The Living Water

Dear Weekly Readers!  God’s Peace!

I would like to thank those who prayed because you heard that our youth leader Leona has been very sick for the past 2 weeks.  She has been in the hospital in the Philippines suffering from malaria.   Today she is finally feeling better, so we are praying that she will improve quickly and be released from the hospital soon.    James 5:16: …The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

It seems that the calendar texts for these weeks after Easter have been often about the bearing of fruit, showing of love, and such topics.  In a previous article we recently covered the True Vine and the branches. 

 

I would like to share with you a picture that God has shown me about this concept of the Love of Jesus Christ flowing through His children on earth.

In the part of the world, Israel, where Jesus was born, where He lived, and where He died, the Jordan River flows from north to south.  In the north, it flows into the Sea of Galilee, providing rich nutrients for that body of water.   Because of this, in Bible times, many entire villages and cities were able to make their living and catch fish for food from the lively waters of this small sea.

The Jordan River then flows south out of the Sea of Galilee into the Dead Sea.   This same exact river with all the nutrients and minerals flows into this second sea, but the results are much different.  Why could this be?  Well, you see, the Dead Sea has no outlet.  The river comes in, but does not go out. Therefore, all the minerals keep piling into the sea, but can never leave.  The sun evaporates the water, but all the minerals, salt, and nutrients get left in the sea, causing it to be so heavy with these substances that nothing can live in the water.

Dear Heavenly Father, allow us to be like the Sea of Galilee with the Living Water of the Lord Jesus flowing into us and then out of us unto the world, so that we can be Living Bodies!    Romans 12:1:  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Lord, keep us from being lazy, arrogant, self-righteous, lukewarm, uncaring, or unloving.   Allow us to not be enticed into worldly lusts and desires.

Mark 4:19:   And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. 

We surely do not want to be the type of Christian that only wants to receive the good gifts of God, while at the same time thinking we can live however we want in this world, forgetting where all good gifts come from. 

 

Let all of our being and doing, the actions of our life, and the words of our tongue confess as we are told in Philippians 2:11:  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

None of the glory comes to us; it is all to the glory of the Father!  Just as in our picture of the two seas, the nutrients and the life of the lake comes from the river.  Let us remember that water could soon become stagnant and begin to die, if we do not lay hold of all the wonders of the Living Water, our Lord Jesus Christ! 

He has prepared it all in our behalf; salvation is complete in Him!  Let us believe by faith in the complete redemptive work of Jesus Christ for our salvation!

When we believe by faith, then we will be like we are told in  Matthew 5:14:  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Lord, work this in each of us today!  Show us the new and living way!   Hebrews 10:20:  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

John 14:6:  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Let us be found in Him and He in us until He comes again!   1 John 4:13:   Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

Have a Blessed Week! 

John Ruotsala

The True Vine

Dear Weekly Readers!

Jesus is the True Vine!  John 15:1-8

Have you ever pondered this statement?  Why would Jesus, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, compare himself to a vine, a plant that grows in the ground, here on earth?  Let’s turn to scriptures:  Isaiah 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

The Lord of all the universe came to this earth, to feel what we feel, so He could know what we go through.  Have you ever taken shade under a tree or enjoyed the fruit of the vine?  We can in a natural sense enjoy the picture and appreciate its wonder!  Now we have the Great I AM making another one of His many I AM statements:  I AM the true vine.  He has also made known to us who He is with these statements:  I AM the Living Water.  I AM the Bread of Life.  I AM the Way The Truth and the Life.  I AM the Living Bread.  I AM the Light of the world.  I AM the Door.  I AM the Good Shepherd.  I AM the resurrection and the Life.  Imagine that, the Great I AM has come to this earth for you and I.  Why?

Because just as the husbandman in our text planted and takes care of the vine, God the Father has in His Mercy, Love, and Grace seen fit that His Only Son would come to this earth as a payment for sin.  Jesus only did what was the will of the Father.  John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. So we can see that Jesus came at the will of the Father, and He compares himself to a vine, and His Father the husbandman.  The husbandman not only plants the vine, but takes care of it as well.  Christ came to earth, sent by the Father, to provide us the way back to the Father.  God is over all, and above all.

Our Father is the husbandman, the one that takes care of us, and works on us so that we can bring forth fruit as He would see fit.  In Verse 5 where Jesus explains the parable, He says "...ye are the branches..."  Let’s look at what it means to be a branch.  First, the branch, in order to be alive, must be attached to the vine.  No branch can live without the vine.  Without Christ we are dead.  You can never find a branch living with its own life.  No fruit will ever grow on a branch that is not attached to the vine.  Let us humbly turn to our Father, the husbandman, asking that we would always be attached to our Lord Jesus so we can be partakers of the Living Water, The Living Bread, and all the good things that He provides for us so we can go to heaven.

The next very important words we see are in verse 5: ...he that abideth in me, and I in Him...  When a husbandman grafts a branch into a tree, he very carefully does all the proper steps.  The job cannot be rushed and shortcuts cannot be taken.  Then the grafted branch will begin to grow little tiny finger-like attachments into the main vine.  The main vine will also do the same into the branch.  1 John 4:13 tells us:  Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of His Spirit.  See, we become one with Jesus Christ when we are adopted, or grafted in!  This is amazing, that we are ONE with Jesus!

Now, when we are abiding in Him and He in us, the nourishment, the life blood, flows from the Vine, Jesus, into us, and then and only then can we bring forth fruit.   Notice it says fruit, not works.  It is not many fruits, but only one!  That is because only the Fruit of the Spirit is the acceptable fruit.  Only the fruit that comes from what Jesus has done to make us acceptable is worthy fruit.

Dear Beloved, let’s not leave our Jesus.  He said: I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

I have not covered much of our text in this short article.  But I will finish with verse 8:  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Without Christ the Vine, we cannot bear fruit but are in fact dead.  However, because Christians are grafted-in branches, getting all we need for salvation by Christ, then the Father is glorified.  No glory to ourselves, only to our Father in Heaven!  We cannot be followers or disciples, in any other way, but to have the Life Blood of Jesus flowing through us.  We must have the Living Water feeding and nourishing us.  We must be one with Him in order to be a partaker of Him and all the Wonderful things He has for us, both in this life and in eternity. 

  

May God Bless your Week!

John Ruotsala

Kept By the Power of God

Dear Weekly Readers!


We in the USA are praying that each of you have had a wonderful Spirit filled week. We always need to be in prayer that the Lord would fill us to overflowing, so that we would be encouraged to go forward through this world that often is so hurtful, sad, and trying. All Christians, however, can be so thankful that we learn from the Bible in 1 Peter 1:5 that we are those “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

We are kept by the same God that has all the power! The one that created the entire world, universe, and everything ever created. God’s power has never been diminished, but rather He is still as powerful as ever. God sent His Son Jesus to save all the people in the world from sin. He wants to recreate us, to place our feet upon the Rock, Christ Jesus!

We cannot stand on our own, we will surely fail. We are so thankful for scriptures that say things such as Lamentations 3:22: It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

We are as it says in Isaiah 53:6: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.


We have nothing to boast of ourselves. We deserved punishment and death. We need to be thankful we have such a merciful God! The compassions of our Lord fail not. Let us turn toward the Saviour in our time of trouble.

Every morning He desires to give us His Faith! Great is Thy Faithfulness! Even Faith is not our own, it is a gift of God! Ephesians 2:8: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Here the Word of God teaches us that even faith is a gift of God! We have nothing good to offer of ourselves, it is all from the Lord! We therefore have nothing to boast of in ourselves!

We also need to take note of verse 10. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works…! When we are in Christ and He in us, we are recreated unto good works! God has ordained that we should walk in them. I believe the reason it says this is that in these last times, (the time after Jesus dying and rising again, and the end of all time) the Lord works through His servants on earth so that others can come to Jesus! He has…committed unto us the word of reconciliation...2 Corinthians 15:19

The most important thing for our Lord Jesus who died for the sins of the entire world is that man would be saved. This is even shown to us by the fact that all of creation and all the books that could be written about that are recorded in only a few pages in the beginning of our Bibles. The rest of the Bible is really about the Redeemer, the way of salvation through Christ Jesus!

That is how important the salvation of man is to our God! He wants that man would be saved! He knows our hopeless state without Jesus! He knows that fallen mankind needs to hear His Holy Word in order to be saved! Here is a portion of scripture that very clearly shows the importance of preaching and hearing!

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.


14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?


15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

"The Love of God is greater far, than tongue or pen could ever tell," is what is written in one of our songs.

God Loves the World so much!

John 3:16 King James Version (KJV) 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This applies to you and me and everyone in the world! Let’s ask God to allow us to see this fact for ourselves through faith, and then ask that He would use us to share this message with those we come in contact with.


May God Bless your week!
John Ruotsala
FM Administrator

Scriptural New Birth and Justification

Dear Weekly Readers!

Here is the follow-up to last week’s teachings.    May God Bless your week!

Scriptural New Birth

In like manner, the power of the resurrection of Christ from the dead is manifested by the Holy Spirit through the preached Word of the Gospel to a sorrowful and sin-burdened soul:

...be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee (the essence of the Gospel being the forgiveness of sins - Matthew 9:2).

It is by believing this Word that a repentant person receives a spiritual new birth, as Peter writes:

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which Iiveth and abideth forever (1 Peter 1:23).

Also, at the beginning of his epistle:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (I Peter 1:3).

Jesus likens the travail of spiritual new birth to that of a woman about to deliver a child:

A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you (John 16:21,22).

Thus, a person who has died spiritually needs to be begotten again in order to be restored to life, that is, to be spiritually born again. Nicodemus, to whom Jesus said,

Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again (John 3:7)

...is an example of such a person. Despite the fact that he was esteemed among the Pharisees as a great religious leader, as Jesus made reference to this in His question to him:

... Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? (John 3:10)

...nevertheless he was spiritually dead. This was because of unbelief, as Jesus said,

If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3.12).

Another example of a spiritual death is where one has, as the prodigal son, taken

...his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living (Luke 15:13).

Having lost his spiritual life (the "substance" which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost), and thus having died, he needed to be born again spiritually in order to be made alive again.

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry (Luke 15:24).

The word of the Gospel of Christ to a thirsting soul is a

...voice as the sound of many waters (Revelation 1:15)

... which, together with the Spirit, brings forth a spiritual birth:

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

This is the living water of which Jesus told the woman of Samaria, who could understand only the natural water that she had been drawing from the well of Jacob.

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:13,14).

Children having parents (or guardians) that are true Christians are indeed blessed. Such parents have in them these wells of water springing up into everlasting life.

...Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:37,38).

...the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts (of believing parents) by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Romans 5:5).

This love constrains them to bring their children up in the

...nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

...Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).

Children (as well as adults) need this wholesome spiritual nourishment in order to grow in grace and to remain alive and healthy spiritually, and to be

...rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith... (Colossians 2: 7)

...as it is written, The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).

Jesus said of the little children:

… for of such is the kingdom of God (Mark 10:14).

Therefore, a childhood Christian, not having departed from the true faith, has no need to be reborn to enter into the kingdom of God from whence he has never departed.

...I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one (I John 2:14).

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:20,21)

But as it is with all true believers, children in their early years of life also become conscious of the infirmities of the flesh. For this reason, they too find a need to hear the reassuring word of the Gospel, as the Apostle John has written:

I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake (I John 2:12).

This is possible as it is written:

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper (Psalm 1:3).

Justification

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1,2).

As it was with the disciples of old, so it is today with a person who has been born again

...unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (I Peter 1:3).

He is now able to see and understand with his heart, by the light of the Holy Spirit, that his sin debt was truly paid by Christ, the sacrificial Lamb of God, as the Prophet Isaiah writes:

... the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).

He died to atone for the sins of fallen man,

Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification (Romans 4:25).

And having fulfilled the righteous and holy demands of the Law,

He said, it is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost (John 19:30).

The understanding of a person who has thus been raised with Christ is no longer the product of the fleshly mind of man. It is replaced with that which Jesus gives by His Spirit:

Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day (Luke 24:45,46).

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct him! But we have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16).

The TOPIC for the next time we use these writings will be Sanctification and the Holy Spirit.

The Recognition of Spiritual Poverty

Dear Weekly Readers!

This week I am short on time since I am leaving tomorrow on a trip to a congregation in the USA for the purpose of sharing with them, and learning from them for the advancement of the Lord’s Work around the world!   Please pray for a safe journey.

Due to my schedule, I am unable to write an article this week, so we will continue our sharing the Principles of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ as taught by the ALCA. 

Please enjoy and comment back as you see fit.

May God Bless your week!    John R.

The Recognition of Spiritual Poverty

A person is thus able to hear the Gospel of Christ and understand with the heart, as stated in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:15,16:

...and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. - Matthew 13:15,16

Jesus explains the parable:

But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty - Matthew 13:23

Such a person has found himself to be spiritually poor,

... and the poor have the gospel preached to them (Matthew 11:5).

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3)

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall befitted (Matthew 5:6).

He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away (Luke 1. 53).

The Gospel is the Power of God Unto Salvation

Even though the Gospel is recorded in a written language in the scriptures, it has been commanded by Christ to be preached by His servants, in His name, among all nations. This Gospel is to be heard and believed because it is the Word of the Lord.

But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you (I Peter 1:25).

God gives faith into the heart of one who hears and believes His Word.

...The word is nigh thee. even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach (Romans 10:8).

The gospel… is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ... (Romans 1:16).

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8,9).

It is the power of God to remove unbelief and give faith through the hearing of the Word, as expounded in all the scriptures that concern Christ. An example of this is where Jesus preached to the two sad disciples as they walked toward Emmaus. The disciples had seen Jesus condemned to death and crucified. They could not believe Jesus had been raised from the dead. Jesus said to them:

...O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:25-27).

A most wonderful change took place in the hearts of the two disciples while hearing the Word, even though at the time they did not know that this stranger was Jesus.

And they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the scriptures? (Luke 24:32).

The two disciples, along with the other disciples, had witnessed the events that took place in Gethsemane and on the cross at Golgotha. However, since they had not as yet been regenerated, they were not able to understand these events with their carnal reasoning. They still did not know that the suffering and death of Jesus was the sacrifice required in order to reconcile the world to God.

And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned... (Luke 24:15).

Natural man's attempts to comprehend spiritual things through reasoning and carnal intellect must come to naught.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know, because they are spiritually discerned (I Corinthians 2:14).

The next time we refer back to these writings, we will begin with Spiritual New Birth.    In fact, since that is such an important follow-up to this, we will do that for next week, Lord willing! 

Of New Birth, Baptism, and Children

Dear Weekly Readers!


The Bible has so many wonderful teachings for us! God also works through the revelation of the Holy Spirit! It is wonderful to have an article to share with you this week that is faithful to both of these situations!

Children are truly created by God and loved by Jesus! Lord, allow us to become as children, able to believe by faith! Please enjoy an article written by Pastor Steve Wuori.

May God Bless your week!

John R.

Of New Birth, Baptism, and Children

The history of the Christian Church has often been marked by discussions, disagreements and divisions over points of Scripture and interpretations of the will of God in certain areas. One of these concerns the question of whether infants and young children are children of God from the womb, or are in need of a "new birth" experience. This leads further to the matter of baptism—should it be performed on infants or must some adult comprehension or decision be involved? I believe we can come to a clear understanding through study of God's Word as expressed in both the Old and New Testaments. The Word makes abundantly clear that Jesus is a lover of children. He would often hold a young child and use the child as an example of faith and a proper heart condition to those who were assembled to hear Him. In Mark 10:16, Jesus gathered children to Himself ...he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. In this way He was claiming them as His own, putting His blessing upon them, making it clear that in His eyes, they belonged to Him. We see the abundant and unconditional love of God demonstrated through this simple and forceful act of Jesus, for He claimed them without regard to their lineage, the condition of their parents, or even their own thoughts. Jesus' blood was shed for all, and He was that Light described in John 1:9 ...that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Jesus could therefore claim any child as His own, knowing that He would die to save them, and knowing that they belong to no one else.  God has also always instructed that His children be marked with the seal of His love at a young age. This was accomplished through circumcision in the Old Testament, and is accomplished through baptism in the New. Hebrew parents were instructed to bring their male children to be physically circumcised and named on the eighth day after their birth. Genesis 17:11-12: And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.  And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. Luke 2:21: And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS...  In the New Testament, baptism (understood to be the visible sacrament of baptism with water) is to be applied soon after one becomes a believer. In Matthew 28:19 we read: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Recall that the first desire of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8) after he became a believer was to be baptized with water by Philip, and Acts contains several other examples of people being baptized unto Jesus Christ mmediately after they believed. So, if baptism is to be performed soon after faith comes, where does that leave an infant?  It cannot be emphasized forcefully enough that all people re children of God (believers by faith in Christ) in the womb.  The reaction of John the Baptist, who leapt for joy in his mother's womb upon hearing of Jesus in the salutation of Mary, is an example. Luke 1:41: And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.  This is a vivid depiction of how even the unborn, with no apparent capacity for thought or reason, respond by faith to the love message of their Creator. To suggest otherwise is to imply that all, or some, unborn are children of the devil. This is impossible, as the devil has no ability to create life, and he only accumulates children who fall from faith into unbelief at some point—perhaps years—after birth. 

The newborn, however, is a believing child of God to whom the covenant of baptism applies, and this covenant has nothing to do with the opinion or decision-making ability of the child!  The Hebrew children were not asked for their views on whether they should be circumcised (marked), Jesus did not ask the children if they wanted to be blessed, and we are not to be concerned about whether an infant wishes to be baptized (marked). Why? Because it is entirely the work of God, who marks children as belonging to Himself with a seal that is good for life. In other words, God's view of the child is constant and unchanging, and even if the covenant is later broken through adult unbelief, it is clear that God did not break it. The beauty of infant baptism is that it is applied when man is at his most helpless and incapable state, leaving the work entirely in the hands of God. Baptism has also been compared to the natural example of the branding of a calf in a cattle herd—the calf will forever carry the mark of original ownership, though it may later be sold to another master. As Luther noted, "to suggest that an adult decision is required for baptism contorts the Sacrament, converting it from the work of God into the work of man." Baptism, once applied, is valid for life, and there is no need to repeat it in adulthood. 

This also clarifies who is in need of new birth, or of being "born again." New birth is only required in those who are dead spiritually, those whose spiritual portion, which was alive at birth, has starved, withered and died through lack of nourishment.  This can occur at any point after birth, and one who has lost their pure God-given faith in Christ must be reborn. Such was the state of the Jewish leader Nicodemus and those he represented, and Jesus admonished him ... ye must be born again (John 3:7). We cannot, however, require new birth of a childhood Christian, one who has never denied nor lost their faith. No spiritual death has occurred, and therefore it is not possible to require new birth. Such a requirement is a heavy burden of man and is not edifying to the believer. I believe that childhood Christians do, and must, and will experience a "piercing of the heart," similar to that which Mary experienced (Luke 2:35), wherein the fallen condition of our flesh, our own failures, forgiveness and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ are brought home to the heart in a very personal and special way. It is impossible to assess at what age this should happen, and we must therefore leave the timing of such an experience in the hands of God. He is faithful, and may His Word ever be a blessing among His people.

In Christ,
Pastor Stephen J. Wuori
Calgary, Alberta