Daily Reflections From Higher Things®

Today's Reading: The Small Catechism: Baptism Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 19:1-24; Acts 28:1-15 How can water do such great things? (The Small Catechism: Baptism, pt. 3) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Plain water. Not mineral water, spring water, or even water from the Jordan River. We are talking about plain water—but not water alone. Human beings have a tendency to make too much of the ceremony or the physical element in the Sacraments. In the Middle Ages, instead of eating the communion bread, people would sometimes try to sneak a piece of it into their pockets so they could have Jesus with them like a magic charm all week long! People can be very superstitious and miss the point of things. But the big deal in Baptism is not the water, it's the Word of God! "Without God's word the water is plain water and no Baptism. Our faith is not in water but in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who died for our justification and rose again from the dead that we might have life in His Name. Why then put su