Galatians 3:23-29
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
When I was a teenager, our EYC Father decided to give us the theologians' approach to Baptism covering all the reasons for infant Baptism, child of reasoning age Baptism, adult Baptism.
Finally after about 3 months of all the arguments that truly started to sound like a convention of Bylaws for Congress, I yawned.
Our EYC Priest said, "Do you find this boring? It's vital information."
Baptism is like Numbers 6, the Blessing.
22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
24
The Lord bless you and keep you;
25
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Do the Scriptures tell us God smiles and laughs? Seek God and you Will find Him. Joy is all of this.
The invitation, the asking for God to put the name of Jesus upon us. To seal us in His Holy Spirit.
How could the Father God, the Almighty, the King of kings, lift up His Countenance when He sees us. We never have created life without His Blessing, never created a day the sun rose, never created a planet, a solar system, caused His sun to bring warmth to the life on this planet in the middle of a desolate space. How could Father God lift His Countenance, when He has to bend so far, to reach a mere mortal?
Father God, Lord of All, lifts up His Countenance - when He Shines His Smile upon me ! And upon you!
At what age, at what water? It does not matter. What matters is that the Name of Jesus is fully honored, revered, loved. What matters - we can never save ourselves, we can never find a ritual holy enough to deserve what Jesus did for us. What matters is we respond to HIS love, we love Jesus and invite Him.
Because He smiles upon His, Scripture calls us, "His Beloved"! In this we see, Father God in the name of Jesus - sees us as His Loved Ones.
We pray for our children, why would we not want them sealed in Jesus immediately? Our eldest son nearly died at birth, our favorite Man of God asked me incredulously why he was not called in to Baptize immediately. I was ashamed, but I replied because my son was innocent and Jesus loves the innocents. I will tell you, the question is a good one from a Good Man of God. And the Man of God did agree, Jesus loves the children.
Jesus is Living Water, and in His Willingness, Jesus goes where He is asked !!! Praise God from whom all Blessings flow!
God wants to save the world. God sees His people as being drawn to Jesus. God seals us in Jesus and says there is hope for us, we just call upon Jesus with faith. God sees our hearts, Romans 7 and Romans 8 tell us the level of this Great Grace and our response is to be Thankful to God.
Father God,
Each day let us get up asking You, be pleased with me today, Father God. Help me to please You. And go to sleep knowing that if we tried, smile, knowing we did please Father God.
Father God, we lift up those we love, the People You have given us, the People we have seen today, the faces reflecting Life and those with sorrow - to be held in Your Embrace.
We lift up those who have emotions we do not wish to feel with them. We lift up Your Grace to help us go further.
We lift up ourselves to love ourselves. We will put forth the effort to eat wisely, seek health and life, to exercise, to provide You with a warm hearth inside of ourselves to have relationship with You, Father God.
We lift out our Churches, work places, communities, cities, states and Nation. The people all over the world who proclaim Jesus as Lord. In Jesus. Amen.
♔ Lord Jesus Saves †
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