baptized with fire...

I baptize you with water...

but he will baptize you with fire!

That's what John the Baptist says, knee deep in the Jordan River, crazy-eyed prophet guy.
Quite frankly he scares me.
That baptizer is wacky. He dresses weird. He tells me I have to change.
He calls people terrible names.

I don't know what to do with him. I stand on the banks of the river and stare, frozen in fear that maybe this guy is going to grab me and force me under the water against my will...shake me until I give in and part of me dies there...I'm afraid I will look like him...crazy.

Never mind the fact that for more than fourteen years I have worn that title "pastor" and suited up Sunday after Sunday in my robes, ambled into my pulpit and delivered sermon after sermon about Jesus, God, and our duty as Christians...I'm still afraid of John the Baptist.

I can only speak for myself and my ministry; but I wonder if maybe this fear of John and his proclamations holds us back. John's baptism was never meant to be an end all. It was never meant to impose a status of never ceasing righteousness and eternal life. It was intended to be the way through which we were prepared for that coming fire of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ...my fear of the Baptizer holds me back from truly being gripped by that fire and dissipates the way and message of Jesus into a tepid intellectual exercise that makes me look good.

Is that our problem?

I can only think of John Wesley's advice to his preachers so long ago: "Catch fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn."

Its time to be all in, to let ourselves be prepared to recieve the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Its time to be all in...
its time to burn.