The first church service was amazing. Peter preached what must have been a FANTASTIC message and 3,000 people believed in Jesus. All on the same day they also were baptized. And they became part of the church - no membership class required!
It's pretty clear that whenever people decided to follow Jesus, the next step was baptism. Baptism isn't the way to salvation - our sins are forgiven through faith. But, it's the first act of obedience that God calls us to take. Baptism is an outward reflection of what has already happened inwardly when we believed.
When we get baptized it's also a public acknowledgement that you now identify with and belong to Jesus. Now get this - Jesus said that everyone who acknowledges him on earth, he will acknowledge before his Father in heaven. Yes! I want to sign up for that. You can't go wrong having Jesus say something like, "Hey Father, see Joanne down there? She's one of ours." I'll take that kind of attention all day long.
Epic Church has a baptism service scheduled for November 18, at 4:30 PM. It takes place at Roxborough Baptist Church located at 6035 Ridge Avenue in Philadelphia. I can't wait - baptisms are my favorite kind of service. Nothing is better than seeing people step forward to say that their lives have been transformed because of Jesus. Shoot me an email at joanne@epicwired.net if you want to be baptized then.
Our life is not our own. We've been bought with a price and we belong to Jesus now. Because of this we get to be baptized and we get to be members of his church. We are part of of what Jesus continues to do in the world some 2,000 years after his resurrection. Jesus' church was a big deal 2,000 years ago and it's a big deal now. Every week I'm grateful for those at Epic who worship, serve, and tell others about Christ and that we're part of this mission together.
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