A Note From Chris - October 13, 2022

This Sunday is Baptism Sunday! Once in a while, we put a spotlight on baptism and encourage anyone who has not been immersed to follow Jesus into the waters of baptism. That happens this Sunday! It may be a life-defining day for you if you have not been baptized. And if you have already been baptized, I can assure you it will be an encouraging and uplifting day for you as you celebrate with your church. The temporary baptistry is ready, changing rooms are set, towels and shirts are in place, volunteers are prepared, and the Spirit is moving. We truly have no idea how many people will be baptized this weekend, but we want to do everything we can to be faithful to help point people to this faith decision and let God do the rest.

My prayer this week has been a bold one: “God, please prompt every person who believes that Jesus is Lord who has not been immersed to do so Sunday.” Will you join me in that prayer in the next few days?

Also, this is a GREAT weekend to bring a friend, coworker, family member, neighbor, etc. to church with you. There will be no arm-twisting or manipulating toward baptism; that stuff doesn’t last and doesn’t honor Jesus. But there will be a clear invitation to the call of Jesus for every one of us. My encouragement is to say to a friend, “We have a special weekend happening at our church called Baptism Sunday. Are you available to be my guest this week?” You never know what God will do in someone’s heart when they put themselves in place to meet the Spirit of God.

They don’t need to plan for anything. I’m going to encourage/challenge people to get baptized in their street clothes. Yes, we will give them a dry t-shirt. But part of the response to Jesus in Acts was immediate. People just did it right when they realized they believed Jesus was Lord. So we plan to do that Sunday.

So who do you need to call or text in the next couple of days to encourage them to join you? Let’s all be prayerful of our Ones and willing to make the ask as we approach this great weekend. We will wrap up our Acts series with Paul’s conversion story in Acts 9 if you’d like to read in advance.

ACTIVE/RETIRED MILITARY FOLKS….

This coming Thursday, October 20th, Cornerstone is hosting a worship service in the chapel at Scott Air Force Base in association with the chaplains. The goal is to help airmen be introduced to area churches and connect with them. They’ve had a handful of churches do this over the past few Thursdays, and this is our week. Our worship team is leading worship, and I’m preaching live beginning at 6:30pm in the chapel. If you have base access and can make it over for an hour or so, please plan to join us! If you know someone on base who may not come to church with you, but would maybe join you in the chapel for a service, please invite them and bring them! Let’s pack the chapel out and worship the Lord on base next Thursday pm! I’ll be sharing the first message in our new series, “Unoffendable.” Can’t wait to see you there.

See you Sunday!

Yours and His,
Chris VandeLinde

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