E-mail Questions Answered by Ken Smith:
12/6/06   Discipleship:
It is always best to make disciples.  Converts are good but our Lord wants us to make disciples who can teach others.  If each disciple made one disciple a year it would only take 35 years for the world to be either converted or at the very least hear the Gospel of the Kingdom at least one time in the Power of the Holy Spirit.  The Gospel of the Kingdom comes in "Power" not in word only.  Our Loving Father wants to touch the world with His love and healing through us.  We need to learn how to do this.  Seven key words to study:

Truth
Love
Complete Repentance from dead works
Obedience
Peace
Unity
Holiness
Power to help ourselves and the weak and lost.

God's Truth (Bible) helps us to find His love and forgiveness in our repentance.  Then we come into obedience and peace with God, ourselves and others through trusting His love.  In Unity we find help with growing into holiness which will produce faith and the power of our Lord's Kingdom to help us and our sick world,  James 5:16.

Baptism:
The verse that you are quoting is found in  1 Cor.12:13 and in the context the Holy Spirit is the one baptizing.  The Greek word baptize means to take something and place it into something else.  Our English words would be immerse or saturate but then the context would define what was placed into what by whom.

In this verse, through faith, Romans 10:9-10, the Holy Spirit places us into the Body of Christ as with the thief on the cross (no baptism) for salvation.  Then there is the baptism into water sharing the witness of death, burial and resurrection of the new man in Christ as a public witness and seal similar to circumcision in the Old Testament.  And then there is the Baptism of where our Lord Jesus, baptizes us into the Holy Spirit for power to serve Him and His Kingom.  Also there is the Baptism of suffering and the Baptism of fire and perhaps others.  In Hebrews it is noted that there are many baptisms,6:2.   So the Greek word baptize does not always include water in the context.  For me, "One Baptism", is inclusive of all those who have repented of their sins and asked Jesus Christ to be their Lord, Master and Savior and walk with Him in His "Way".  The only source of true salvation is in a living relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ as supported by the Logos of His teachings and His apostolic authority.

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