On December 9th,
2012 my oldest son, Josiah Samuel Asbill, was born again from above as he
entered the covenant of faith through water baptism. My husband and I had spoken with him about it
two years ago as we began to see faith becoming real to him. At the time he said he wasn’t ready but would
tell us when he was. We didn’t push him
as we wanted it to be 100% his decision.
Two months ago he came to us and said, “God told me it’s time, and He
wants me to be baptized during Advent”.
To be honest my husband and I were a little surprised as this would be
our very first time to celebrate Advent (see my article on Advent for that
story), but we knew he had heard the Lord.
As we began to study we realized that Advent is a spiritual time of
preparation. A time to prepare your
heart with repentance as well as renewing your expectation for the second
coming of our Lord. Each Sunday has different
liturgies and scriptures read. This year
the reading for the 2nd Sunday of Advent (the day of my sons baptism)
covered John the Baptist! John calling
on people to repent, and prepare the way of the Lord by being baptized. . .
December 9th
also happened to be the first day of the Feast of Dedication (aka
Hanukkah). The Feast of Dedication is
about the cleansing and rededicating of the temple in Jerusalem after it had
been destroyed with idols and pagan sacrifice by Antiochus Epiphany. It may be a Jewish Feast, but that Jewish
Feast was celebrated by our Jewish Messiah (see John 10:22-23) as well as his
Jewish disciples who encouraged us with these words:
1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were
bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in
your spirit, which are God's.
During Hanukkah each year our family remembers to
rededicate our lives and temples to the Lord with prayer and repentance. So
take all of this in and realize that in a time of year that the world is
over-eating, maxing out credit cards, and attending elephant gift exchanges, my
ten year old stopped to listen to the voice of the Lord calling him to
repentance, cleansing, and dedicating his temple!
Before the baptism our Pastor spoke a word over him; the
Josiah of the Hebrew Scriptures being called as a prophet that called his
people to repentance and back to God’s Law.
Our pastor confirmed this as the call on our son’s life (and if you don’t
know our Josiah, Pastor Rick hit the nail on the head!). Josiah was then dressed in a white robe as a
symbol of the purity and cleansing of baptism.
Our Pastor took him through a series of questions asked before the
entire church about his commitments to serve God, repent of his sins, and walk
in the way of the Lord. As I watched my
son go through the “second-birth” I have to say that as a mother it was even
more powerful than the experience of his human birth (and less painful!). When he came up as the new creation the
scripture promises our Pastor anointed his head with oil in the form of the
cross and then allowed our entire family to place hands on him and bless
him. What I forgot to mention is that
not only Roman, myself and our other children were there, so were his
Grandparents and Great-Grandmother. Four
generations of those who are called to the House of our God! Now my grandmother has witnessed the baptism
of her children; her children’s children; and her children’s, children’s,
children! Wow!
Psalm 145:4 One generation shall praise Your works to another, And
shall declare Your mighty acts.
I share the joy of this day with all
of you to present a challenge. Don’t
wait for the New Year to “resolve” to be different. Follow the example of a ten year old little
boy, who opened his heart to hear the Fathers voice and answered. Take this time to quiet yourselves before
your King and ask what ways you need to prepare your temple for His coming!
Matthew
3:3 "The voice of one crying in the
wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.' "
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