no no, not the newsboys album released in january of 1995.....
Sunday I left church knowing that we had all just spent time together with God. I know that's kind of the point of church, but this week was different. It was amazing and powerful, more so than normal AND BELIEVE ME THAT'S SAYIN SOMETHING!!!
Pastor Troy has been speaking through the book of Matthew (which is awesome) and this week he was finishing up chapter 3. (Quick... anyone know what the end of chapter 3 is?)
If you guessed the baptism of Christ, you're right. two gold stars.
He talked about how John tried to decline and how Jesus persisted and how the Trinity was present and how his baptism wasn't one of repentance, but an inauguration of his earthly ministry.
He then went on to talk about how baptism is the first thing once we've repented and found salvation to do! "repent and be baptized"
Having been baptized myself years ago, my personal application drew more to the idea of what it meant, a public declaration of faith. it really does fly in the face of the "American Christian Culture" of people's faith being a "personal" thing not a public one. Christ calls for our faith to be public!!
Pastor Troy then did something that shocked both myself and probably most people sitting there, he said, come, be baptized... right now... like.... right now. and people did.
Over the course of three services 277 people came forward and made that public declaration of faith!! 1 in 12 people there Sunday morning were baptized!!! at one point there was a traffic jam in the baptismal because they were doing three at a time!
At first when he said it i was like, woah wait you have to um, they need to think about it, because um.. its a big choice and um wait... uhh. then the passage in Acts 8:26-40 of the Ethiopian and Philip came to mind, Philip explained Jesus to the man and he was immediately baptized because he believed, who am i to say that people shouldn't be moved to be baptized in obedience and public declaration!? sometimes, as a "conservative" Christian, i put God in a box and forget that the Holy Spirit has power and can move when and how he wants!
Praise God that he showed up Sunday and powerfully impacted all of us!
Have you been baptized?
Sunday I left church knowing that we had all just spent time together with God. I know that's kind of the point of church, but this week was different. It was amazing and powerful, more so than normal AND BELIEVE ME THAT'S SAYIN SOMETHING!!!
Pastor Troy has been speaking through the book of Matthew (which is awesome) and this week he was finishing up chapter 3. (Quick... anyone know what the end of chapter 3 is?)
If you guessed the baptism of Christ, you're right. two gold stars.
He talked about how John tried to decline and how Jesus persisted and how the Trinity was present and how his baptism wasn't one of repentance, but an inauguration of his earthly ministry.
He then went on to talk about how baptism is the first thing once we've repented and found salvation to do! "repent and be baptized"
Having been baptized myself years ago, my personal application drew more to the idea of what it meant, a public declaration of faith. it really does fly in the face of the "American Christian Culture" of people's faith being a "personal" thing not a public one. Christ calls for our faith to be public!!
Pastor Troy then did something that shocked both myself and probably most people sitting there, he said, come, be baptized... right now... like.... right now. and people did.
At first when he said it i was like, woah wait you have to um, they need to think about it, because um.. its a big choice and um wait... uhh. then the passage in Acts 8:26-40 of the Ethiopian and Philip came to mind, Philip explained Jesus to the man and he was immediately baptized because he believed, who am i to say that people shouldn't be moved to be baptized in obedience and public declaration!? sometimes, as a "conservative" Christian, i put God in a box and forget that the Holy Spirit has power and can move when and how he wants!
Praise God that he showed up Sunday and powerfully impacted all of us!
Have you been baptized?
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:)
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