Claude King's blog

As we wait for Easter to arrive, we may become immersed in the aura of the holiday and the season especially because we are hopeful that we can gradually open up even further in our state and across the nation. We have been grateful for some spring-like weather that has come upon us recently, but spring weather is not being felt now in this latest cold snap! However, we always try to make the best of it because it often gets worse before it gets better.

We have all believed in someone or some group so much that we were certain that they could help to open the doors that had been shut and bring the change that we wished could happen for the good. But sometimes, it does not happen quite the way that we had imagined it would, or not at all.

Would you like to meet Jesus? What kind of Jesus would you like to meet? It sounds crazy to say it like that, but when you think of meeting Jesus, how do you imagine Jesus to be when you see him? Visually, there are several images of Jesus all over the world. Which one of the images that you have seen of Jesus would you like to experience if you could meet Jesus in person?

As believers in God through the love and sacrifice of Christ our Savior, we are in a unique position as God's people. During the Lenten season, we are faced with life-altering decisions about how we are living our lives, specifically deciding on ways we become more faithful to God and be significantly better at following the example that Jesus set for us.

We have just observed Ash Wednesday worship, where we reacquainted ourselves with our mortality as well as with our need to become more aware of how we can best live out our faith in God. Jesus did that too as he prepared for public ministry through baptism, then isolating from other people and emptying himself spiritually and physically, for over 40 days through fasting and praying, to connect more deeply and be in accord with God first and foremost.

How do we share what is good in this world with the people around us and most importantly share God's goodness with them? Part of doing that is sharing in God's blessings. God's blessings can mean anything that we can think, say, and act upon that moves us closer to God's approval and guidance. Blessings also come from God's desire to instill the Holy Spirit in us through unconditional love by way of prayer and the laying on of hands as part of consecration, to set apart someone, some group, or something solely for God's use, to make them or it holy.

The one desire that I have, above all others, is to give my deepest love and full obedience to God. God is love, God is truth, God is life. That is what I believe. I have had to examine and reexamine what I genuinely believe over my life, especially whether or not I actually live up to what I say that I believe about loving and obeying God.

"What are you prepared to do?" This line is from an award-winning film The Untouchables, about Elliot Ness and a group of law enforcement officers who ended the criminal career of the gangster Al Capone. That line called into question the reliability and the determination of Elliott Ness to complete the job that he was sent to do. I often wondered if I were given that very difficult job how far would I go to complete it.

What constitutes a call upon your life? For me, it represents something that I would be willing to do for God regardless of pay, and no matter what negative aspects were associated with it - it is just in me to do it. It is something that I have come to love and care for intrinsically, whether I realized it immediately or over time.

As we consider the baptism of Jesus, let•s look at what Holy Baptism stands for. John the Baptizer preached about baptism by pointing out that there must be repentance, a turning away from the things that we think, say, and do that are against the will of God. When we turn away from participating in the things that are against the will of God we open up our minds and spirits to become aware of our participation in sinful ways and more fully understand that there is another way of living that makes us free from the desire to participate in those former selfish ways.