Happy birthday
by Pastor Steve Liersch
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While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. On hearing this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:1,5).
Read Acts 19:1–10
My wife and I have three great children, and today is our son Jackson’s birthday*. While we celebrated his birth, it wasn’t long after that we also began planning for his baptism. He’s a very late 20th-century child and, like his older brother and younger sister, they’ve all been reborn through water and the word. Each occasion was a wonderful celebration with family and friends as God publicly welcomed them into his family.
Baptism has been around now for almost 2000 years. It got me thinking about all the people who have gone before us, entering God’s family through the waters of baptism. What an amazing gift of grace God has poured out on people by adopting them as his children. God takes sinful human beings created in his image and gives them a new, bigger family, welcoming them into a faith relationship with his Son, Jesus.
Paul and his missionary friends got to witness God at work in powerful ways so often. From those first Christians in Ephesus to the present-day workings of the Holy Spirit, God’s family keeps growing. There will always be those who stubbornly refuse to believe and speak evil of the Way (verse 9) all these centuries later, but that doesn’t stop God and his plan of salvation from continually being spread across the world.
Our earthly birth gives family and friends something to celebrate each year as we sing ‘Happy Birthday’. Our ‘re-birth’ through baptism gives heaven and the communions of saints something even more significant to celebrate for eternity.
Praise God for your eternal ‘happy birthday’ through the waters of baptism. Reflect on five things the Holy Spirit has done in and through you over the years.
Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the privilege of being able to call you our ‘Abba, Father’ and making us your children through baptism and our faith in you. May your Holy Spirit draw us ever closer to you each day. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
*It’s also our dog Collie’s birthday.
Pastor Steve Liersch and his wife are almost empty nesters as their three adult children explore the world with work. They live in the southern coastal suburbs of Perth near Rockingham. Steve enjoys gardening, watching sports – especially Port Power and cricket – playing sudoku and catching up with friends. Sharing God’s love with others is still ranked as his top thing to do.
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