Dear Baptized Ones,

   This Sunday we will have the blessing of witnessing the baptisms of David and Elizabeth Sauers. Their newly adoptive parents, Matt and Bethany Sauers, desire for them both to know God’s sovereign redemptive work in both of their lives long before they could possibly know His love and work on their behalf. The story of their adoption starts long before they were born as God in His mysterious and gracious providence orchestrated beauty out of so many ashes. How great is our God that He would bless David and Elizabeth with parents that will tell them the story of their Abba Father who longs to adopt them as son and daughter so that they could be eternal heirs with Christ as written in Romans 8:15-17! How great is our Abba Father that He would gift David and Elizabeth with a covenant family at Christ Community Church that is committed to teaching and living out the truth that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all so that we would never again be separated from His love in Christ Jesus our Lord as written in Romans 8:31-39!

   Matt and Bethany know that neither they nor David and Bethany can bring to fruition the fruit of God’s promises as signified in their baptism apart from their surrender in faith alone to Christ alone as Savior by God’s redeeming grace alone. They also take seriously their responsibility to teach their children of God’s love as expressed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As congregation, we too confess and commit to these things.

   As you prepare to witness and have your baptism improved on Sunday, take time to consider some of the ways in which your Abba Father in His mysterious and gracious providence was at work in your life to draw you to Him before you even knew of your need for Him. Share this redemptive work with your family and friends if you haven’t before. Call or write and thank those who were faithful to keep the Gospel before you. Take time to thank those who are continuing to remind you of your Father’s love for you. Give thanks to God for granting you His love from which “neither death nor life, nor angels or rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

In Christ,
Cameron