The Basic Disciplines of a Healthy Christian Life – that’s what we’re exploring in this current series on A Visit to the Pastor’s Study.
Pastors go back to these things all the time: Bible reading (and hearing the Bible preached and taught), Prayer (and Fasting as a regular accompaniment of prayer). Corporate Worship. Singing (personally, in your families, and in the worship of God’s people). These are disciplines – they don’t come naturally. You must work at them. And they promote healthy Christian living- these things are the proteins, good carbs vitamins and minerals of a healthy Christian diet.
Today I want to go to something that’s not in the usual catalog of things that are important to a Christian’s healthy life; and that’s very unfortunate, because the Bible, the Word of God, speaks of it quite often (especially in the New Testament), and in ways that may seem odd to us.
I’m speaking about Baptism – the application of water to a person by a Christian minister, in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and with the intention of baptizing. That’s the very formal – and very correct – definition of Christian baptism.
But, for today’s Visit to the Pastor’s Study (and for the purpose of this series on the basic disciplines of a healthy Christian life), I want to focus on what the famous Westminster Shorter Catechism calls Improving Our Baptism. I don’t mean “making your baptism better”; but “to use or employ your baptism to good purpose”. We don’t use the word “improve” in that way very often (every so often we might speak of “improving an occasion” – using something to promote a good cause or purpose); but it’s a good way to speak about turning the occasion of our baptism into something that promotes a healthy Christian life.
You’ll get what I mean as we go on with today’s program.
Here’s a link to the full program:
Yours in the God who claims us as His in baptism,
Pastor Bill