My Missed Opportunity

Several months ago I was having a religious conversation with a co-worker, I'm gonna call her May.  We eventually veered into the subject of baptism.  I was raised in the Church of Christ.  Now, I know that some older members of the Church believe that only people baptized into the Church will go to Heaven.  I don't really hold this belief.  I've always thought of religion, at least Christian religion, as having the same basic beliefs but choosing to worship differently.

We all believe in Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit.  Hear, believe, repent and be baptized everyone of you for the forgiveness of your sins.  But we rock it a capella up here so if you want some bass head on over to the heathen Baptist church (I kid, I kid).

Anyway, I was pretty shocked when May told me she didn't believe in baptism.  I didn't understand how you could believe in the Bible and yet not believe that one part.  While making the decision to be baptized is huge, I think the act of being immersed in water is pretty simple.  If that's the only thing keeping you from being saved, why wouldn't you do it?

I asked May thirty thousand questions:

• Do you think God sent Jesus to be our example?
• If Jesus was baptized why shouldn't we be?
• It's such a simple act, how can you not follow this one request?
• Do you believe what the Bible teaches?
• Hear, believe, repent and be baptized?

She told me she views salvation as a gift and she doesn't pay for gifts.

I had absolutely no response for that.

Now I sit here months later with this conversation haunting me.  I missed a very real, very now opportunity to talk to someone about my faith all because I was uneducated.

The more I read through my Bible, the more I believe that salvation isn't a gift.  It's something to be earned.  The opportunity for salvation is available to everyone but not everyone will take it.  The Old Testament is full of laws and rules and covenants as long as you sacrifice the right lambs.  There was so much asked of the Israelites and they followed.  They believed and worshiped and praised.  All God is asking of us now is to be baptized and we balk at it?  Why?

The words of John 3:5 will follow me all the days of my life now.

5Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit." 

I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to talk to May about baptism again.  I feel like God was testing me and not in a bad way.  In a "hey, you chose to be a Christian but do you know how to talk to people about Me, to spread My Word?"  I failed that test pretty miserably.  But at least I can learn from my mistakes.  I'm studying and hopefully when May brings up baptism again I can speak from my heart about the truth of God's word.

Wish me luck.