Baptism: A New Beginning

Tiny, fragile, four-year-old Melissa is trembling in her little bed. She is listening to her Mother and Daddy have a loud, angry quarrel in the other room. It has already continued for over an hour, and she is about to come unglued. Then her father, exploding with anger, begins to yell at the top of his voice.

When I was growing up, I used to read and hear a variety of colorful stories about the folk hero Johnny Appleseed. Like other American pioneers, he was often the subject of exaggerated legends.

The Great Basin bristlecone pine can live more than 4,000 years and is believed to be one of the oldest living trees on the planet. Found on lonely mountain tops, some of these ancient evergreens have weathered thousands of years of intense freezing wind, pounding rain, scorching sun, and violent electrical storms.

In the early 1500s, the Aztec empire was one of the most powerful and sophisticated civilizations in the western hemisphere. However, within one year's time this mighty nation of over two million people was conquered and enslaved by just six hundred men. How did it happen?

I am intrigued by clever oxymorons. An oxymoron is a statement or pairing of two words that contradict each other, such as 'pretty ugly.' A few humorous, personal favorites are 'military intelligence' and 'rap music'

Shortly after becoming a Christian, I was hitchhiking from Palm Springs to Los Angeles to see my mother. About halfway there I caught a ride with a kind, middle-aged Pentecostal lady who was very pleased to hear of my conversion. As we drove along, she asked, 'Have you received the Holy Ghost yet?'

Then some of the Scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, 'Teacher, we want to see a sign from You. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Sales were plummeting in a department store in Iowa. Worse, the sales manager had resigned in discouragement. The owner placed the assistant manager in charge and spent most of his time worrying.

When Karen and I decide that it's time to get away and pursue some much-needed R & R, we often head for the enchanting big island of Hawaii. Our friends Steve and Chris Boyl, who live near Kona, always open their beautiful home to us on such occasions.

People need heroes. Great men and women we can look up to as role models and mentors. Ministries need heroes, too. Kings and prophets from long ago who proclaimed special messages and displayed examples of courage provide excellent heroes whom we can emulate in our lives today.

I could hear the sound of his three-wheel bicycle squeak up behind me as I walked down the street. Brother Harold was a living legend among the young people in Palm Springs. He was a 70-year-old saint who knew how to 'walk the walk' and 'talk the talk.'

Several branches of the armed services have an elite team of commandos that are carefully trained in guerrilla warfare and other special combat conditions. To qualify for one of these units, a person must pass through an incredibly grueling process of physical and mental training.

When a crisis strikes an aircraft, pilots are trained to fly by their instruments or risk being deceived by their senses. Pilot and pastor Doug Batchelor takes this good advice and applies it to our everyday Christian experience.

If that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of. - Matthew 24:48-50.

This is the time of year when many Christians give special thought to the birth of Christ. It's a story most of us have heard more times than we can count. But as with every other story of the Bible, it never loses its significance. In fact, a careful study of Christ's first advent should help us learn how to be better prepared for His second coming.

'Michael Jackson is expected to arrive in Bucharest!' I was told upon arriving in Romania. 'That's too bad,' I thought. My wife and I had just come from Poland, where we had presented talks on the effects of music. I now wondered how to alert the unsuspecting youth of Romania to the dangers of rock music.

Most people see nothing wrong with a little fun on Halloween. They consider the traditional festivities to be a harmless way for their children to have an evening of "fantasy and fun." But does this standard hold true for Christians? Is dressing up like ghosts, goblins, and witches really "no big deal"? Or is it glorifying and empowering Satan?

In the extreme temperatures and near-vacuum of interplanetary space, astronauts need special clothing in order to survive. Their spacesuits supply them with oxygen, keep their bodies at controlled temperatures, remove moisture from the air around them, and monitor their blood pressure and heart rhythm.