Deep Waters

If you know me, you know that I have been using the CJB version of the bible; That is, the Complete Jewish Bible. Now despite the name, which I am aware of some having issues with the "complete" giving a connotation that the Jewish Bible is not complete. But I am not here to talk about that. What I am here for is to talk about how it has given me insights and/or ideas that had not occurred to me before.

For example, pretty much everyone knows the Great Commission given by Jesus, but as a reminder,

"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." -Matthew 28:19

 When we think of baptizing, we always think of water. Well maybe not always as that my brain went directly to baptizing by fire, but you know what I mean. That is one of the big words for Christians. Heck whole denominations are based around it. Theologies and lives are centered around the water and how it should be done. But alas, I am not here to debate the merits of immersion, sprinkling, and whatever else there may be.

This verse also brings to mind a guy name John. Yep that crazy guy from the desert, wearing camel hair and eating locust and preparing the way of the Lord, "Behold He comes riding on the clouds, Shining like the sun at the trumpet..." There is an earworm for you, and also leaving off unresolved, I am a jerk. Anyways, John was called the Baptist because he was baptizing people. Very original name if you ask me...

In the CJB John is not called John, nor is he called The Baptist. He is called Yochanan. Yochanan is just John after translating it back to the Hebrew. I like the CJB because it uses easy (sorta) to pronounce Jewish names. Y'hudah for Judah, Yarden for Jordan, you might see a pattern with those J to Y's. They also do not use the word Baptist. John is Yochanan the Immerser. John would immerse the people who came to him in the waters of the Jordan River. Ding one for dunking. Wait...

So back to the verse in Matthew, Mattityahu in case you are curious, the CJB changes it up a little bit.

Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son, and the Ruach HaKodesh"

Ok, first of, Talmidim are disciples and Ruach HaKodesh is the Holy Spirit. But what got me was "Immersing them into the reality of..." I like that. So often someone might come to know Jesus, but while they are still young, we leave them to their own devices and they eventually stray away. Or we force too much onto them too quickly and they run because people are pushy.

But what if we were to immerse them. But let's ignore them for a moment. The bigger question I want to ask is this; What if we immerse ourselves in the reality of God? What if we actually let our day to day lives be filled with God. What if we learned to love like God does, give without thought of ourselves, and completely be like Jesus? If we were immersed in God, maybe we might not have a stigma about the Christian faith that turns people away.

How can we turn an eye to the homeless and needy, pretend they do not exist, if we were immersed in God? Being immersed would be every minute we are reaching out to God for direction and for peace. It would completely envelope our lives and we we might truly see God working.

In Isaiah (Yesha 'yahu if you were wondering) God was talking to Israel, "I am doing something new, it's springing up - can't you see it? I am making a road in the desert, rivers in the wasteland."

If we were immersed, we would be able to see this. We would see the roads laid before us, the rivers to rest by, this darkened world would be made a light and we could do everything God wants for us. But for now, most of us are not immersed, I know I always fight to keep my head above the waters, never fully letting myself go under. Stuck somewhere in remembering the past and living day by day, never really thinking of the future, nor of where should be, and where God has been pushing me. I am not immersed.

And it does get me thinking, what if I do let myself be fully immersed into the reality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? What would my life look like then? Would I be able to also immerse others as well? Would I have that wholly original name of The Immerser? I could. I keep praying that I will finally give in, and let go. I know his ways are so much better, but I do not want to let go of myself. So maybe I should just say, "I'm Diving in, I'm going deep, in over my head I want to be, lost in the rush, tossed in the flow, in over my head I want to go." That is Steven Curtis Chapman by the way. And one more song quote here by Attalus, "Faith is leap, but its a dance, as soon as you hit the surface."