Tuesday 31 March 2020
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.
We welcome the family and friends of Jonathan and Neha this morning for the dedication of their new baby Girl Naira. Today we dedicate Naira to God and welcome her into our church family. During this ceremony, Jonathan and Neha will also dedicate themselves to raising Naira as a Christian.
Jonathan and Naira have decided to do this, as they believe with us, that becoming a Christian is the most important thing to accept in life and a choice that Naira will have to make for herself one day. Jonathan and Neha want to affirm that the Christian faith is an important part of Naira and Jayna ‘s upbringing. We will also pray that they as a family, and we as church will be great examples, that we will help them to understand clearly who Jesus is.
When the Good news of Jesus is shared, there is always a reaction, in our bible reading today there were three reactions to the proclaiming and teaching of the Gospel.
1 Many were given the message and wanted to know more but…
2 Some accepted it and became believers and were filled with Joy and the Holy Spirit and the message spread
3 Others rejected it and stirred up trouble
Some accepted the message others rejected it, and many heard it and did nothing about it. There is no neutral ground when it comes to the Gospel. Apathy to the message, thinking it’s not relevant or just ok for those that need that sort of thing, in God’s eyes is rejection. Jesus spoke very clearly of this in Matthew 25:31-33 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
So, let’s pray as we teach the truth of the Gospel to all that come to our church, and especially to the next generation that our own lives give powerful witness to the love and power of Christ, and our love of others will shine out. Let us also continue to share this good news with the many still waiting to have the opportunity to accept it, and pray that their eyes and hearts will be opened, and they too will be set free and have the blessing we have.
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Acts 13: 42-52
“The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.”