Baptism is a sign, God's way of picturing invisible, spiritual facts through a visible, physical act. Like water washing away dirt, Jesus' blood washes away sin. Like water renewing and restoring life in plants and people, the Holy Spirit renews and restores life to sinners. Going under water and coming up again is a vivid picture of the old self dying and being buried with Christ and the new self rising to life in him.

Baptism is also a seal. A seal or signature on a legal document doesn't change any promises or obligations in the document, but it does confirm them and make them official. So, too, baptism doesn't change anything in the gospel message of God's Word, but it does confirm God's Word in an official way. Baptism is the seal and personal signature of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, guaranteeing God's promises and officially marking each member of his family.

The man was angry at his church, so he stayed home Sundays. He said, "I get what I need by watching a preacher on TV." Then, one awful night, his son was killed. The TV didn't weep with the grieving father. The TV didn't embrace him and pray with him and comfort him. Who did help him? The people and pastor of the church he had been avoiding.

Does this mean media ministry is bad? No. I preach on radio, and I know the Lord can use media ministry in marvelous ways. But nothing replaces the local church. After all, Jesus doesn't just offer words to individuals; he forms a community of love.

As God's people, we don't just go to church; we are the church. We don't just worship God in a building; we are "God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9), "a holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2:21). As God's building, we need a foundation; we also need other bricks.

We must be "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets [of the Bible], with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone" (Ephesians 2:20). If a group calls itself a church but ignores the Bible and doesn't proclaim Jesus as God and as the only Way to be saved, it is not God's building. Don't join it. However, don't be so paranoid of false churches that you keep to yourself and don't join any church. You need the church to show you things about Jesus you can't see on your own and to steer you away from errors you'd make on your own. You need the authority and supervision of "the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).

When you believe in Jesus and follow him, it shows that God is working in you (Philippians 1:13) and that already long ago he loved you and chose you (1 Thessalonians 1:4) and appointed you to eternal life (Acts 13:49). Your decision about the Lord flows out of a decision he made about you even before he created the world (Ephesians 1:4). This is humbling and encouraging.

Knowing God chose you is humbling, for his choice did not depend on anything he saw in you. "God chose the foolish things... the weak things... and the despised things... so that no one may boast before him" (1 Corinthians 1:27-30). God's choice was based not on our worth but on his love: "In love he predestined us" (Ephesians 1:4-5).

"A good many people nowadays say, 'I believe in a God, but not in a personal God.' They feel that the mysterious something which is behind all other things must be more than a person. And in a sense they are right about this. But although they say God is beyond personality, they end up thinking of him as something impersonal, as a vague sort of power, or as a great void: that is, as something less than personal" (C. S. Lewis).

God is more than personal: he is superpersonal. God is three divine Persons united in love and in being. In these meditations we have focused on each divine Person, often in connection with a particular activity. We've linked the Father with creation and providence; the Son, with forgiveness and salvation; the Spirit, with indwelling and transformation. But even when a particular Person stands in the forefront of a particular work, the three always work as one.

If you are a Christian, you have at least one spiritual gift, a special ability from the Holy Spirit. You probably have more than one. Gifts like healing, miraculous powers, or speaking in different tongues may seem the most impressive. But gifts like serving, teaching, encouraging, or paying bills are no less important (Romans 12:4-8). So be the person God made you to be. Use each gift the Spirit gives you to use.

The church is Christ's body, and a body needs its different parts. Wouldn't it be crazy if the ear said, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body"? What if the body were one big eyeball? It would look hideous! And how would it hear? So don't envy someone else's gift or think your own gift is unimportant. The church needs you and your gift.

Ask a farmer what he does, and he'll say, "I'm a grain farmer," or, "I raise cucumbers," or, "I grow grapes." No farmer sums up his work by saying, "I plow up weeds," or, "I get rid of bad bugs." Although farmers do those things, their main focus isn't what they plow up or get rid of, but what they produce.

God is a farmer. He wants to produce a good crop in his people. We sometimes think of God only in terms of what he's against, but that's a mistake. Of course, God is against various sins and works to rid us of them, but his main focus is producing a rich harvest of Jesus' character in us. If we're in step with God's Spirit, that will be our main focus, too.

"The righteous are as bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1). But Peter wasn't always bold. After Jesus was arrested, Peter pretended over and over to have no relationship with him. Even a lowly servant girl scared Peter so much that he would not say he knew Jesus.

Just a few months later, however, this same Peter boldly preached Christ to the very enemies who crucified Jesus. The same Peter? No, this was a new Peter, filled not with fear but "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 4:8).

When Satan tempted Jesus, how did Jesus fight him off? "It is written"! "It is written"! "It is written"! If the Son of God himself appealed to Scripture over and over in overcoming evil, then surely we need the Bible.

To know the thoughts of God and the way to be saved, you need "the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). To grow mature in faith, you need the Bible: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16). To resist sin and conquer Satan, you need "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Ephesians 6:17).

Christianity is more than the fact that Jesus once lived on earth or that he now lives in heaven. Christianity is Jesus living in you by his Holy Spirit. Christianity is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Through the Spirit, Jesus' life lives in you. Jesus said, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing" (John 6:63). On your own, you are spiritually dead. But the Spirit gives you Jesus' life.