Deus Misereatur

  I was a Church of Christ minister for several years. I would do my duties and accomplish my responsibilities with the Air Force full time, and then when off-duty I would lead my little congregation. It's called "bi-vocational ministry". But while I was a Church of Christ minister, I began to realize aspects about baptism that went against what we taught and held to, everything from it's purpose, to the amount of water, to who is actually to receive the Christian rite. So I was delighted when Sean McGowan, Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee, Florida, put out his new, little 62-page softback, "Infant Baptism: An Introductory Sprinkling for Parishioners". Easy to read, simple to grasp, and empty of pretense or pugnaciousness. McGowan stays on task. In other words, he doesn't wade out into the flowing waters to cover every topic related to baptism, but swims around in one of the major streams that feeds the subject: Family in God'...

Baptism: Answers to Common Questions by Guy M. Richard My rating: 4 of 5 stars When people migrate from one church to another, they normally have interesting questions: "What makes this church different? Why do you all do this? Is there a reason you don't do that?" And so forth. One of the questions I get plenty of is why do we baptize babies and children of professing believers? Guy M. Richard, executive director and assistant professor of systematic theology and Reformed Theological Seminary in Atlanta, has been asked that question many times as well, and has pulled together some of his answers in the 129 page softback, "Baptism: Answers to Common Questions". It is an easy read, one that speaks in a straightforward fashion. Since there are already several reviews of this work I will address some pros and cons. To begin, Richard engages with "Children of Abraham" written by Baptist scholar David Kingdon. He fairly recounts Kingdon's perspective...

The Good Shepherd's Pasture: A Story of Your Baptism by Elizabeth Harwell My rating: 5 of 5 stars How do we tell our children about Jesus? In what ways can we explain the Gospel so that it gets into little ears and nabs little hearts? Then, we have to think about the value of our little ones' baptism and how to communicate it to them. Elizabeth Harwell has crafted a wonderful 39 page, reading-out-loud hardback, "The Good Shepherd's Pasture," to convey to our children all of those things. The story nicely draws in the Old Testament rite of circumcision and connects it's forward-looking to the coming of the Good Shepherd and baptism. Harwell also artfully teases out our sin, the Good Shepherd's remedy, that the child needs to trust in Jesus for herself or himself, how they belong to the Good Shepherd and his pasture, that their baptism marks them as belonging to Jesus, and that they also should sing the love songs of the Good Shepherd to others. As you...

[ Here is the audio file. I highly recommend you listen as you follow along ] Following the Little Ones to Jesus Genesis 17.1-14; Luke 18.15-17 Lord Jesus, shape and sculpt our hearts and mindsets that in real humility we may receive the kingdom of God like little children do. And help us to better grasp the value of our own baptism, as well as Christian baptism for infants and children. For those who find this subject difficult, help them to see clearly why we biblically do this, and why it is important. And if they are still unconvinced, may they at least be grateful that we are trying to follow you and your Scriptures, and may all of us be grateful for the Gospel of Grace displayed in baptism. Amen. Do you ever get frustrated because you have ideas in your head that are clear as day to you, but you can’t get them into someone else’s head? That happens at our house quite regularly. For example, Anna gets this picture of what she wants in her mind’s eye. It makes good ...

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me” (Psalm 57.1-2). We look around our big world and see trouble on the right and turmoil on the left. We implore you, O God, for all the nations of the world, but especially the USA, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica and Cote d'Ivoire: to bring peace in our time, to preserve the downtrodden and demoralized; but also to raise up leaders who will seek good, and not evil, that life may flourish, who will hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; and who will let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (from Amos 4.14-15, 24). And preserve, prosper, promote and pilot your Church, our brothers and sisters in all places, to include this congregation; both Em...

I was doing some “bid-ness” yesterday, rummaging about to find a quotation about baptism, and tripped over this. Read it slow and steady, and before you argue with it, disregard it, or dump it, think it over. "...faithfulness is different from and more important than effectiveness. But numbers are also important, not so much in the sense of the unsaved who need to be reached but in the sense of the baptized we let get away. ( . . . ) As much as the church needs to see how the techniques of contemporary church growth alter the content of the gospel, believers need to recognize that God has ordained certain techniques or forms for the church's growth. The one reliable God-given method is the natural and organic one of baptizing infants born to believing parents" (D.G. Hart, " Recovering Mother Kirk ," 46). Mike

In my previous post , I dealt with Jesus’ own desire that we are to bring the brephos (infants, little ones) to him, and that Jesus establishes the pattern of New Testament discipleship: the Mommas and the Papas come to Jesus and they bring their little ones to Jesus. I then asserted that this New Testament pattern of Discipleship was, surprisingly, the Old Testament pattern. In this post I will unpack this last concept a bit. To do it right, you’re going to need to lay open a Bible in front of you and follow along. The first thing to do is read through Genesis 17.1-14. Read it out loud (yep, even if you’re sitting at Starbucks sipping your Latte). I’ll wait while you read….Nice job. Anyone ever told you that you read well? Now listen while I read Colossians 2.11-15 and see if you hear the connection. “In him [Christ] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands , by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried...

“Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it”” (Luke 18.15-17). Some readers are new to the world of infant baptism, and several may never have seen infants and children being baptized. I suspect that some might consider our actions as either superstitious or simply squishy sentimentalism. I understand why you would think this. I too once said things like that and thought in that way. I once was a Church of Christ minister who preached regularly against infant baptism. So I want to show you two or thee of the reasons, biblically, why I long ago embraced infant baptism. Try to keep your defenses down for a bit and set your biases to the side, and attempt to see some of the things I ...