Founded by Bryant Wright, Right from the Heart is a
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A Symbol of Your Faith Jun 15 2009
"And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name." - Acts 22:16
Each individual has to make a major personal decision in life. That decision occurs when Christ is reaching out to you. And you then call on Him, and receive His grace, His forgiveness, His promise of a new life, His promise of eternal life. And then He commands you to publicly identify with Christ so that the world will know that you are a follower. And the way you publicly identify with Christ is to be baptized.
I realize a lot of you were baptized as infants, but there’s nothing in the Bible about being baptized as an infant. It is an important tradition in many churches, but Jesus doesn’t teach anything about it. Jesus does teach that if we are going to begin to be His followers, then we should proclaim that identity through baptism. Baptism is kind of a Christian initiation ceremony. Just as a couple will publicly declare their love by having a wedding ceremony, a Christian will proclaim his or her affiliation with Christ through the baptismal ceremony. If you want to identify with Jesus, the way Christ commands us to do that is to be baptized as a testimony of our faith.
If you are a believer and you haven’t been baptized, I encourage you to take that step of faith soon. You’ll be amazed at the blessing you will feel as you share your faith in front of others. If you haven’t asked Jesus to come into your heart, there’s no better time than right now to take care of that, and the first step of faith is to follow Jesus’ command to publicly profess your faith in Him.
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1 Comments
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Yes, report it NevermindI was "born" into a Catholic family, and was baptized as an infant. We didn't go to mass much. My parents did send me to catechism for what I think was a few weeks of instruction before the rites of communion and confirmation, but I never undertood what any of it was all about. I started reading the bible as a young adult, and after attending a baptist church, it seemed perfectly natural to me that I needed to be baptized as a believer. It made no sense, otherwise. After my wife and I were married and joined the church, I was baptized. That was a great experience, and a great day in my life.
I was at a service at JFBC a few months ago where they had a message about baptism, and invited anyone that had never been baptized as an adult to come on down and do it right then. In five services that day, there were over 200 people baptized. Some came down the isle in tears as they realized the significance of the step, and that this was indeed corroborating their relationship with Jesus Christ. It was so moving I stayed to watch a second service. Another great experience.