Methodist churches practise baptism in three modes: immersion, pouring and sprinkling. Have you ever wondered what’s the difference between them?
The most unanimously agreed on and biblically supported method is immersion. In fact, it’s much easier to find articles on the net arguing about the other two methods being objectionable. The significance of immersion lies in its reference to our burial with Christ “by baptism unto death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). To come out of the baptismal water is like rising from the dead to newness of life, “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11).
Pouring speaks of the cleansing we receive by the “washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6). Similarly, pouring also signifies the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the believers (Acts 2:17; 10:45).
Baptism by sprinkling has perhaps an older tradition, with its roots in the Old Testament ritual of sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice upon the garments of the priest to signify that “he and his garments shall be holy” (Exod. 29:21). To be sprinkled means that we have been set apart for God’s service. More often, however, sprinkling with blood (Lev. 4:5), water (Num. 8:7), or with oil (Lev. 14:16) signifies cleansing.
However, baptism is still baptism. The attitude and intention are much more important than the mode that one chooses to undertake. I’m in no position to argue which modes are right or wrong but I’m sure God need not work in only one way. At least we agree that baptism is a mandate from God. That’s what matters. People like to argue over ways of doing things, stance on certain issues, which denomination is better blah blah blah..... Intellectually stimulating though it may be, sometimes it may not be a bad thing to have different denominations. As my TRACkers pastor said, different kinds of services and church environment may appeal to different kinds of people. Every one is different and if they can find one where they are comfortable worshipping God in, we should rejoice. In other words, we can reach out to people using a variety of baits. At the end of the day, we are still brothers and sisters in Christ isn’t it?
However, baptism is still baptism. The attitude and intention are much more important than the mode that one chooses to undertake. I’m in no position to argue which modes are right or wrong but I’m sure God need not work in only one way. At least we agree that baptism is a mandate from God. That’s what matters. People like to argue over ways of doing things, stance on certain issues, which denomination is better blah blah blah..... Intellectually stimulating though it may be, sometimes it may not be a bad thing to have different denominations. As my TRACkers pastor said, different kinds of services and church environment may appeal to different kinds of people. Every one is different and if they can find one where they are comfortable worshipping God in, we should rejoice. In other words, we can reach out to people using a variety of baits. At the end of the day, we are still brothers and sisters in Christ isn’t it?
Workplace Woes
Today’s my 5th day at my workplace, somewhere near Boon Lay. My nightmare begins the moment I get out of the train at Boon Lay MRT. It doesn’t help even if you’re that close to the escalator because people literally rush or run to the escalator. I never realised the morning traffic there is so bad. Really can’t imagine what the place would be like when there’s a track fault or train delay. To make things worse, bus 252 which I need to take is at berth 9, right at the extreme left end of boon lay’s gigantic circular bus interchange. Very far loh and I queued at the wrong lane before. The queues are so long you can hardly tell which belongs to which bus number until I see people boarding the bus but my queue didn’t seem to be moving.
Actually I feel like quitting already; maybe because I’m lazy. It’d be great if I can work on alternate days. If I want to quit, there shouldn’t be any problems with the job agency. But how should I break the news to my direct supervisor. Even if she doesn’t blow her top – spending so much time teaching me how to do stuff and me irritating her with questions – I think she’ll curse and swear at me every day after i leave. The best thing now is if they find a permanent, I have all the reasons to stop working. Then again, if I go somewhere else, won’t I have to pick up from scratch and go through all the pain again?
The receptionist at the 1st floor counter seems to be having an easier time than me. General enquiry phone calls are rare. It makes sense doesn’t it? How many people need to call a crane company? She spends her work hours watching vcds like CSI, FBI, etc. She needs only to help us mail out the letters. My supervisor makes me call Fedex all the time so sparing the receptionist of more work. I’ve called Fedex quite a number of times to send documents and parcels to China, Malaysia, Korea, etc. The number of times which they call Fedex is more than the times we send emails. Never mind that when I’m filling out the form, I can’t tell which is city and which is province. Because the company wants to cut cost, the pen we are using now is so lousy no matter how hard I press, the carbon print on the last sheet is still very faint. But Fedex is really Fedex. It’s so fast. The thing I want to send out always disappears the next moment I go to the counter. Fedex must be a really really huge company with tons of workers. Can’t imagine the amount of paperwork they need to do. Fedex is literally operating all over the world!!! I wonder if they serve Sahara Desert too.
Of course there’re good things to be mentioned too. The radio is always on in the office so it’s good for me at least because absolute silence like in the church office unsettles me. But coz the radio is so lau pok and dusty, it sometimes changes channels on its own. Lol...Because someone drives, we get to go to a different place every day for lunch. They are used to their 45 minutes lunch break, so they walk and eat really fast. Stressed stressed......
Since my office is located somewhere in the Jurong West Tuas area, there’re plenty of warehouses there. 3 of my colleagues including my boss are mad over the bed sheet warehouse sale. They have decided white is a bad colour to buy because the side where the husband sleeps always ends up with some dirty yellow mark, the outline of the body. What is this man? Never heard of such a thing in my life!!! On Friday, there’ll be a Meiji warehouse sale. Oh man, I love meiji. I recall how I was addicted to chocobeats for a period. I ate almost 10 tubes until I got sick of it. Not to mention I ate so much of Sam Leong’s chocobaby. So I’ll see how and try to buy as much as I can. :p
So far I’ve been pretty accurate with the numbers portion of my work. Does it mean I’ll make an ok accountant? Haha...
The receptionist at the 1st floor counter seems to be having an easier time than me. General enquiry phone calls are rare. It makes sense doesn’t it? How many people need to call a crane company? She spends her work hours watching vcds like CSI, FBI, etc. She needs only to help us mail out the letters. My supervisor makes me call Fedex all the time so sparing the receptionist of more work. I’ve called Fedex quite a number of times to send documents and parcels to China, Malaysia, Korea, etc. The number of times which they call Fedex is more than the times we send emails. Never mind that when I’m filling out the form, I can’t tell which is city and which is province. Because the company wants to cut cost, the pen we are using now is so lousy no matter how hard I press, the carbon print on the last sheet is still very faint. But Fedex is really Fedex. It’s so fast. The thing I want to send out always disappears the next moment I go to the counter. Fedex must be a really really huge company with tons of workers. Can’t imagine the amount of paperwork they need to do. Fedex is literally operating all over the world!!! I wonder if they serve Sahara Desert too.
Of course there’re good things to be mentioned too. The radio is always on in the office so it’s good for me at least because absolute silence like in the church office unsettles me. But coz the radio is so lau pok and dusty, it sometimes changes channels on its own. Lol...Because someone drives, we get to go to a different place every day for lunch. They are used to their 45 minutes lunch break, so they walk and eat really fast. Stressed stressed......
Since my office is located somewhere in the Jurong West Tuas area, there’re plenty of warehouses there. 3 of my colleagues including my boss are mad over the bed sheet warehouse sale. They have decided white is a bad colour to buy because the side where the husband sleeps always ends up with some dirty yellow mark, the outline of the body. What is this man? Never heard of such a thing in my life!!! On Friday, there’ll be a Meiji warehouse sale. Oh man, I love meiji. I recall how I was addicted to chocobeats for a period. I ate almost 10 tubes until I got sick of it. Not to mention I ate so much of Sam Leong’s chocobaby. So I’ll see how and try to buy as much as I can. :p
So far I’ve been pretty accurate with the numbers portion of my work. Does it mean I’ll make an ok accountant? Haha...
Random stuff
To Elisabeth, last week’s digital life section of The Straits Times featured very pretty and classy laptop bags but quite expensive also. At least there’re already such bags out there which can out so many other things apart from the laptop, so I don’t need to design one for you anymore! Lol..............
I never had much luck in lucky draws – those you send in or during prom nights, lucky dips, spinning the wheel, scratching the card which is very fun, those win-things-by-chance events. So I certainly believe lotteries, sweepstakes, Toto and 4D are a total waste of money. I did this survey for brightsparks hoping I would actually win the top prize of a itouch but yea, obviously I didn’t get it. This captions contest in the weekly Sunday Times seems attractive and maybe my chances will be quite high since people hate to use their brains to think. But neither do I; no time to think and don’t want to kill my brain cells either. As if not enough are dead. The last time I really won something should be eons ago. It was this travel scrabble set which I got from NKF at that time. Hope it was bought legitimately. Haha.... love it a lot coz I love scrabble.
Do you know Felicia Chin changed her chinese name since four months ago? Not like anyone would care but her new name’s quite nice. Her old name, feng ling, sounds like feng li which is a pear. Haha...
Do you know Felicia Chin changed her chinese name since four months ago? Not like anyone would care but her new name’s quite nice. Her old name, feng ling, sounds like feng li which is a pear. Haha...
Prayer for 11 May to 17 May
Thank God for our earthly parents who are providing us with the best of everything they could give with a simple wish that we can stay happy and comfortable. Ask God to help us love them verbally, physically, patiently, gratefully, generously, attentively and honourably although it may seem difficult or impossible at times. Pray for any problems, if there are, between our parents and us to be resolved by God’s divine intervention. At times, we may not understand where our parents are coming from or what is going through their mind. Other times, our parents just appear plain unreasonable and overly-protective. Whichever the case, pray that God will be the bridge between us; that as we seek to grow closer to Lord Jesus, our love for our parents will increase also.
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