loyal to Jesus

It's not hard to be loyal to Jesus. There is no great hurdle that you can not jump. There is no locked door you can't get through. In a most important sense, loyalty to Jesus is easy. You just take whatever loyalty you've got and day by day you bring it to one place: -Jesus-.
You might not have much but you have only got one place to bring it, one person to give it to! And loyalty by its nature is something that goes with you. All of your loyalty to Jesus goes with you tomorrow to school! Your loyalty to Jesus goes with you back to the house tonight. Your loyalty to Jesus goes with you to work and to Bed. Your loyalty, by its definition must have an "on-goingness" to it. So, go be loyal to Jesus with whatever loyalty you have got and you will not be disappointed in Him.

a compelling irony

A literal translation of Colossians 2:14,15 reads like this:
Wiping out the (against us)handwriting in ordinances which was contrary to us,and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross putting off the rulers and authorities he exposed them with openness triumphing over them in it.

The institutionalized religion of Jerusalem and institutionalized government of Rome, at their most illustrious conspired together to undress this Jesus of Nazareth and hang him out in open shame...but actually it was the "rulers" and the "authorities" who were being exposed as inept. The judgment of God has been manifest against "the church" and "the state". They shall not go forward into the Kingdom of God.

Keep reading Colossians without being defrauded the prize of Jesus.

a little more on "baptizo"

These quotes are from an article by G.R. Beasley-Murray in "The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology" edited by Colin Brown.

"...baptizo is an intensive form of bapto and means (a) dip, and (b) cause to perish (as by drowning a man or sinking a ship). While there is some evidence that bapto was occasionally used in secular Greek of a ritual bath, there is none to show that baptizo was so employed (perhaps because of its association with the idea of perishing)...."

"...6. The nouns baptismos, baptisma and baptistes. (a) baptismos, dipping, immersion, has in the classical literature the connotation of perishing,like the vb. baptizo...."