Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoosier
I need some help please. My 8 year old daughter is getting baptized in a few weeks and I'm not sure what is an appropriate gift to give her. I want to give her something very special and just have no idea as of yet. She already has a Bible so we're covered in that area. Any suggestions would be super helpful!!
|
Hoosier, please understand that I want also what is best for your 8 year old daughter for what I'm about to say and I hope you take it constructively.
About Baptism. Let's both agree that the Father in Heaven (God) is Spiritual and desires a Spiritual following. When Jesus was baptized with physical/literal water it was ONLY a TYPE of the REAL baptism which is to be submerged into the Spiritual Water which is the Holy Spirit.
When I was searching this subject out some years ago, I felt very compelled to the fact that I must find someone ordained to submerged me in a pool/lake/body of water that I might be fulfilling the requirements to be baptized. I then pondered the subject deeply and God showed me where I was erroring in my knowledge by giving me a better knowledge on this subject. What God showed me was that I was focusing on the TYPE and not what the TYPE was to teach me of. I later would learn how significant this new knowledge was. I learned that the Pharisees were in ERROR for this same perspective of God's Word. They believed the LETTER (which was a type) represented the very divine nature of God. Please let me give you a sample of what I'm trying to convey.
Take the Speed Limits (laws governing speed limits):
At some point the need arose to "reduce injury and death on the roadways". We could call that the Spirit of Speed limit law. Now to give us a way to understand this we could say that the Letter of that law is to "obey established speed limits". Let's recap:
Spirit = "reduce injury and death on the roadways"
Letter = "obey established speed limits"
Hopefully you can see that the type (Letter) is trying to be our schoolmaster and teach us of the Spirit (reduce injury and death on the roadways).
Now consider what happens if we view the LETTER (type) AS the Law. Consider your driving on the highway and a tire comes off a truck and starts rolling down the highway towards you. You know that if you suddenly stop, the person behind you will possibly hit your car. So you realize that if you speed up quickly you could let the tire roll between your car and the one following you. So you DO just that and speed up and BREAK the LETTER (you broke the letter which was to "obey established speed limits") of the Law.
Now, you broke the TYPE (Letter) of the law but what did you also do? - You KEPT the Spirit of the Law which was to "reduce injury and death on the roadways". So to be punished under the LETTER of the Law in this case would result in INJUSTICE. Because it is only a type meant to teach us of the Spiritual law. But if someone were to have mercy on on you knowing that you abode in the Spirit in this case then they would be JUST.
This is EXACTLY how Jesus was able to violate the LETTER of the Law but UPHOLD the Spirit of the Law.
Now, you may be wondering, what does all this have to do with baptism and the fact is that WATER baptism in PHYSICAL/LITERAL water is only to be a TYPE of the real PURE water which is the Holy Spirit.
So please do not make the mistake of letter your daughter think that what is a TYPE IS the Requirement of God. For it is only to serve as a schoolmaster.
I hope this helps. I would love for your daughter to be baptized even in physical/literal water to serve as a type so long as she understand that it is insignicant but to serve as an instrument of instruction and not an ordained requirement for our Lord is Spiritual and not served by physical and earthly tasks.
Paul
