Our sweet girl made a huge decision over two years ago. She was young, to be sure. She's still young. But I have no doubt that she committed her life to Christ. She admitted that she was full of sin and that she needed a savior to restore her relationship to her Holy Creator. She believed on Jesus as the only one who could save her. She believed that His death on the cross was for her sins and that His resurrection gave her new life. She chose, on her own, to turn from her sin, and believe in Him as the one who took her death, took her place and made her alive. And for two years as we walked with her through scripture and as she read on her own, she asked to be baptized. Jesus says to be baptized. I need to do that. When can I do that? And since we believe one of the biggest lessons we need to teach and model to our children is obedience to God, we decided preventing her from being baptized because of her age would be wrong. So our little sister in Christ, who loves Jesus so much, made her faith public in front of our home church in Raleigh while we were stateside. She understood the symbol that baptism is. She understood that her old sinful man has been buried with Christ and the new creation has been raised with Him to new life, and she wanted to tell the world through the symbol of baptism. She knows baptism doesn't save her. She knows only Jesus is her salvation.
One of the pastors at our church asked her two questions: 1) Do you believe Jesus did everything needed to save you? 2) Are you willing to follow Him wherever He leads you? She answered a rousing yes! to both.
And so, Brian had the privilege of baptizing her.
Jesus in My Place. Jesus in Her Place. She is His, and He is hers.
My heart!
This girl, my precious baby, my sister in Christ. Her faith is young (though somedays stronger than mine), but she loves her Savior. She loves His Word and loves learning more about Him. She is learning to be obedient. As I read in a book one time, her faith is like a small sapling tree. The tree is real, alive, and has roots in the soil. But that tree needs to be tethered to a larger tree to be able to withstand the storms until it grows stronger and can stand on its own. This is raising our children in Christ. We don't doubt their faith or make them prove it. We tether them to ourselves, teach them, model Christ to them, hold them fast as they grow, point them to Jesus, and as their roots grow deeper in Him and as they bear more and more fruit, we can begin to let them grow on their own.
The following was the song playing in the background as she was baptized. It couldn't be more fitting.
"The Lamb of God in my place. Your blood poured out, my sin erased. It was my death you died. I am raised to life. Hallelujah! The Lamb of God."
We are rejoicing with our girl! We are praising our great God!
1 comment:
So Brian, you are moving from Tahiti? Before you go don't forget to grab some sand from beach in Tahiti where Frank Sinatra sang that song in that movie that he did that one time. Any-who, mama tells me that you move to Bulgaria. My friend Malina Boyka was from there a long time ago. She is on the other side of sunset now, but she told me stories about the old country and it sounds the way Poland used to be. One side is by Macaronia, but she wasn't by that one. She was by the other one by Turkey. But I can't eat turkey no more because it hurts my tum-tum. Even if I put gravy on it. That's what happens when you get old you know. You can't eat things you used to no more. But I can still eat kielbasa. Even if it kills me. Gramma likes hers with sauerkraut, I like mine plain. Any-who, Bulgaria people are shy but they are nice just like Malina. When you get there tell them that you know her - they'll know who she is.
Do you know how to speak Bulgarian? Me neither. But it probably sounds a lot like Polish. I don't know, maybe it sounds like Macaronian too. But I used to speak to Malina in English so who really knows. I'm sure Kate and Thomas and Isaiah will be talking Bulgarian to you and Mandy in no time. Tell them to learn Bulgarian song and call Ciocia Frania and sing to her.
And Brian, before you go there you visit Glenn and Lydia and Andrew and Will. Andrew is named after Grandpa Andy you know - but he isn't with us anymore. He made furniture and baskets with his hands. They don't make things the old fashioned way like they used to no more So you go to Glenn and visit, and Craig will go too and maybe Mark too - if anyone can find him. No one ever knew where Mark was, sometimes he was there but most of the times he wasn't. And when you go to Glenn's, all the kids can play together just the way you used to when you were little. Except that when you were little it was five boys, now you will have four boys and Kate and Emma. They can do boy things too but let them do girl things, no Passaic River mud pies for them. And if you take all of them fishing by Glenn's, make sure you don't lose Isaiah like you lost Kevin that one time at Babci's. Poor Kevin walking down Andersen in his saggy diaper. Shame on all of you. Ok, that's all, toodaloo for now!
Ciocia Frania
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