Baptism

Our little church plant turned two years old this past weekend and it was a beautiful testament to what the Lord has been doing in this community. I am so thankful that He has blessed me with the opportunity to be partaking in this body over the last two years, and especially the last few months. You can find a recap of the last few years at Hope over here at Kim's blog. 

We re-capped the most recent trip to Sudan, which you can learn more about here, Dave talked about what Hope is and what we hope to continue to do in Sudan. After service, we headed up to the Turdici's home for a big barbeque, the Niners game, and guess what?

I got baptized, surrounded by people who have walked with me through the last ten years of mountaintops and valleys, who have seen me both far from and close to the Lord since He saved me six years ago. Even my mom was there, which is just further solidification of the fact that He is so much bigger than we could ever fathom.  

"From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2nd Corinthians 5:16-21

 

  

 

  

  

 

 

Six of us got baptized this past sunday, October 14th, 2012. We are a funny bunch, with testimonies at every end of the spectrum. 

But we are all one in Christ. 

We have put on Christ, and Galatians takes on new meaning. 

"Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." Galatians 3:23-29