Dear Baptized Ones,

     On Sunday, we will start our Advent series in Micah with much to celebrate! It will be our first service back together since March of 2020. We will have Children’s Ministry for Infants through 4 year olds for the first time since March of 2020. AND, we will testify to God’s faithfulness in the baptisms of Savannah and Mercy Benn who have professed faith in Jesus!

     The mode of baptism for Savannah and Mercy will be immersion as a picture of their union with Christ in His death and their even greater union with Him in His resurrection. This will make visible to us the reason for which Jesus came in His first Advent. Remember that He condescended from Heaven to earth to be robed in frail humanity so as to bear the just judgment of God in His death for the sins of His people. Even greater, celebrate that He burst forth from the tomb to empower us to walk in Spirit filled newness of life at peace with God!

     In preparation for Savannah and Mercy’s baptisms, prayerfully meditate on Paul’s words from Romans 6:5-11 as to the benefits of being pardoned in Christ as represented by our baptisms:

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united 
with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, 
being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over 
him. ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ 
Jesus.

     Begin this Advent Season with gratitude and joy as we rejoice in Jesus’ redemptive reason for coming into our fallen world!

In Christ,
Cameron