by David Gibson<\/p>\n
God designed our minds so we can absorb new insights much more easily if we can connect them with something we already know.<\/p>\n
So often, Christ drew parallels between common things in everyday life and less familiar spiritual concepts, using figures of speech such as similes (“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed<\/em>“) and metaphors (“I am the good shepherd<\/em>“) (Matthew 13:31; John 10:11 NASB).<\/p>\n Jesus is far too large for any one single comparison to be adequate. Jonah, for example, is quite unlike Jesus in some crucial ways, but in at least one narrow sense there is a parallel, and in that one respect Jesus draws an analogy (Matthew 12:38-40).<\/p>\n The New Testament compares baptism to a birth (John 3:3-5) and to death (Romans 6:3-7). In one way, baptism is an end (death to the old life of sin). In another sense, it is a glorious beginning (a new birth).<\/p>\n The Bible prepares us for life beyond anything we’ve ever experienced. And so, God uses His word to help us make that challenging transition from the physical world we are so familiar with to a life that far exceeds anything we’ve ever known. God uses Scripture to develop in us a whole new way of seeing so that “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal<\/em>” (II Corinthians 4:18).<\/p>\n What exciting vistas God lays out before us! Are we willing to move beyond the familiar here-and-now to the less familiar but so much more wonderful then-and-there?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson Moving beyond what we know God designed our minds so we can absorb new insights much more easily if we can connect them with something we already know. So often, Christ drew parallels between common things in everyday life and less familiar spiritual concepts, using figures of speech such as similes (“The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[383,761],"class_list":["post-89997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-growth","tag-understanding"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67689,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-and-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":89997,"position":0},"title":"Jesus and Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer On the third day of creation, God separated the dry land from the waters, and life came through the water (Genesis 1:9-13). This pattern was seen again when life came through the waters after the flood (Genesis 8:6-12). Again, it was seen when the children of Israel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21273,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-johns-baptism-able-to-save-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":89997,"position":1},"title":"Was John’s baptism able to save people?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning sir, I have been reading about the baptism of John and how he came to make a way for Jesus to come to be accepted, but I am confused about whether his baptism was able to save people before Jesus' baptism in Acts 2:38. If someone baptized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93936,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-testimony-of-the-three-witnesses\/","url_meta":{"origin":89997,"position":2},"title":"The Testimony of the Three Witnesses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 by Kenny Chumbley via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 3, September 1994 \"This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood, And it is the Spirit that beareth witness... there are three that bear witness in earth, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14284,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-was-johns-baptism-different-from-jesus-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":89997,"position":3},"title":"How was John’s baptism different from Jesus’ baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have some questions about John's baptism. I've read about how it was a fulfillment of prophecy to prepare the way, but I'm really confused about what that really means and what the point of John's baptism was. I am curious about a few things: What does \"preparing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94436,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-administers-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":89997,"position":4},"title":"Who Administers Baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0by Louis Rushmore The late David Lipscomb is attributed with saying, \"There is no more propriety in calling baptism the work of the man baptized than there is in calling the burial the work of the person buried.\" Stop and think about that analogy for a moment. The dead neither\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60072,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-baptism-was-in-effect-between-jesus-death-and-pentecost\/","url_meta":{"origin":89997,"position":5},"title":"Which baptism was in effect between Jesus’ death and Pentecost?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good evening, After reading Exodus 19-24, it appears the Patriarchal Age ended in Exodus 19 but was not ratified by blood until Exodus 24:7-8, which relates to Hebrews 9:22. With this in mind, if I'm correct in my earlier assessment, which baptism (John's or Jesus') would have been authorized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Moving beyond what we’ve experienced<\/h2>\n