Sunday on Father’s Day, between our two services we had the joy of baptizing Eric Moon and Jerry Mercier by immersion. Eric’s testimony of being influenced to turn his life around and follow Christ by his father’s example, brought tears to our eyes. Jerry’s testimony of God’s gracious intervention and answers to prayer brought assurance to all of us of God’s tender care. Personally, being a part of Jerry’s baptism was a double blessing to me as Jerry has become one of my Wednesday morning prayer partners and a dear friend because of it.
Testifying to our faith through the tradition of believer baptism has a history going back into the New Testament itself. Jesus instructed his disciples to use baptism as a mark as they enrolled people as his followers (Matt. 28:19). In his Pentecost sermon, Peter encouraged people to be baptized (Acts 2:38). Saul who is usually called Paul was baptized shortly after his conversion (Acts 9:18). While the Wesleyan Church does not require immersion style baptism as we did last Sunday for believers, we use it whenever possible because the symbolism (as described in Romans 6) is the most complete.
What a joy to celebrate with Eric and Jerry as they obeyed Jesus direction. Our prayers are with them as they seek to live day by day as disciples of Christ.