Keys to Spiritual Revival

"Keys to spiritual revival"  Coming into a baptism service, I've been praying and studying the importance of baptism, asking the question, "What is baptism?"  Is baptism something God (Jesus) does? Or it is something you and I do? I conclude the answer is "YES!" John the Baptist spoke that the One coming after Him would baptize the people with the Holy Spirit and fire. This tells us HE does the baptizing. But what is our responsibility? I offer three simple words: Believe, Surrender, Obey. We have to believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is: the Son of God, God in the flesh, the One who came to save us from our sins by suffering and dying on the cross. And we have to believe He has accomplished everything God said He would accomplish through the cross: to take away our sins, to make us righteous, to save us!  Then we must surrender.  No one has ever baptized himself! That's because through baptism we are surrendering to Jesus Christ, to His suffering and death and resurrection, to His life, and to His leadership in our lives. When Jesus was in the Garden before His going to the cross, He prayed a powerful prayer of surrender to His Father in heaven.  And as we are baptized, we take our first step of obeying God. Mary, the mother of Jesus, learned this very important value, and she taught it to others in John 2:5, "Whatever He says to you, DO IT!" We can feel we have surrendered to God, but to walk forward in our relationship with God, and with our following Jesus Christ, we must learn to obey what He tells us to do! Baptism in itself is a picture of spiritual revival: going from death to life, dying and being raised to life by Christ, and being crucified with Christ and being made a new creature in Christ. Believe, Surrender, Obey. Three simple keys for starting out the Christian life, and three simple keys for living life, and three keys for finishing the race!