Caught by God

As I finished up Storying* on Jesus' baptism, I felt a strong sense in my heart that GOD loved this telling. Not so much because I did anything special or dramatic, but simply because the Father made known at Jesus' baptism that Jesus is His Son and He is well pleased with Him. The Father saw fit to authenticate Jesus' ministry in front of a whole host of people crowded on the river banks of the Jordan River to be baptized by John. In a sense, Jesus' baptism was a heavenly family reunion. The Son moving forward in obedience, the Holy Spirit resting upon Jesus in bodily form as a dove and the Father opening the heavens to speak forth His approval. As the words flowed out of my mouth, I felt the hush of heaven's pleasure settle on me. It was at this very moment that I looked out and saw her. Tears were gathering and spilling unashamedly. I made note in my heart that she was new to my class at the Open Door Mission.
As the lesson finished up, she quickly came forward to talk to me. Before words could come forth from her lips, tears gathered again. The words poured out rapidly, "I wanted to know about a certain religious group and in order to learn I had to be baptized. Do I need to be baptized again?"
Without knowing all the details behind this loaded question I asked, "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I realized that they had false teachings, so I left. Does my baptism count?"
Once again, the LORD amazed me with the power of Biblical story. I never know what is happening in the heart or mind of the people I voluntarily serve at the mission, but I do know that if I am faithful to tell well the Bible truths in a way they can understand that God will make sure that the truths will resonate where spiritual growth needs to occur. I did not know that on this day that someone in my group would be struggling with a history of false teaching and the reasons behind why we do baptism. But, I did know confidently that if I told His story hearts would be moved.
I answered my new friend, "Yes, you need to be baptized. But there is a proper order. Baptism demonstrates to those who observe it that this person identifies with Christ's death, burial and resurrection. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. If you were the only person to ever be born He would have died on that cross for you. Have you come to the place in your life that you believe that Jesus died for you? Once you have believed and received His gift of eternal salvation then you follow through with baptism to show all what you have believed."
Her voice cracked as she whispered the words, "I am ready!"
I realized I was not the only one caught by God that day. His story catches us! When was the last time you were caught by the Father ? Who are you telling the story of His Son to so that others may be caught by God?

*Storying: Telling in your own words a Biblical passage. It is not a memorization, but an internalization of a Biblical passage.