I’m in the middle of a public confession, and I’m not proud of it. I’d been in the army for over two years or more, trying to be a secret Christian, and it did not work- it never does. I hadn’t the guts to blow my cover. I was in India by this time, and in a camp where there was nothing to do, so I went to a group led by an army chaplain.The subject was ‘Psychology’, and the vicar was a psychology scholar – I was so ignorant, I thought you spelled it with an ’s’! He was talking about dreams. “I don’t dream” I said, for I was expected to say something. “Everyone dreams” he said “you forget them. Come and tell me tomorrow the dream you have tonight”!
That night I wakened up in a cold sweat from a nightmare in which my little niece Janet was lying in the bath at home, stone dead, under two feet of cool, still water. I was shouting for help, but no one came. It was so real I wanted to phone England to get a warning to them. The padre asked me a hundred questions, including ‘Do you love this little girl?’. “Yes of course, she’s the only child I had ever seen grow up through babyhood to toddler stage.” He started going on about my tender self being identified with the child … and so on. No bells rang.
Then after a while he suddenly said “Hey, aren’t you a Baptist?”.
“Well yes” I stammered. I was not proud of my bad secret witness.
“How old is Janet?” “Two” I said.
“When were you baptised?” he asked. “Over two years ago” I stammered.
“That’s it” he said. “You were buried with Christ in baptism over two years ago, but you never rose with him. It’s been a dead secret …”. All the bells were ringing inside me now.
He said more, but my mind was exploding with truth.That’s where my soul was, where I had been; dead under the water and He was calling me back from the dead.
Listen to Paul again speaking of Christian baptism.Colossians 2:20 and 3:1a
“Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules? Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above”
A Prayer:
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you call us from living death into living life as newly born people.
Now read Colossians Chapter 2:6 to 3:4, and don’t ignore your dreams!