For the past 2-3 Sundays, my church decided to take a break from studying Luke and spend some time talking about the sacrament of baptism—what it means, why we do it, and why we believe what we believe about it. We focused on the fact that while baptism does not save you, it is an act of obedience to God. It publicly identifies us with Christ and allows us to profess faith in Him to others.
This weekend, instead of having our regular services, we had one giant church-wide service out on the lawn and more than 150 people were baptized. The people who were baptized had to attend one of two baptism classes where they spoke of why they wanted to be baptized and learned more in-depth about what it meant to be baptized.
In the picture above you can see 4 baptismals on the stage where two of our pastors were taking turns baptizing them. At our church we always celebrate when people are baptized by clapping and cheering after each one—it always brings tears to my eyes but this one was especially joyful! I could barely hold it together. We clapped after every individual baptism. From children about 8 years old all the way up to an 83-year-old woman. It was beautiful. And we sang the whole time.
I just thought I would share this with you in the hopes that it would give you joy to see so many people taking the step to publicly profess faith in Christ! It just reminded me that God is so good, and made me so happy to remember when I took that step in 2009 in front of our church family! If God has been tugging at your heart to be baptized—be encouraged that it is never too late, no matter what age you are or how long you have been a believer.
Happy Monday! His loving kindness is everlasting.