Baptisms and Transfers—June 2022
Over two weekends in June, we welcomed 10 new members by both baptism and transfer.
Pastor Mark reminded us that after Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He spoke these words in Matthew 28:18-19, "And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..."
Paul also writes of baptism in Romans 6:3-4, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
Baptism is therefore a picture of what Jesus does in the believer. He washes us clean from all of our sins and as we go under the waters of baptism, we are picturing His death and our death to sin. When we emerge, we picture our resurrection with Him to walk in a newness of life.
Two of our members, Eunice Wong and Matthew Seah had the chance to publicly testify of their faith and profess that they are believers in the Lord. Eunice shared that she first came to know of the gospel through friends at work who brought her to Bible studies and church. God used these sessions to reveal Himself to her as a God who loves her and offers salvation despite knowing all her sins.
Matthew shared that he grew up in this church and has been blessed by the faithful discipleship of church members through Sunday school etc. It was only when he was older, in junior college, that he experienced God's work in removing his idols and drawing him near to Him to trust in Christ alone for salvation.
Both, in taking this step of baptism, profess their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and believe that He died, was buried and raised in accordance to the Scriptures. As a response to Jesus' work on the cross, they have repented and trusted in His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of their sins.
We also welcomed the following new members by transfer: Angela Ang, Aurelia Chan, Tim and Sherry Sinclair, Gene Low, Goh Yi Le, Sarah Tan and Agustina Gunawan. Their testimonies, together with those of Matthew and Eunice, can be found here.
(L-R) Matthew Seah, Eunice Wong, Angela Ang, Aurelia Chan, Sherry and Tim Sinclair, and Gene Low.
(L-R) Goh Yi Le, Sarah Tan and Agustina Gunawan.
Even as we thank God for how He has worked in their lives, we are also reminded that this power that raised Jesus from the dead and worked to save us is still at work in all our lives as we continue to fight sin and grow in Christlikeness. This is what we do together as a church community. Thus, it was also a joy that the church was able to shake the hands of the new members to welcome them. And our members responded with great enthusiasm!
We thank God for the work that He has done and is still doing in the lives of these new members, as well as in our church. We pray that our new members, together with the rest of the church, will be as Paul writes in Colossians 2:6-7, "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."
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If you've missed the service or the testimonies, you can rewatch it here or read their testimonies here. Their email addresses have also been included with their testimonies, so why not drop them a welcome email of encouragement too!
And if you'd like to find out more about the membership process at GBC, what we believe as a church or what being a member means, we have an upcoming "Church Matters" class on 16 July. More details can be found here, or feel free to contact Yanadi at yanadi@gracebaptistchurch.sg.