Church bulletin for June
Congratulations are in order for two sets of new parents – Pedro and Aryls, and Scott and Alicia. The safe arrival of their babies is an answer to prayer. Sadly for so many people all forms of life are just the products of evolutionary process. The Bible however teaches us that God took genes from both parents and carefully crafted these two little ones in His own image. Psalm 139:13-14, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” With the conception of any child there is nothing random or accidental. Behind the decisions and actions of parents is the hand of the sovereign God.
There is however something more marvellous than natural birth and that is spiritual birth. Spiritual birth likewise is not a random chance happening but a work of sovereign grace. Just as Nathaniel and Jonathan were received into their families with joy, so this evening three people will be received with joy into our church family through baptism. Baptism pictures a host of spiritual realities – the washing away of sin; the death of an old life and the resurrection of new life; union with Jesus Christ. Collectively these ideas are the fruit of what Jesus meant when He said to Nicodemas “you must be born again” (John 3:3).
Isaac, Kira, and Danny will be baptised in order to bear public testimony of their faith in Christ. Born into their respective families, they have now by the grace of God been born into His family; they are citizens of Hs kingdom; members of His household; heirs and co-heirs with Christ. It is our prayer that God would richly bless them as they make their pilgrimage through this fallen world to that city whose builder and maker is God.
It is also our prayer that as Pedro and Aryls, and Scott and Alicia raise their children in the knowledge of the Lord that one day they will see them pass through the waters of baptism picturing the glorious reality of the second birth.