“Paul Harvey… Good day!”
Do you
remember hearing this ending of midday radio broadcasts? I do. This
was the way Paul Harvey would conclude his radio broadcasts such as “The
Rest of the Story” followed by his “News and Comment.”
Harvey was
once asked by Guideposts Magazine to write about his faith in Christ,
his “testimony.” He agreed to do so, and in the article he wrote about
when he was baptized.
Harvey revealed that he had received
almost every possible award for broadcasting yet he still felt empty
inside. All of this changed on one very good day.
One summer while on vacation, Harvey and
his wife decided to go to church services. That wasn’t something they
always did. They ended up in the Sunday morning service of a tiny
church in Cave Creek, Arizona. Only about a dozen people were present.
Harvey said there was a good spirit about
that place. For some reason he began thinking about John 3:16, “For God
so loved the world that He gave one and only Son, that whosoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” He said,
he liked the “everlasting life” part. He thought he believed in Jesus,
but he had never publicly acknowledged it or been baptized. He felt
that there was still something that was missing.
When the preacher got up, he announced
that his sermon was going to be about baptism. Harvey said, “I yawned.
But as he started talking about it I found myself interested. He talked
about the symbolism behind it. He said it symbolized surrender to Jesus
Christ. He insisted that there was nothing magic in the water. But he
said a cleansing took place inside when you yielded yourself to Jesus.”
Harvey said that he surprised even
himself when he stood up and walked to the front when the preacher
offered an invitation to be baptized. He describes what happened: “The
preacher had said there was nothing magic in the water. Yet as I
descended into the depths and rose again I knew something life-changing
had happened.” Harvey went on, “The change this simple act made in my
life is so immense as to be indescribable. Since totally yielding to
Him in baptism, my heart can’t stop singing. Also, perhaps because
baptism is such a public act and because one’s dignity gets as drenched
as one’s body, I discovered a new ‘unself-consciousness’ in talking
about my beliefs.”
Baptism is part of saving faith’s response to what Jesus
did for us on the cross. Jesus paid the price for our redemption from
sin by dying for our sins (Ephesians 1:7).
God will save and give everlasting life to those
who place their faith
and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from
their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31),
confess Jesus
before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are
baptized (immersed) into Christ for the
forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Then, as we walk in the light of His
Word, the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us from all sin (1 John
1:7-9).
It is a
“really good day” when one surrenders His life to Christ in baptism.
And now you have… the rest of the story.
-- David A.
Sargent
*
Information gleaned from “Three Baptism Stories” by Roger Thomas,
www.sermoncentral.com.
David A. Sargent,
Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
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