Cornerstone

Rom 6:1-4 (4)

All Christians have their baptismal stories. Let me tell you mine. I had been saved for some time and was endeavoring to live for the Lord. I wished, however, to give a symbolic public testimony to the fact that I had made a commitment to follow Jesus all of my life. Therefore, when pastor Robert Thompson, Sr. of the Mt. Zion Church of God (Holiness) congregation announced a baptismal service I asked to be a candidate.

We had no baptismal tank and so we did it the old fashioned way. In mid-November the congregation boarded the school’s bus and headed toward a beautiful creek in the Ozarks south of Mt. Zion Bible School. It was a cold and windy day. When it came my turn I waded out into the water where Bro. Thompson affirmed my testimony of the saving grace of Jesus and then plunged me neath the freezing flood! The cold water shocked my sensibilities. For a symbolic moment I crossed the line into another world. Then I was raised quickly and triumphantly to the symbolic challenges of the Christ-like life. Shivering but warm in my soul I made my way out of the water of testimony into an unfriendly world to stand for my Lord.

It was through this experience that I came to realize that in Romans 6 Paul was trying to equate burial with our separation from a sinful life. In addition, Paul was trying to equate resurrection with the consistent holy life of the Christian.

Dr. Gayle Woods

2 Cor 11:22-33 (30)

Some days I could not remember no matter how hard I tried. I will never forget one particular day, however. I was a high school senior at Mt. Zion Bible School. Mary Kimbrough and I stood on the campus behind the boys dorm. I held the brand new book that she had written in my hands. It was titled, “His Way With Me.” I had just asked her to autograph the book and now I watched as she took the pen in knurled hands. The crooked fingers struggled to clutch the pen. As a missionary to India and later Jamaica, she suffered many physical afflictions. Even though this was the case she did not give up or give in. Her flesh may have been weak but her spirit was strong. As she wrote she cheerful and optimistically spoke of her work for the Lord as a missionary. She encouraged me to serve God faithfully. She didn’t say, “Serve even if you hurt,” but she was a living example of one who did not complain as she faithfully gave every ounce of her energy for the service of her Lord. “God, please teach me to follow examples like this in faithfulness! When I don’t feel good help me to ignore this and continue to do what is needed that others might be able to hear the message that Jesus saves.”

Dr. Gayle Woods