It is my goal to stay with the Word of God and help it make sense to you. And it's my purpose for you to make sense out of your life, to understand that God does love and care about you, and to know that He has an answer to life's questions.

BURIED ALIVE!

Jesus illustrates the importance of being baptized by asking for baptism from John the Baptist. Symbolizing the individual dying to "self"--the sinful nature with which we are born--it is the cleansing of sin committed up to that point in the life. When you are baptized, you enter into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or 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, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin." Romans 6:1-7 NKJV

I want to tell you that before I am baptized, Jesus saves me from demon possession. Active in earliteen sports, I achieve a new school record in track. But, I am born with a sinful nature and I begin drinking alcohol in high school. As a high school senior, deteriorated from booze, I do not come close to that previous track record.

If you are an alcoholic, today, it is hard to enlist in the now high-tech military service. Then, men in trouble with the law have a choice of going to jail or enlisting for military duty. Following high school graduation, I sign up to be an aviator electronic technician in the U.S. Coast Guard. I drink booze. I also fail the eye-test--I am color-blind. Now, all I can be is an engineman--which I hate. In the service, men receive food, shelter, clothes, and (then) $400/month. Depressed, I buy both drugs and alcohol with my money. I do not like who I am; my only peace is being stoned and/or drunk.

Off my ship, Mackinac, I hitch-hike home to northern Michigan. In one experience, I think that I will meet death. Riding with two men recently released from prison, the night is pitch black and the road desolate. Spying a turn-off, one man asks, "What about this spot?"

"`Bout right," concurred the other.

The car stops. One man takes something out of the car trunk. A tire-iron? Horrified, I think, "My life's over!

Taking motor oil from the trunk to add to the engine, the men do not even disturb me!

By contrast, in another experience, I discover "life." A man who had played warm-up guitar for Led Zeppelin and had then used drugs and alcohol, had been unhappy. I use drugs and alcohol, play guitar, and am unhappy. He had my attention. Now having Christ, he is committed to helping young men like me. He says, "I want to help men like you find Jesus."

I am an atheist. Like most atheists, I know about God but decide not to believe. I had been taught a faith where God is angry and tries to trip up mankind. Going to the movie, "The Exorcist"--stoned--I know the devil is real. Now I am riding with a man who knows about God, the Bible, and the devil.

"Is it possible, in 1974, to be demon possessed?" I question.

"Not only possible," he replies, "it happens all the time. Do you know that it is also possible to talk directly to God?"

"What?" I stammer. "Don't you have to go through the church--the pastors--the saints?"

"No." He reassures, "You can talk directly to God."

Talk directly to God? He will listen? That is a new idea and the most amazing thing I had ever heard in my life! When I get out of the car, I roll a joint and smoke it, thinking: "Maybe God is what I'm looking for!"

Events accelerate after riding with the Christian. I am hitchhiking on a rural highway when two children on bikes insist that I take a sack-lunch. In the bottom of the lunch bag is a Bible. Now, I muse, "something is going on in my life."

When I return to the ship, I am restricted for thirty days. My conviction is so strong that there is a God that I daily read my new Bible. Standing watch in the ship's engine room, wearing heavy earphones to protect my ears from the noise of the engines, my precious Bible speaks to my heart.

Dogs gnash their teeth when in great anger or fear. Reading Matthew, I learn that humanity does it when it finds itself lost. Suddenly, in vision between the two 1500 hp Fairbanks Morse diesel engines, I see the throne of God. A velvet rope, threading through golden posts (as in a bank), leads from where I sit to the throne. On either side of the rope are people-groups: on one side are the "boring" people with gardens who are happily walking toward the throne; on the other, all the people who I emulate--the rich, famous, jet-setters, and rock-and-roll guitarists. Angry that they cannot go to the other side, they fight and kill each other. It is awesome that I am viewing the anguish of humanity when it finds itself lost!

"Lord, let me be on the side with the "boring" people," I scream. "I'll even grow a garden!"

Having been in the devil's world, he now comes back to take me home. Lying on my rack (a ship's bed is a rack), three days later, an evil presence collapses my chest. Confessing my sins, I call out to Jesus to save me! Then, a warmth fills my chest, the evil presence flees, and Jesus says, "You're mine!"

The day I am saved is the most exciting day of my life. I smile so hard and so long, I get cramps in my cheeks. On my mind are two main thoughts: I no longer need drugs and alcohol as I have found Jesus for Whom I am looking; and, I will now spend my life telling about Jesus Who saved my from demon possession. Whenever I talk, I present Jesus as the Great Alternative.

Baptism symbolizes the individual dying to "self". In baptism, I enter the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Old "self" goes down into the water and drowns; the new man comes up whole and clean. Now I am washed of my sins. Now I have a feeling of cleanness with the Lord.

God wants that for you. I want to help you prepare so that you know what you are doing when you are baptized. Biblically, you can be re-baptized and these are the appropriate times:

When you grow in your Christian practice and want that deep experience deepened;

When you are baptized as a teenager and want to make it an adult decision;

When you haven't lived as you know how to live and want to make it right with the Lord; and,

When you understand salvation better than ever and want another baptismal milestone.

Brothers and sisters, I pray that you all will encounter the feeling of cleanness with the Lord. Check one space below:

Because I love Jesus, I want to be baptized ______;

Because I love Jesus, I desire rebaptism _______.

"Father in Heaven, If You can save me, You can save anybody. I pray that each person reading the message can encounter the feeling of cleanness with the Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen."