Remember Your Baptism and Teach It Well
Mark A. Taylor points readers back to Bruce Shields’s reflection on remembering baptism and recommends a practical downloadable baptism resource. The article highlights how baptism shapes Christian perseverance, witness, and teaching.
- Bruce Shields’s essay encourages believers to remember their baptism in times of temptation, guilt, weariness, and witness.
- The downloadable resource includes essays and studies by several Christian Standard contributors.
- The article also invites readers to complete a Christian Standard survey about how they receive and use its material.
By Mark A. Taylor
More than a year ago, Bruce Shields encouraged readers, “Remember Your Baptism” (March 1, 2009). His wonderful essay sheds light on our discussion of children and baptism published last week and finished in this issue. A few lines from the conclusion of his piece:
When life seems to be too hard for you to remain true to what you know is right, remember your baptism. When friends urge you to loosen up and go the way of the world, remember your baptism. When memories of guilt assail you in the night, remember your baptism. When the broad and easy way people around you are following beckons to you, remember your baptism. When weariness overtakes you and Satan whispers, “It’s not worth the bother,” remember your baptism. And when other people ask you what motivates you to live such a life, remember your baptism and tell them about it. . . .
I was only 9 years old when I was baptized, but I still remember it. I was sitting in church with my grandmother, while my parents sang in the choir. I don’t recall what the preacher said that day; I don’t remember the special music. All I knew was that Jesus wanted me to be baptized, and I wanted to please Jesus.
I couldn’t, of course, explain the meaning of baptism then, nor do I understand it fully now; but remembering my baptism has kept me out of a lot of tangled ways over the last 61 years. I might forget a lot of what I have learned over the years, but I pray that I always remember my baptism, so I can consider myself “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11, Revised Standard Version).
Bruce Shields on Remembering Baptism
You can read all of Shields’s essay in an inexpensive downloadable resource we compiled last year. “Baptism: Seven Practical Perspectives” (item number 02973) includes the classic essay by Robert O. Fife, “Essential to Whom?” as well as biblical and historical studies by Jon Weatherly and Mark Krause. Brian Jones tells about the controversy stirred when he preached about baptism, and Paul Williams reflects on how his own baptism has influenced his ministry through the years.
Together these pieces offer an excellent teaching tool as you prepare to talk to others about this most important decision. Get the download at www.standardpub.com.
Christian Standard Reader Survey
We also encourage you to go online to complete our brief survey. As we consider how to serve you most effectively in the future, we want to know how you receive and use the material you find in Christian Standard. Please give us your answers by going to www.surveymonkey.com/s/ChrS.
Author: Mark A. Taylor
Mark A. Taylor, who served as Christian Standard editor from 2003 to 2017, retired in June 2017 after almost 41 years with Standard Publishing (Christian Standard Media).
