I was loaded with curiosity and conviction about this new concept and asked a lot of questions of a gal in the dorm Bible study I had recently started attending. I was a sophomore, and she, having been saved as a kid, was a senior. She was as learned as Moses in my eyes, and did she ever have the answers! In fact, after all my questions were addressed, she declared, \u201cI\u2019m calling Rick [the leader of the Bible study] and getting everyone together tonight for your baptism.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was shocked. It was April Fool\u2019s Day! How could I EVER do something so scriptural on THIS day? Wouldn\u2019t that be mocking God??? Wouldn\u2019t I be committing sacrilege? I poured out my concerns to her.<\/p>\n
She had the answer. Obeying God and His Word trumps every label, every date on the calendar, and every criticism that I could ever face.<\/p>\n
So that evening, around 7:30 or so, a bunch of us trooped down to the rock quarry just outside of campus. Someone had a bundle of blankets for both me and the baptizer, Rick, to wrap each of us in after we stepped out of the cold April first water, and others built a blazing bonfire. Evidently, that group had everything down pat, having done this many times before, and I myself witnessed many baptisms after that in the very same quarry\u2026some in the dead of winter when we had to break the ice!<\/p>\n
I thought long and hard about that word \u201cFOOL\u201d many times after my April Fool\u2019s Day baptism and discovered that the word frequents many passages and verses in the Bible. For example, Jesus told His disciples to stay away from rash name-calling in Matthew 5:22, \u201c\u2026everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, \u2018You good-for-nothing,\u2019 shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, \u2018You fool,\u2019 shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0In other words, He nailed all of us on our attempts to crush others with weaponized labeling. OUCH!<\/p>\n However, the Word of God is not timid in the use of the word “fool”. In fact, scriptures use it multiple times to identify certain individuals\u2014and not due to impulsive rage or outbursts. No, the word is used concerning a whole assortment of behaviors, and in particular, one unique point-of-view. I want to focus on that one perspective\u2014brought to light more than once in the Bible\u2014used to identify a certain type of fool. In this case, in the spirit of calm, reflective study, calling such a person a fool is NOT anti-Matthew 5:22.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fool has said in his heart, \u2018There is no God,\u2019<\/em> they are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; there is no one who does good<\/em>.\u201d (Psalm 53:1). If you look up Psalm 14:1, you\u2019ll find almost the exact same declaration.<\/p>\n So\u2014not my words, but the Words of the Psalmist\u2014when someone declares that God does not exist; that He is a fairy tale or a Bronze age fabrication\u2014they have effectively identified themselves as a fool. Good news is that right now multitudes of believers in Jesus once said the same thing and embraced the fool\u2019s notion. However, somehow the Living God penetrated their worldview and made Himself known to them. For some, like me, it may take a few \u201cvisits\u201d from the Spirit of God before they recognize \u201cWow! This is GOD! And He\u2019s talking to ME!\u201d but He knows how to work with hard cases. I challenge any of you in that category identified in the Bible as a \u201cfool\u201d (and I challenge agnostics as well, but He\u2019s not so blunt in your case!) to simply ask Him to make Himself known to you. He will. But remember, He\u2019s sovereign. He\u2019s not a genie in a bottle, something you can conjure up in a spell or incantation, a magic 8 ball (do they still sell those things?), or a gum machine where you drop in the quarter and out pops the gumball. He is God, King of kings, Lord of lords, and is subject to no one\u2019s commands. But He is also Love, and in love, He will reach out to you in the way He has determined best suits YOU. Remember, this is not about giving you a goosebump moment, but it’s all about preparing you for a lifelong (and beyond) relationship with Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n So, in honor of the 49th<\/sup> anniversary of my water baptism in a cold rock quarry at 7:30 in the evening, I want to honor God and challenge you on this April Fool\u2019s Day to open your heart and simply ask Him, \u201cWill You reveal Yourself to me?\u201d I will be praying for you in the meantime.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dorothy<\/p>\n \u00a9 2024, Dorothy Frick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was a new believer in Jesus, barely 3 months old in the Lord, and while listening to country gospel radio, I heard a few things about water baptism. Pretty soon, I was loaded with curiosity and conviction about this new concept and asked a lot of questions of a gal in the dorm Bible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-testimony","category-reflections-in-the-word"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8848"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8851,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8848\/revisions\/8851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}