Pursuing More

I was reading from Acts 19:1-7 NIV, last evening and was reminded of the importance of the baptism and the Holy Spirit:

[1] "While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples [2] and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
[3] So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
[4] Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” [5] On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. [6] When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. [7] There were about twelve men in all.

So here is an interesting verse, where people were actually baptized three times, if I can take a little license with the term used for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. They we're originally baptized for repentance from their sins. Then after receiving additional teaching by Paul, they were baptized in the name of Jesus, and in so doing were united with His crucifixion and resurrection (Romans 6:1-14). Finally, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit when Paul laid hands on them.

I know there are some that don't believe in baptizing more than once, and there are some who don't believe in the in-filling of the Holy Spirit, and here we have Paul showing the importance of both. There is clearly a significance to baptism into Christ. Paul wrote extensively about this in his letter to the Romans. Paul wasn't satisfied that the disciples he met believed in God, but he pressed on so that they might experience the fullness of faith. That they might know Jesus and believe fully in Him, and they might be filled with the Holy Spirit, which Jesus spoke of in John's Gospel - chapters 14-16. This is the Lord's desire for us all, to walk in the fullness of what we can receive and experience in Him.

Let us examine ourselves, our lives and let us press into the Lord for all that He has for us. There is so much in Christ that we can never attain a full understanding, or all fullness of experience. There is always more! Let us continually press forward. I am reminded of one of the phrases that C.S. Lewis used in his final book of the Chronicles of Narnia, where all the people are called to come "further in and higher up". Let us pursue the higher calling in Christ.