Baptizing a doll

I guess it's no wonder that the world is so easily confused and sometimes
fooled regarding religious matters.

A preacher writes: A friend of mine took her 4 year old daughter to a
baptismal service at her church. Later that night, her daughter took all of
her dolls into the bathtub with her and held her own "baptism."

As she dunked each doll under the water, she repeated, "Now I baptize you in
the name of the Father, the Son, and hold your nose."

She almost had it right, but not quite! Now, hopefully if you are reading
this you are a little wiser than a 4 year old child. But then I guess there
are different levels of wisdom and different levels of maturity aren't
there.

I've known some people who have been Christians for years, yet they still
don't know many of the basic teachings we read about in the scripture. The
apostle Paul wrote about the change that should take place in Christ in 1
Corinthians 13:11. He says there: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put
away childish things."

There needs to be some growth in our spiritual lives. There comes a time
where each of us are accountable before God for knowing what his Word says.
I understand that we will never know everything, but God does expect growth
from us. If we had a child who never grew mentally or in maturity we would
know they had a problem. If we don't grow spiritually in our understanding,
there is a problem.

The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: "There is much more we would like to
say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are
spiritually dull and don't seem to listen. You have been believers so long
now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach
you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need
milk and cannot eat solid food." (Hebrews 5:11-12)

Yes, "in the name of the Father, the Son, and hold your nose" is cute for a
4 year old to say, but where are you in spiritually maturity and
understanding. Getting it "almost right" just may not be enough when you
stand before God.

Russ Lawson