"The Point of No Return"

The other night I went through a Yellow traffic light and said, "Past the point of no return." I suppose I said it out loud to some how try to justify that I hit the gas when the light turned yellow rather than slow down (What are you looking at me like that for...Like you've never done that). The truth is I learned that phrase in driving school many years ago. In all reality it is a phrase not of justification but permission. When the light turns yellow and you are already committed to go, it is better for you to keep going that to try and stop after you have gone past the point of no return.

I was thinking about how life is regularly calling us to go past the point of no return; to commit ourselves to going all the way in one thing or another. For instance, when you jump off the diving board you go past the point of no return. You are going in the pool whether you change your mind in mid-air or not. Marriage is going past the point of no return. Dating is easy to get in and out of but marriage makes a spiritual and legal commitment that is costly to end. Major purchases such a house require a past the point of no return choice. No Bank will agree to let you sign a loan that says, "I agree to pay on this House the next 30 years unless it would seem otherwise financially inconvenient". Everyone who does anything valuable at all in their life does so because they make "a past the point of no return" choice...it applies to relationships, jobs, education and 100 small choices every day. The reason we move forward in life is because we hit the gas and go past the point of no return.

The same is true spiritually speaking. If I am to keep moving forward in my relationship with God, then regularly God will bring me to "past the point of no return" choices...some of them are small such as will I incorporate corporate worship into my weekly schedule, while others are as significant as teh decision to be baptized.

Baptism is a choice to go past the point of no return. It is saying, "Father, you went all the way for me and I am ready to go all the way with you." In baptism my faith is no longer merely personal, it is public meaning that God can use my faith not just for my benefit but anyone he should so choose. It means that I am committed to living in his forgiveness and following him wherever he leads. For our spiritual forefather's, this meaning of baptism was nothing to be ignored. During times of persecution, when people made a decision to be baptized they were most literally putting a target on their backs. And yet, they chose to follow Jesus' command to be baptized. That is going way past the point of no return!

Romans 6:1-4 expresses this past the point of no return faith: "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live any longer to it? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore, buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

So, far 12 people have signed up to go past the point of no return in baptism this Sunday! It is not too late for you to make this decision as well (just email or call me). For those of us not being baptized, our presence is just as important. Their baptism will remind of us of our own. Furthermore, it is our chance to celebrate and support our brothers and sisters in Christ in going past the point of no return in their faith. It is going to be a powerful day of celebration. See you Sunday!