Mark 1:1-11 KJV
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
6 And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;
7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:
11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

The first step after receiving Jesus Christ the Son of the living God as Lord and Savior as a believer is baptism by water. I grew up with baptism by immersion, in other words a total full body dunking in water. Though the process of water baptism is only a representation of faith, one is baptized in front of witnesses to symbolize you are a believer. Now sprinkling, and so forth, a from of baptism will accomplishes that same acknowledgement of faith, so if you church group does not immerse, the first part of faith which is belief in Jesus is more important then the water baptism itself. Baptism by water, is an spiritual event in the believers life for it represents that one's sins were buried with Christ and one is risen to new life with Christ Jesus. That is first step of faith. There is another baptism that comes from the Holy Spirit that Christ baptizes you with. What is this second baptism, I talk about, from time to time, but do I explain it so you can understand it. Is it a mystery. This second baptism, another believer baptized by the Holy Spirit can pray with you to be baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit and it be given as a sacred step in faith and ministry, or it can begin with you asking God and trusting God to teach you all things, through his word, by his word, and the Holy Spirit, asking God to indwell you.

I can teach you scripture, but the Holy Spirit will teach you more then I ever will, and so with that thought in mind we as believers that teach and preach about Jesus are a type of forerunner to Christ, but also a disciple, teacher, and preacher of Christ. Forerunner, like John the baptist, who found himself unworthy to even touch his shoes and even unloosen them. John claim unworthy to be a servant of Jesus. If we study John the Baptist story, his disciples would be sent at end of John life which was by maryterism, he was beheading for preaching repentance and mentioning the king Herod who slept with his brother's wife. Speaking truth can cost one their life, and do they know it. There is a point John would send his disciples seeking Jesus and asking was he the Christ before his beheading. John did not even believe the reports that were coming from those around him, not the words of God the day of Christ baptism or the words he been taught from his youth probably about who Jesus was. Unworthy to be servant takes on new meaning, it means the person is not a follower so they do not need to serve Christ or desire to, but guilt is deep. Yet many people love the teaching of Christ and go about doing good because of Jesus. John the baptist was no exception. Do we serve Jesus before salvation, the answer might surprise you. Did you help with the work of the church, did you open a door for someone, did you give aid to a person in need, did you stop your car when you seeing someone lying in a snow bank in trouble and did you help anyone at all, then you did the second part of the work of faith without faith in God, because people are like John the baptist in the since of not feeling worthy to be a Christian or they know not that that need to receive Jesus to be saved.

You can not be baptized by God without receiving Christ has Lord and Savior, you can not learn to walk by the Spirit without receiving Christ. It does not mean you can not obey God in some form or fashion. There many good people that know not Jesus. What then does it mean to be saved, is to receive Christ. If we are all unworthy to be saved, and our admittance of acknowledgement of our unworthiness to be saved is known and yet the offering of faith remains, then what a great salvation we have through Christ Jesus our Lord, who came to take away all our sin. We have to lay down the pride of unworthiness to receive to take a hold of faith in Christ Jesus. It hard for anyone to ask for help of any kind in a world that force us to be independent. Yet most of us have the pride of independency etched in us from the day we take our first crawling steps as a baby. Our determination to be independent from all that constraints us to be as humans in the world that dictates us to be. In other words we still listen to the world view of independency and not the need of Christ or anyone for that matter. That need to be a rebel of authority, to rebel of society, to be a rebel of our homes, and even our eternal life. The day we remove laydown our shackles of independency to not live our life unto ourselves and the devil, we give our hearts to Jesus, to live for him because he died for us. Recognizing God's authority in the world in which he created.

To be baptized by Christ we learn from his teachings and we learn by Christ's Spirit living in us how to do the will of God the Father, as servant, and Paul even used the word slave to Christ. Christ said his burden was light and his yoke was easy to bare. Learn from him would mean to learn about his ministry in order to accept him as Savior. Yet we find something else here that maybe we have forgotten that baptism that teaching of Christ by His Spirit comes sololy from him, because what means something to me in scripture just might not mean anything today to you. Why is that. God is dealing with your heart on something else. I have sat through a few sermons that only one verse the minister used, that was the only thing that spoke to my heart. Am I saying that the rest of the sermon was not well put together, no, the teacher/minister was not the one dealing with my heart, the Holy Spirit was and the rest of the sermon had nothing to do with what the Holy Spirit was dealing with my heart about. To take time to pray at that point is important.

I had this dream a man was running an obstacle course, where there was more then one obstacle. One of the events had to do with a man going through a wooded area and crossing a huge ravine afterby a rope. When he got to the rope it was if God said check the rope. He pulled on the rope and discovered it was frayed, and it tore with easy. he dropped the rope and instead of going across it went running toward another rope. Anyone crossing the rope would have died. Yet the rope was only an anchor to the rope bridge that cross the ravine. I woke, without finishing the dream. I began to think about the rope that was fray, what did it represent, it represented the one holding the bridge of faith. Until God cut the line that is tied to the bridge, we got time to cross the bridge of faith, when the bridge anchor is cut then the only door is downward climb into the valley of death.

Many heed the word of God until they get to the bridge of actual faith. They see the works of what their hands have done and not the works God has done through those hands. Without walking the pathway or the bridge of faith then one is trying to get to God by their own merit, which it is impossible to please God without acknowledge one's need of salvation, our need of his Spirit to help us be overcomers through faith. Humbling to cry, Lord I need your help, I can not do it on my own no matter the circumstance in life. A rich man has a hard time humbling himself before the mighty hand of God, but God is even able to make the rich man be humble before him to lift him up to lead people to Christ and to build others up in the word of God and the skills of work. Business community are not without people of faith, though others may not be of the household of faith. That why the foundation of a business needs to be built on faith. As long as the devil runs to and fro in the world some foundations that are not built on Christ will be destroyed. Even people not of faith, can build on the ways of God and Christ Jesus, but the building block of the Holy Spirit that hovers over the business knows how to remove the stones or changes those stones that are in need of replacement in a business. Pray over your business and give it to God to build a church within the building of work. One that will pray over action, transaction and task need doing.

If the Holy Spirit is the one that is the baptizer of faith, the only thing a person needs to do is sow the word of faith to those that need it, not with anger or judgment but by the Spirit, who ultimately knows everyone heart and soul. The business world can be uncaring, because money seems to be the driver, but the business world filled with believers, following the will of God can see people come to Christ, live for Christ and their action no longer subject to the world, but to Christ. Without faith in Christ you can not please God. You only please yourself and perhaps someone else. Yet when you please God, your will is his will. Surrender your will and allowing Christ to be the center point in your life and not just a belief and on the shelf or in the closet is allowing Christ to become part of your action in life and not your out of action of faith.

What is the point, we need people following Christ by His Spirit, that are first baptized by his Spirit and living in place of business, that God has called them too. We need people from all walks of life, sharing Jesus, as God directs, for we live in the age that the world is hungry for Jesus and is in need of Jesus. Water baptism is your willingness to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and allow his word to pentrate your heart, and to walk by his Spirit. A symbol of the act of faith, it is not the Holy Spirit baptism.

The Holy Spirit baptism, infilling, is that work of grace that continues in a believers life into eternity. It is not only about the gifts of his Spirit puring out into the world, but the enabling to do the will of God and sharing and demonstrating the fruits of God's Spirit with others to share the message of Jesus. Do we love God enough, to be allow God to fill our hearts with His Spirit, til it overflowing into the streets of the world, so others will be saved in due season.

Dear Heavenly Father, baptize your people to walk in your will and ways, in Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: Ephesians 4:21-32 KJV
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.