An Amazing night!!!

Last night, it has to be said was amazing! We had a baptismal service here at Union, two young people were baptised and what an great privilege and responsibility it was to both preach and then be involved in fully immersing them! WOW! Why me Lord?

Working in a baptist church, and having attended one my whole life, baptism is something that I've seen before, I've been baptised myself, but to be involved in baptising another person is something that I'll never forget.

The whole night was so exciting - and nerve racking! Getting in the water and baptising these young people was cool, but whats even cooler is the commitment that they made. Publicly declaring that Jesus is their Lord, what a statement, declaring that they want to live under his rule for the rest of their lives - its great!

I hope that i was able to challenge people by what I said last night too. We looked at Samuel's call, in 1 Samuel 3. How God called Samuel, was patient enough to wait for Samuel to respond, (which he did by telling God he was listening), then how even though his calling was tough, Samuel was obedient and God rewarded him for that. We contrasted Samuel's calling with those of Lazarus (John 11) and Ananias (Acts 9) and noted that in each instance, God called, they responded, they were obedient to their calling and God rewarded them. The three characters also helped us realise God can and does call people in different situations, he calls those who don't know him, he calls those who did, but who are spiritually dead, and he also calls those in an active relationship with him. The Challenge is not to identify which position you are in but to be listening, to respond, and to be obedient?

The two young people had responded to God's call on their lives, they had been obedient, and they got baptised. It was a great occasion, and wonderful to be apart of it. God is amazing, but i can't help but wonder who am i to disciple young people, who am i to preach, who am i to baptise?

That's the wonderful thing about God, he uses people, people who are not!

Has it really been a month already?

Shocking I know, but January seems to have been seriously crazy! The end of December everything was winding down, I was able to have a bit of fun - scroll the net for rubbish videos of Christmas lights, but since the start of Jan things just seem to have been crazy, crazy, crazy.

People always seem to use the month of January to do their big annual reflection, and why should I be any different? Its what I've been doing (as well as trying to get a thousand other things done!)

Its been a term, since i started at Union, I've witnessed a lot, I've observed a lot, I've been asked to get involved in a lot, so what are my priorities? What is God calling me to get involved in and what is his/my motivation for doing so? Big questions that I've had to think hard about.

Hopefully over the next few weeks the answers will start to become a bit clearer, and as they do, I'll start limiting the number of things that are sucking my time up, maybe even free me up to post a bit more often!