Last Sunday at the door as we were leaving I told our pastor that I really appreciated his sermon on Romans 9. He used the opportunity to explain more on justification. Telling him that I appreciated the sermon is a far cry from paying him according to how the congregation rated his sermon. Paying him that way would be inappropriate. Nobody likes a party more than me. However I cannot accept any notion of having cakes, barbecues, etc. after baptisms. It is too easy to misunderstand what is happening, particularly for those who are not even Christians and might be watching. After all we are unworthy servants. When we do things for the Lord and because the Lord has commanded them we are only doing our duty. God bless, Jeff > -----Original Message----- > From: john-thomas richards [mailto:jtrspam@...] > Sent: Wednesday, 30 April 2008 1:51 AM > To: soundofgrace@... > Subject: Re: [soundofgrace] Baptism Celebration > > Jeff Scanlan wrote: > > Personally I fail to see how a celebration of a baptism can ever be > > appropriate. It too easily runs the risk of being seen as something that > the > > candidate has done. That is to say, we are celebrating an achievement of > > someone. > > > > This gives the glory to the person rather than where it belongs. > > > > God bless, > > Jeff > > You are missing the point. This man's baptism is the occasion for > providing *free barbecue*. It really is that simple. ;-) > > On a serious note, rejoicing over one who has come to faith is a good > thing. It is good for the church to celebrate new converts. If the > *risk* of giving glory to the person rather than to God is sufficient > reason to not celebrate a baptism, then we should never thank a person > God uses to provide for us. We should never thank a person for doing > anything for us, ever, because God is, ultimately, the giver of all > things good. I understand the concern, but if done right, celebrating a > baptism is not only appropriate for the church, but good and necessary. > -- > john-thomas > > [snip] > > -- > Read the Sound of Grace pages at > http://www.soundofgrace.com > > To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: soundofgrace- > unsubscribe@... > > To view our online archive go to our web page at > http://www.associate.com/groups/soundofgrace >