The Personal Baptism

Being a pastor is hard. There are days I say to myself I should have stayed in law school or finished that Ph.D. 
And there are days where those thoughts are fleeting. This past Sunday was one of those days. 

On Sunday, I had the rare privilege of baptizing my children in the church that my wife (also a pastor) and I serve. 
It was surreal. 

It was their decision. We talked about it. What does it mean and why we do it.

It was at our nightly prayer time, when my wife said, to our children, "Do you love God and want people to know it?" Their answer was, "Yes". I am often amazed at the practicality and simple theology of a childlike faith. 

I pray they continue to seek the God that loves them, they encounter the love of a personal Jesus, and the Holy Spirit empowers them to do justice so they see what love looks like in public.

In some mysterious way, I kind of understand when God say's "This is my Son/Daughter, whom I love; with him/her I am well pleased.” Amen.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”Then John consented.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  


~ Matthew 3:13-17