As Christians, we are called to follow Jesus and His teachings: a part of which is baptism! You do not have to be baptized to be saved- as in to become a Christian, as in to go to Heaven- but it is a public testimony of your faith. It signifies you dying to your old, sinful self (going under the water) and coming up again as a believer of Christ: that He washed your sins away on the cross so you can be free of sins and become clean/sinless/spotless through Him! Again, it is a public testimony and there is nothing in the water that "saves" you or makes you "clean": it is a symbol of what Christ did for us on the cross!
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Romans 6: 1-4
Nate had the opportunity to baptize 8 fellow believers on Sunday: this was his first time to baptize anyone (he has been an ordained minister for four years now). We do not have a baptistry at our church (the bath-tub looking thing that's in most church's behind the choir loft!) so we used a church member's pool to get the job done :) I took pictures to commemorate the day (and video too)! Enjoy!
Also, this is not for Nate's glory or recognition, but for God's :) Let God's name become famous and in all that we say or do, let the glory go to Him!
Praying to get started
Nate had help from our associate pastor of worship and outreach, Chad, for the "dunking" :)
Happy Tuesday, everyone!
Praise God! You know the angels are rejoicing. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is so amazing! God is truly working through Nate!
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