Napoleon's soldiers known as the Old guard were grumbling and about to mutiny. Napoleon knew how to handle the situation. He went into a room that had two doors. He had his troops line up outside one of the doors. He called each man into the room, and the door was shut behind him. Not a word was spoken, but Napoleon clasped the man's hand looked him full in the face, then the man left by the other door. This scene was repeated over and over again until all the men in the Old Guard had passed through. The silent look and the handclasp had done their work: every man was Napoleon's now."

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"A pastor stood by the grave side of a young mother with her husband and 3 children. The husband looked into the eyes of the pastor and demdanded; "Now tell me what you really believe, Pastor, Is this the end of everything. the way God meant it to be?"

The pastor said, "It's not what t I believe that matters,.. you have the answer in your heart. You know deep in your heart, this is not the end. You haven't stopped loving your wife. Do you think God has?? You know that life with God is eternal. God gave you that faith.. All YOU have to do my friend is believe what your heart already knows."

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Those who are baptized in Jesus do not need to strive after a new life. They have already attained new life through dying with Christ. But they do need to nurture that new life so it can grow and mature. That's what church is for. That's what Bible study is for. That's what prayer is for. It is like the Parable of the Sower. Many of those seeds sprouted up, but only a few grew into maturity. The rest withered and died.

A wealthy businessman was horrified to see a fisherman sitting beside his boat, playing with a small child.

"Why aren't you out fishing?" asked the businessman.

"Because I caught enough fish for one day, "replied the fisherman.

"Why don't you catch some more?"

"What would I do with them?"

"You could earn more money," said the businessman. "Then with the extra money, you could buy a bigger boat, go into deeper waters, and catch more fish. Then you would make enough money to buy nylon nets. With the nets, you could catch even more fish and make more money. With that money you could own two boats, maybe three boats. Eventually you could have a whole fleet of boats and be rich like me."

"Then what would I do?" asked the fisherman.

"Then," said the businessman, "you could really enjoy life."

The fisherman looked at the businessman quizzically and asked, "What do you think I am doing now?"

The baptism of Jesus is dying to our self-centered endeavors and being resurrected into a life marked by grace and love.

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Luther says in his works these ideas about Baptism: 'Therefore they greatly err who think that through baptism they have become wholly pure. They go about in their unwisdom and do not slay their sins, they do not admit that it is sin; they persist in it, and so they make their baptism of no effect....To them who do this not, seek forgiveness, God will not forgive their sins because they do not live according to their baptism and covenant, and hinder the work which God and their baptism have begun."

He goes on to say: "If any one has fallen into sin, he should the more remember his baptism and how God has there made a covenant with him to forgive all his sins' if only he has the will to fight them even until death."

Luther, says further," So we find that through sin baptism is, indeed hindered in its work, in the forgiveness and the slaying of sin; yet only by unbelief in its operation is baptism brought to, naught."

Finally Luther says'"Sin remains in our flesh even until death, and works without ceasing; but so long as we do not consent thereto or remain therein, it is so overruled by our baptism that it does not condemn us and is not harmful to us, but is daily more and more destroyed until your death."

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 Back when the telegraph was the fastest means of long-distance communication, there was a story, perhaps apocryphal, about a young man who applied for a job as a Morse code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, noisy office. In the background a telegraph clacked away. A sign on the receptionist's counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office.

The young man completed his form and sat down with seven other waiting applicants. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. Why had this man been so bold? They muttered among themselves that they hadn't heard any summons yet. They took more than a little satisfaction in assuming the young man who went into the office would be reprimanded for his presumption and summarily disqualified for the job.

Within a few minutes the young man emerged from the inner office escorted by the interviewer, who announced to the other applicants, "Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has been filled by this young man."

The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and then one spoke up, "Wait a minute--I don't understand. He was the last one to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That's not fair."

The employer responded, "While you have sat there the telegraph has been ticking out the following message: "If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours."

A man's entire livelihood, indeed his life, depends upon his ability to discern the meaning of these words: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

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The following is from a sermon by Richard Jensen: "The call sounded urgent. It was Pam Weatherby. "Pastor Washington," she said breathlessly, "you've got to come to the hospital right away. Nathan just had a heart attack."

Pastor Washington rushed to the hospital. He met Pam in the hall on the way to Nathan's room in intensive care. "This is all so sudden," Pam said. "I don't know what to think." Pastor Washington tried to comfort her the the best way he could.

Soon they were ushered into Nathan's room. Nathan didn't look good at all. He was terribly pale and looked very tired. Pam and Pastor Washington stepped to his bedside. No one said a word. They could see that Nathan wanted to say something. Finally he blurted it out. "I don't want to die," he said in desperation. "I want to live. I want life."

It was always on Tuesday afternoons that Harriet Mead got her hair fixed at the beauty parlor. She looked forward to it. It was one of the few pleasures she had left in life. Life had been hard on Harriet Mead. Her husband had left her a few years back; left her to raise the three kids. Now the kids were causing her all kinds of problems. But here, in the beauty parlor, she could sit back, relax and enjoy being cared for.

Harriet always had the same woman fix her hair. Sheila Stone had been doing her hair now for several years. Harriet and Sheila had become quite good friends over the years. "Things will turn out right yet," Sheila said to Harriet, "just you wait and see. Life has a way of correcting these things."

"Ha," Harriet replied. "What life? You call what I'm living life? This is no life, I tell you. This is not living at all."

The teenagers gathered in silence. Most of them had never even been to a funeral before. Now one of their classmates was dead; dead at 16. He had taken his own life. Mourning draped itself over their gathering. No one really knew what to do or what to say. They just followed along with the service. Soon the pastor spoke. He read from a note that their classmate had left behind. "I can take life no longer," the note began, "I choose death over life."

"I want to live. I want life," Nathan Weatherby said.

"This is no life I tell you. This is not living at all," said Harriet Mead.

"I can take life no longer. I choose death," the teenager's suicide note declared.

Each of these people made statements about life. Life is tough. Life is difficult. Life is in jeopardy. Life is not worth living. What do you say about life? Most of us, I think, do experience many difficulties in life. Life can be hard. Life can be tough. We long for a better life. Would that it could be!"