The unrelenting sun scorched everything in the arid oilfields. The grizzled, rough-and-tumble men approached the lone speaker slowly, determined to stop his mouth permanently. A few feet away now, the solitary sentinel turned to face them, eyes penetrating.
“Boys?” he enquired.
“We come to show you your words ain’t enough to stand against us. We come to shut you up once and for all,” they said.
Squaring his slight shoulders and facing his threatening accusers directly, the slender young man opened his mouth, but the words were from another realm, “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”1
As though held by an unseen force, the men were frozen, mouths agape, eyes wide. They were silent.
He continued, “Long ago in many ways and at many times God’s prophets spoke his message to our ancestors. But now at last, God sent His Son to bring His message to us. God created the universe by His Son, and everything will someday belong to the Son. God’s Son has all the brightness of God’s own glory and is like Him in every way. By His own mighty word, He holds the universe together.”2
Without a word, the hardened, sun-baked men sank to their knees onto the superheated ground with their heads bowed, tears streaming down their crevassed faces.
Only God knows if this was the only time men were baptized from a canteen!
1. Jeremiah 23:39; 2. Hebrews 1:1-3
© David Nelson
MastersQuill's Blog 