For those that don’t understand baby dedication, it is the act of publicly declaring that you and your spouse will raise your child in the ways of Jesus Christ and in accordance with his teachings. You are effectively saying we give this little child over to your Lord. It is similar to the Catholic sacrament of infant baptism. The main difference is that most non denominational Christian churches baptize children once they reach an age of understanding about the decision they are making. I was baptized as an infant in the Catholic church and grew up in that tradition. I was never baptized as an adult until I came to Southeast Christian about 8 years ago (if you read the bible all records of baptism are of adults and were by immersion). Baptism was changed to sprinkling as a convenience for those baptized on their death beds in the 14th century. So for years Christians/Catholics were baptized by immersion. I’m not getting legalistic but I think the going under the water is symbolic of the death and burial with Jesus Christ and the rising with Christ out of the water as a new creation. That gets lost in the translation with sprinkling.
So my question after attending a funeral for a 37 year old man this week is: have you made Jesus the Lord of your life as an adult? Have you drawn a line in the sand at some point in your life, where you said I will no longer trust myself, but instead I will trust Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of my sins and the promise of eternal life?
Life can be summed up with that one question. The rest is gravy. If you get the answer right on that question you can take eternity in your glorified body with the streets of gold to figure out the rest.
I like what Doug Wead says when he goes to the Alps. To paraphrase he looks up at those ancient mountains and says I will be here long after you are gone, because I am eternal.
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