I've been so challenged by a verse I heard read a few days ago.  It's even a verse I had memorized in my Bible Quizzing days, but it's really stuck out to me this week like never before.

 Acts 1:5 "John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit..." 

 I was immersed at my baptism, so when I think of baptism, I think of drenched, completely soaked, covered... And Jesus said He would drench me, He would baptize me with His Holy Spirit.

 And verse 8: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

 I really don't feel like I've been baptized with the Holy Spirit.  But I sure want to be.  I want the Holy Spirit to be in everything I do, to lead me, to help me see things I would otherwise miss, to give me the words to say, to make me brave in witnessing.  Baptize me, Jesus.

Happy 2011.  May we get to the end of this year and look back with no regrets on how we have lived it.