In 1999, Joe Jandacek and his family befriended Ted
Blankenship and his family. During their friendship, matters of faith
were discussed. Both families confessed that they believed in Jesus,
but the Blankenships did not see the need to be baptized into Christ for
the forgiveness of sins.
Joe became a
preacher and moved away for a while, but then moved back to Wisconsin, a
few dozen miles from where the Blankenships live. The families had lost
the close contact they once had, but the friendship was still there.
Recently,
twenty-five years after the initial friendship connection, Ted sent a
text to Joe. He had been studying his Bible and recognized his need to
be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. Ted wanted Joe
to come to Appleton and baptize him in the baptistery of the Mason
Street Church of Christ. Joe was elated!
Ted, along
with his daughter Alyssa McCord and granddaughter Mia McCord, met Joe at
the church building; each of them desired to be immersed into Christ.
Other members of the Blankenship family came to witness the event.
After
witnessing Joe baptize Ted, and Ted baptize Alyssa and Mia, three more
family members decided to put on Christ in baptism: Alyssa’s husband,
Ryan; Ted’s daughter, Breanna Lieffring; and Breanna’s husband,
Christian.
“A little
planting and watering over 10 years ago to people who genuinely sought
to be pleasing to God resulted in six family members being baptized into
Christ, receiving the gift of God’s Spirit, and being added to our
family in one glorious day,” Jandacek said. *
“I planted,
Apollos watered, but God gave the increase,” wrote the Apostle Paul in 1
Corinthians 3:6. One never knows when the Seed of God’s Word will
produce fruit in the lives of those who hear it and ultimately heed it.
But why is
baptism so important?
Our sins
separate us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). But God loves us so much that He
gave His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16).
Through Jesus and His atoning death, we can be reconciled to God and
added to His family (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). Baptism is part of our
faith response to what Jesus did for us on the cross.
God will save, give the gift of His Spirit, and
add to His family (the church), those who place their
faith and trust
in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from sin in
repentance
(Acts 17:30-31), confess
Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are
baptized
(immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). God
will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the
light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).
The Seed of
God’s Word produces fruit in the life of one who studies it, believes
it, and obeys it. So, plant the Word in your heart, do what the Word
teaches, and witness the fruit of a changed life. It’s a change that
will last through eternity.
-- David A.
Sargent
* Information gleaned from “Across the Nation: The
waving Oregonian, a family baptized and more quick takes” by Calvin
Cockrell in the Christian Chronicle, 11/15/24,
www.christianchronicle.org.
David A. Sargent,
Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
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