What Do I Do After Baptism?
3-1-2024
R. Jones
I still remember my baptism clearly. I had an abundant supply of nerves and excitement. I stepped into the water not knowing how I would feel coming out. I looked around at the people watching. Some were close friends and family, others I didn’t even know. My pastor reminded me why God sent Jesus and why He loves me. Then he asked me why I wanted to be baptized. I said that I had already asked Jesus to come into my life and change me, but now I was ready to let everyone know that Jesus is in my life now. I was dipped down into the water and came up with an overwhelming feeling of love.
Do you feel the same way? After all, Jesus tells us that baptism is the best “next step” after deciding to follow him (Matthew 28:19). After baptism, it becomes less clear. Of course, we’re supposed to love God and our neighbors, but how exactly do I do that? It can be overwhelming, but there is good news! God doesn’t want us to be confused, and he’s given us a few ways to discover how to keep taking next steps after baptism.
Three Things to Do After Baptism
1. Start a habit of connecting with God.
The most important commandment God gives us is to love Him above anything else. When you love someone, you seek a relationship with them. Right? Whether that means a scheduled, daily quiet time before work, reading your Bible, or even constant prayers throughout the day just acknowledging Him. Seek God and a relationship with Him.
2. Find trusted friends who know Jesus.
Nothing is harder than trying to do life alone. Finding people to walk alongside of you in life is key to staying on the right path. God created us as social people, no matter how introverted you are (trust me!). Your friends are there to help you, strengthen you, and support you.
3. Start serving other people.
Whether it’s working with kids, being creative, or just being ridiculously good at making someone smile, God’s given you specific talents. And He wants to work through you. Serving changed my life so much that it put me on a different career path! So take your gift and get plugged in at your local community. It could look like serving with your local church, non-profit, or school. God wants to use you! Serving has taught me so much about how uniquely God has created me.
What Do I Do After Baptism?
I still remember my baptism clearly. I had an abundant supply of nerves and excitement. I stepped into the water not knowing how I would feel coming out. I looked around at the people watching. Some were close friends and family, others I didn’t even know. My pastor reminded me why God sent Jesus and why He loves me. Then he asked me why I wanted to be baptized. I said that I had already asked Jesus to come into my life and change me, but now I was ready to let everyone know that Jesus is in my life now. I was dipped down into the water and came up with an overwhelming feeling of love.
Do you feel the same way? After all, Jesus tells us that baptism is the best “next step” after deciding to follow him (Matthew 28:19). After baptism, it becomes less clear. Of course, we’re supposed to love God and our neighbors, but how exactly do I do that? It can be overwhelming, but there is good news! God doesn’t want us to be confused, and he’s given us a few ways to discover how to keep taking next steps after baptism.
Three Things to Do After Baptism
1. Start a habit of connecting with God.
The most important commandment God gives us is to love Him above anything else. When you love someone, you seek a relationship with them. Right? Whether that means a scheduled, daily quiet time before work, reading your Bible, or even constant prayers throughout the day just acknowledging Him. Seek God and a relationship with Him.
2. Find trusted friends who know Jesus.
Nothing is harder than trying to do life alone. Finding people to walk alongside of you in life is key to staying on the right path. God created us as social people, no matter how introverted you are (trust me!). Your friends are there to help you, strengthen you, and support you.
3. Start serving other people.
Whether it’s working with kids, being creative, or just being ridiculously good at making someone smile, God’s given you specific talents. And He wants to work through you. Serving changed my life so much that it put me on a different career path! So take your gift and get plugged in at your local community. It could look like serving with your local church, non-profit, or school. God wants to use you! Serving has taught me so much about how uniquely God has created me.
By Pastor Rob Jones
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Dearest CCC Family and Friends,
2-15-2024
E. Whitacre
Dearest CCC Family and Friends,
I hope this finds you staying warm in this cold season. It’s hard to believe that another
Christmas has come and gone and we are already a month into the new year. They say that
time flies when you are having fun, but sometimes I just think that time flies , regardless of what
we’re doing.
Isn’t that just like God? To keep showing His awesomeness, His goodness, His plan, no matter
what we as His created beings do, think, say, or feel?
The new year is often a time for pause and reflection, but quite frankly, when you’re training to
become a Mental Health Counselor, really all you do is reflect all the time! At the counseling
practice where I am interning, we are encouraged to pray and reflect on one word to be our
word of the year. For 2023, my word was “listen.” As this pruning season begins to draw to a
close for me and our family (graduation in less than four months – finally!) I’ve been
overwhelmed with the examples of God’s love poured out for me, and for others, time after time
after time. What stands out to me after a year of really listening?
Thank goodness He seeks out the one who has strayed from the 99.
Thank goodness He never stops, or gives up, or says “this is the last time.”
Thank goodness that everytime we get it wrong, He is there, waiting, not to say “I told
you so”, but to say “Welcome home, child, I’ve missed you.”
The clear message that I heard throughout 2023? Be grateful for God’s promises that are never-
ending and His mercy that never fails! As a human, I fell short so often in 2023, yet God never
turned away from me. His plans never failed, even though they may have looked different than
my plans.
So as I prepare for 2024 and graduating and entering the workforce again, and our family
prepares to adjust to this next stage of life with both kids in school full time (Gertie goes to
Kindergarten this fall – EEK!)I hope that we can continue to listen to God, and also be grateful
and joyous for all the ways that He continues to provide, even when we stray from the path.
It’s fitting then, that my word for 2024 is ‘ be ’. It’s such a simple word, yet has so much
implication as well.
I’ve reflected a LOT over the last few weeks about what I hope the word “be” will mean for me
this year, and I hope you’ll do the same, or reflect upon your own word! I’ve had so many
thoughts, but perhaps the greatest one that keeps hitting me over and over is this: be grateful
and joyous.
As we go through 2024, expecting it to pass as quickly as the years prior, I hope that we can
find time to be grateful and joyous for all of God’s provision. I pray that we can remember to
thank Him for all of His promises, and find joy in the waiting period. That we can praise Him for
His plans, and rejoice knowing that He will seek us if we stray from those plans.
I pray that when we reflect on the word ‘be’, that it doesn’t cause a flurried frenzy of anxious
thoughts about the future, but instead that it grounds us in that moment to be reconnected to our
source of strength: God. I pray that we can learn to be in a deeper relationship with Jesus, to be
led by the Holy Spirit, to be the hands and feet.
I pray that 2024 brings an abundance of blessing to you, and that you can BE a blessing to
others this year!
Peace and Love,
Emily Whitacre
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Live As If You Know God Loves You Intensely!
2-1-2024
C. Hayden
In Romans 8:31-39, we read one of the most amazing anthems illustrating what so many of us struggle
to believe. That of how great God’s love is for us! We know that we need to love God, and we do. But
do we know that God loves us with an everlasting love. We are His children and the sheep of His
pasture, as we read in Psalm 100:3. But in Romans 8:31-32 we read, “What then shall we say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up
for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” God did not hold back His most prized treasure to save us, His only begotten.
In verses 38-39 of that same passage, the Word declares, “For
I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to
come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Did you get that? NOTHING will ever separate you from God’s
love for you. He will not, will not, will not stop loving you, no matter what. He did not come to this
earth and die on a cross to pay for sins just to give up on you now. Don’t let anyone or anything keep
you from remaining in His love.
When tragedy strikes you or your family, seasons of hardship darken your door, or hope seems distant,
know God has not left you nor will He ever leave you. Deuteronomy 31:8 reminds us, “The Lord goes
before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be
discouraged.” David Crowder wrote a song about the fact that God really loves us called, “God Really
Loves Us.”(Haha) If you are struggling this week, it may be a good idea to play this tune a few times and
allow it to sink in your spirit.
Be blessed even more you wonderful children of God!!
Pastor Chris
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