20th anniversary of baptism (and conversion to Christ) . . . Independent Bible Church, Port Angeles, WA . . . Lake Crescent Lodge, Olympic National Park, WA

Today marks the 20th anniversary of my baptism "in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

It was on Sunday, November 1, 1992, that Pastor Mike Chinn baptized me by water immersion during an evening service at Independent Bible Church (IBC, est. 1888) in Port Angeles, WA. A glorious and life-changing event it was!

Along with one of my heroes--the "uncommon Christian" James Brainerd Taylor (1801-1829)--so I also exclaim with utter amazement, wonder and joy,

Surely I am a miracle of grace—a sinner saved by grace, free grace, sovereign grace, almighty grace.

I am indeed a wonder to myself when I think what I once was, and contrast my former with my present situation and prospects.

Francis Kyle, the baptized. 1992.
Seasonal waiter. 1992-97, 1999-2001.
Lake Crescent Lodge, Olympic National Park, WA.

Pastor Mike Chinn, the baptizer.
With wife Carolyn.

Independent Bible Church. Est. 1888.
Port Angeles, Clallam County, WA.

A simple yet treasured and framed document.
Certificate of Baptism. November 1, 1992.
Independent Bible Church. Port Angeles, WA.

One church's Statement of Faith summarizes baptism like this:

We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of belonging to the new people of God, the true Israel, and an emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin.

Thus, and among other spiritual truths as just mentioned, the baptism 20 years ago today symbolized my being "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus," and no longer being an "instrument for unrighteousness" but an "instrument for righteousness," per Romans 6:1-14 in the New Testament:

[1] What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? [2] By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? [3] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

[5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6] We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. [7] For one who has died has been set free from sin. [8] Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [9] We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. [10] For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. [11] So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

[12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. [13] Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. [14] For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

It was a long and spiritually dark 21.5 years that led up to the baptism and surrender/conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ just 1-2 weeks prior in mid-October 1992.

An employee dorm room at historic Lake Crescent Lodge in Washington State's Olympic National Park was the location the Sovereign God chose whereby I would be "born again"/spiritually regenerated (John 3:3, 7; 1 Peter 1:3, 23), repent of my sins and place my faith/trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

At the time, I was a seasonal waiter nearing completion of the first of what would be 9 seasons (1992-97, 1999-2001). Only those bosses, co-workers and returning guests who knew me that first season of employment could truly contrast the "before and after" Francis.

I had grown up in a nominal Roman Catholic home in West Hartford, Connecticut, and was thus some 3,000 miles away from familiar territory at the time of my conversion to biblical Christianity (Evangelical Protestantism) and subsequent baptism.

From leaving Roman Catholicism in October 1989, to reading the Bible cover-to-cover in Connecticut and while traveling/working in 3 western U.S. national park hotel-restaurants (Glacier in Montana, Big Bend in Texas, Olympic in Washington State), to losing a Jewish girlfriend due to a break-up, to attending a "college-and-career" young adult Bible study in the home of an Independent Bible Church elder and his wife (Todd and Noni Huber in Port Angeles), to meeting one-on-one with Pastor Mike Chinn who explained the Gospel to me--the Lord used various Christians and circumstances to bring me to a saving knowledge of Himself.

It has been a marvelous last 19 years of "living by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7).

I am looking forward with eager anticipation and expectation to what my 5th decade of living (began last year/2011)--and now 3rd decade of Christian living--will consist of.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.  Psalm 139:16

NONE but Christ; ALL for Christ.  James Brainerd Taylor

Location of conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ in mid-October 1992.

Employee dorm room (southwest corner).
Lake Crescent Lodge, Olympic National Park, WA.
Room faces U.S. Highway 101, located only a few hundred feet away.

"You must be born again" (John 3:3, 7, New Testament).

Lastly, an instructive sermon on believers baptism is this message from a California pastor who was instrumental in my early spiritual growth as a believer. Be blessed!

Know hope & spiritual awakening, 20th anniversary . . . . new creation in Christ, 17th anniversary

This October and November marks the 20th anniversary of my spiritual awakening to the truth/reality of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was during the fall of 1989 in West Hartford, Connecticut, that I first experienced the hope--in this life and in the life to come (eternity)--that exists solely in the resurrected Lord Jesus. Prior to that, I was "without hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12).

The source of the hope that directed me to the Lord Jesus was The Holy Bible (Old and New Testaments). The Bible (New International Version [NIV]) was given to me as a gift by a friend. Some specific Bible verses that the Lord used to bring hope to my then-spiritually dark, sin-plagued and meaningless life included the following:

[15] Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. [17] The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 2:15-17

The LORD is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid.
Psalm 27:1

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:20b (words of the Lord Jesus)

[14] We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. [15] I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. [16] And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. [17] As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. [18] I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. [19] For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. [20] Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Romans 7:14-20

It was a long 3 years (October 1989 to October 1992, ages 18-21) until I surrendered/gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ (= was "born again," John 3:3, 7) in a Lake Crescent Lodge employee dorm room near Port Angeles, Washington, in Olympic National Park. I had indeed became a "new creation" in Christ:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

For a full spiritual biography via Uncommon Christian Ministries' website, click here.

For an explanation of the Christian Gospel (literally "good news"), click here.

Israel, Henry H. Halley (1874-1965) and "Halley's Bible Handbook" . . . 17 and 19.5 year desire being fulfilled

One of the reasons for my current and extended 2-year spiritual pilgrimage to and self-study sabbatical in Israel is due, in part, to my reading of Halley's Bible Handbook.

It was this handbook and its pictures of historical/archaeological sites in Israel that spurred my interest in visiting The Holy Land of Israel.

At the time of purchasing the 24th edition (1965) of the handbook in 1989 or 1990, I was 18- or 19-years-old and not yet a Christian. I purchased it soon after I began reading the Bible seriously in October 1989.

From October 1989 (West Hartford, Connecticut) to my conversion to Christ in October 1992 (Lake Crescent Lodge employee dorm room in Olympic National Park near Port Angeles, Washington), I was a self-student of the Bible. (For the full story of my conversion to Evangelical Protestant Christianity, click here.)

For 10 days in late December 2005/early January 2006, and now for 2 years from May 2009 to July 2011, my desire to see in-person the historical sites of the Bible in Israel is being fulfilled. "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4).

Zondervan, the current publisher of the handbook (25th edition), states,

Halley's Bible Handbook, the classic layperson's companion text, includes a concise Bible commentary, important discoveries in archaeology, related historical data, church history, maps, and more. . . .

Halley's Bible Handbook was born out of the conviction of Henry H. Halley that everyone ought to read the Bible daily.

From its first edition, a small give-away booklet of 16 pages, it has grown into an 864-page "almanac" of biblical information, used regularly by hundreds of thousands of laymen, teachers, and ministers. Halley's Bible Handbook contains more biblical information than any other book of its size.

It has been a continuous best-seller through the years and has sold more than five million copies in many languages.

Elsewhere, Zondervan writes,

Now in full color, the twenty-fifth edition of Halley’s Bible Handbook provides time-tested help for understanding the Bible—not just with the mind, but also with the heart. It includes a concise Bible commentary, important discoveries in archaeology, related historical data, church history, maps, and more.

Clear. Simple. Easy to read. Now in full color for its twenty-fifth edition, this world-renowned Bible handbook is treasured by generations of Bible readers for its clarity, insight, and usefulness.

Halley’s Bible Handbook makes the Bible’s wisdom and message accessible. You will develop an appreciation for the cultural, religious, and geographic settings in which the story of the Bible unfolds. You will see how its different themes fit together in a remarkable way. And you will see the heart of God and the person of Jesus Christ revealed from Genesis to Revelation.

Written for both mind and heart, this expanded edition of Halley’s Bible Handbook retains Dr. Halley’s highly personal style.

It features brilliant maps, photographs, and illustrations; contemporary four-color design; Bible references in the easy-to-read, bestselling New International Version; practical Bible reading programs; helpful tips for Bible study; fascinating archaeological information; easy-to-understand sections on how we got the Bible and on church history; and improved indexes.

For a biography on the Kentucky-born Protestant (Disciples of Christ) minister and author, Henry H. Halley (1874-1965), click here.

Halley's Bible Handbook, 25th Edition is available through its publisher (Zondervan), at Christian Book Distributors (CBD) or Amazon.com.

It is worth noting that Dr. Halley developed a fondness for memorizing favorite passages of the Bible until he could recite from memory entire books from the Bible, in abridged, connected form and in their own words. Some have suggested that at any one time Dr. Halley could quote in excess of no less than 25 continuous hours worth of Scripture without looking at a reference. According to Dr. Halley, "The Bible is the most precious possession of the human race."


Elder D. J. Ward & Main Street Baptist Church (Lexington, Kentucky)

Interestingly, Dr. Halley is buried near where a favorite preacher of mine ministered.

Kentucky's historic Lexington Cemetery (est. 1849, 833 West Main St.) is just up the street from where the late Elder D. J. Ward pastored (1989-2008), namely, the historic Main Street Baptist Church (est. 1862, the first African-American Baptist church in Lexington, 582 West Main Street).

Up until 2009 (when it moved to New Home Missionary Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn.), Main Street Baptist Church was home to the annual Sovereign Grace Bible Conference. The conference was founded in 1983 by Elder Ward who was, at the time, pastoring in Oak Ridge, Tenn. I have attended this African-American conference twice, in 2003 and 2004 (and then again in 2013).

Click here for the location of Dr. Halley's burial site in Lexington, Kentucky.