Baptism of Jesus
Baptism of Jesus 1/13/ 2008 12:15
Explaining God by Danny Dutton
There is a story about Danny Dutton, age 8, from Chula Vista, CA, who wrote an essay
for his third grade homework assignment explaining why he believes in God.
His essay is not only humorous, but surprisingly profound for an 8 year old.
He wrote:
One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the
ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on
earth. He doesn't make grown ups, just babies. I think because babies are
smaller and easier to make. That way, He doesn't have to take up His
valuable time teaching them to talk and walk, He can just leave that to
mothers and fathers.
God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot
of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at
times besides bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV
because of this. Because He hears everything there must be a terrible lot
of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off.
God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere, which keeps
Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your
mom and dad's head asking God for something they said you couldn't have.
Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are
any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church.
Jesus is God's son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on
water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't
want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them
and they crucified Him. But He was good and kind like His Father and He
told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive
them, and God said OK.
His Dad (God) appreciated everything that Jesus had done and all His hard
work on earth so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road anymore
and that He could stay in heaven. So He did. And now He helps His Dad out
by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to
take care of and which ones He can take care of without having to bother
God. Like a secretary, only more important.
You can pray anytime you want and the Father and Jesus are sure to hear you because they
got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the times.
You should always go to Church on Sunday, because it makes God happy,
and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip
church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach.
This is wrong! Besides, the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon
anyway.
If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very
lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp,
but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared in the
dark or when you can't swim very good and you get thrown into real deep
water by big kids.
But you shouldn't always think of what God can do for you. I figure God
put me here and there’s a lot of stuff he wants me to do. And that's why I
believe in God.
Today we are celebrating the baptism of Jesus. Jesus submitted to John’s baptism not because he was a sinner—he was like us in all things except sin – but as deomonstration of his intimacy with the Father whose voice, like thunderclap, announced: This my beloved son on whom my favor rests.
And his intimacy with his Holy Spirit who descended on him a the dove of peace.
One line that jumped out at me from little Danny Dutton’s essay is this: If you don't believe in God you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you but God can.
Through the grace of your baptism, God the Father, Son and Spirit, the Holy Trinity, took up residence within you and continues to dwell within you.
But how conscious are you of the Trinity’s dwelling within you? I read somewhere that the greatest poverty in the world is the poverty of unawareness.
It seems to me that your consciousness of God’s dwelling within you is predicated on your trust in God. In other words, what I am saying here is that when you lack trust in God’s infinite mercy and unconditional forgiveness, you tend to shy away from God because you feel guilty and ashamed about your sins.
You’re like a child hiding out in a secret corner so his mother can’t find him and scold him. Instead of drawing closer to the God who dwells more intimately within you than your own breath, you distance yourself like a far off tiny star from planet earth.
As a result, you are less willing to make the effort to be more keenly conscious of the Trinity’s dwelling within you.
How tragic if your consciousness is clinging like a hook in a fish’s mouth to your sins and guilt instead of being enveloped totally in the Trinity who lives so lovingly within you.
Trust in the indwelling God’s mercy and forgiveness breaks the chains that hold you bound to your feelings of guilt.
Trust in the indwelling God is the lifeline between your failures and being forgiven.
Trust in the indwelling God is the opening of the door of your heart so that Christ the Light of the world can shine into you and through you into others.
Trust in the indwelling God is your eraser on the blackboard of God’s memory.
Trust in the indwelling God is lowering the drawbridge of the fortress of your self-enclosed ego and marching out to surrender unconditionally to Jesus, to his lavish mercy, to his loving, all-embracing forgiveness.
Trust in the indwelling God means that once God forgives you your sins, God forgets them. And you need not ever again feel guilt over the sins you have committed.
Through your baptism, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwells within you, closer to you than you are to yourself. But you must strive to become more conscious of the Trinity who lives within you. Conscious enough to stop mentally many times during the day to whisper a prayer of love and trust.
Conscious enough to continually celebrate God’s boundless intimacy within you.
When you are this conscious of the indwelling Trinity you are entering into mystical prayer.
HUMOR
A man and his wife are dining at a table in a plush restaurant, and the husband keeps staring at a drunken lady swigging her gin as she sits alone at a nearby table.
The wife asks, “Do you know her?”
“Yes,” sighs the husband. “She’s my ex-wife. She took to drinking right after we divorced seven years ago, and I hear she hasn’t been sober since.”
“My God!” says the wife, “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?”
THOUGHT
Always be conscious of the Indwelling Trinity.
Explaining God by Danny Dutton
There is a story about Danny Dutton, age 8, from Chula Vista, CA, who wrote an essay
for his third grade homework assignment explaining why he believes in God.
His essay is not only humorous, but surprisingly profound for an 8 year old.
He wrote:
One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the
ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on
earth. He doesn't make grown ups, just babies. I think because babies are
smaller and easier to make. That way, He doesn't have to take up His
valuable time teaching them to talk and walk, He can just leave that to
mothers and fathers.
God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot
of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at
times besides bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV
because of this. Because He hears everything there must be a terrible lot
of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off.
God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere, which keeps
Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your
mom and dad's head asking God for something they said you couldn't have.
Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are
any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church.
Jesus is God's son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on
water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't
want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them
and they crucified Him. But He was good and kind like His Father and He
told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive
them, and God said OK.
His Dad (God) appreciated everything that Jesus had done and all His hard
work on earth so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road anymore
and that He could stay in heaven. So He did. And now He helps His Dad out
by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to
take care of and which ones He can take care of without having to bother
God. Like a secretary, only more important.
You can pray anytime you want and the Father and Jesus are sure to hear you because they
got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the times.
You should always go to Church on Sunday, because it makes God happy,
and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip
church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach.
This is wrong! Besides, the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon
anyway.
If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very
lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp,
but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared in the
dark or when you can't swim very good and you get thrown into real deep
water by big kids.
But you shouldn't always think of what God can do for you. I figure God
put me here and there’s a lot of stuff he wants me to do. And that's why I
believe in God.
Today we are celebrating the baptism of Jesus. Jesus submitted to John’s baptism not because he was a sinner—he was like us in all things except sin – but as deomonstration of his intimacy with the Father whose voice, like thunderclap, announced: This my beloved son on whom my favor rests.
And his intimacy with his Holy Spirit who descended on him a the dove of peace.
One line that jumped out at me from little Danny Dutton’s essay is this: If you don't believe in God you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you but God can.
Through the grace of your baptism, God the Father, Son and Spirit, the Holy Trinity, took up residence within you and continues to dwell within you.
But how conscious are you of the Trinity’s dwelling within you? I read somewhere that the greatest poverty in the world is the poverty of unawareness.
It seems to me that your consciousness of God’s dwelling within you is predicated on your trust in God. In other words, what I am saying here is that when you lack trust in God’s infinite mercy and unconditional forgiveness, you tend to shy away from God because you feel guilty and ashamed about your sins.
You’re like a child hiding out in a secret corner so his mother can’t find him and scold him. Instead of drawing closer to the God who dwells more intimately within you than your own breath, you distance yourself like a far off tiny star from planet earth.
As a result, you are less willing to make the effort to be more keenly conscious of the Trinity’s dwelling within you.
How tragic if your consciousness is clinging like a hook in a fish’s mouth to your sins and guilt instead of being enveloped totally in the Trinity who lives so lovingly within you.
Trust in the indwelling God’s mercy and forgiveness breaks the chains that hold you bound to your feelings of guilt.
Trust in the indwelling God is the lifeline between your failures and being forgiven.
Trust in the indwelling God is the opening of the door of your heart so that Christ the Light of the world can shine into you and through you into others.
Trust in the indwelling God is your eraser on the blackboard of God’s memory.
Trust in the indwelling God is lowering the drawbridge of the fortress of your self-enclosed ego and marching out to surrender unconditionally to Jesus, to his lavish mercy, to his loving, all-embracing forgiveness.
Trust in the indwelling God means that once God forgives you your sins, God forgets them. And you need not ever again feel guilt over the sins you have committed.
Through your baptism, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwells within you, closer to you than you are to yourself. But you must strive to become more conscious of the Trinity who lives within you. Conscious enough to stop mentally many times during the day to whisper a prayer of love and trust.
Conscious enough to continually celebrate God’s boundless intimacy within you.
When you are this conscious of the indwelling Trinity you are entering into mystical prayer.
HUMOR
A man and his wife are dining at a table in a plush restaurant, and the husband keeps staring at a drunken lady swigging her gin as she sits alone at a nearby table.
The wife asks, “Do you know her?”
“Yes,” sighs the husband. “She’s my ex-wife. She took to drinking right after we divorced seven years ago, and I hear she hasn’t been sober since.”
“My God!” says the wife, “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?”
THOUGHT
Always be conscious of the Indwelling Trinity.
posted by The Ronald | 11:40 AM
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