July 02, 2007

HOUR
OF POWER United Kingdom NEWS

Baptism: Celebrating Life

The influential, London based “Christianity Magazine” reports
that Evel Knievel's public baptism at the Crystal Cathedral prompted
a mass baptism, one that has evoked memories of the greatest
revivals not seen in many years.

During the first and second service there was an incredible
response from the congregation where Rev. Schuller estimated
that between 500 and 800 people committed or rededicated their
lives to God.

Hour of Power viewers can read the article entitled Evel
Overcome With Good

(Daredevil Knievel's testimony triggers mass baptisms at
Crystal Cathedral) at:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/aprilweb-only/115-43.0.html

In the article Brad A. Greenberg writes:

“On Palm Sunday, hundreds responded to Robert "Evel" Knievel's
testimony by asking to be baptized on the spot at Crystal Cathedral.
Speaking alongside the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, Knievel told
the congregation in Orange County, California, how he had refused
for 68 years to accept Jesus Christ as Lord. He believed in God,
but he couldn't walk away from the gold and the gambling and
the booze and the women.”

Anselm Grun, administrator of the Benedictine abbey of Munsterschwerzarch
in Southern Germany wrote that: “The rite of baptism in
the early church left a deep impression on the candidates’ and
on the congregation”: This life Anselm said “offered
them an alternative to the empty, godless striving that was characteristic
of late antiquity and allowed Christians to break with their
life-histories up to that point”.

(The Seven Sacraments: Continuum Books)

True then and true today!

Acts 9:1-18 tells how the risen saviour met Saul on
the road to Damascus and when Saul got up from the dust, he
was a new man.

And we know that after his recovery, he [Saul] was converted
and became an apostle and, lastly he suffered as a martyr for
the religion which he had formerly persecuted.

Paul's great abilities and enthusiasm in spreading the gospel
of Christ have made his name revered wherever the Christian religion
is known. It is his writings, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
which make up much of the New Testament of the Bible. I am confident
that you are not where Saul was, but his story proves a point: “god
is always ready to meet us where we are and bring us in a new,
healthier direction”.

For those that are not walking fully with the lord I say “don’t
wait to be blinded and thrown into the dust – fall down
now, down to your knees”.  Celebrate your life!