This Week at Providence

“Remember When….”

I loved when my grandmother began a sentence with the words, “Remember when…” Hearing her reminisce about the good old days of her life was like stepping back in time. I think we have seen greater change in our lifetimes than any previous generation—and I expect by the time Camilla and I are saying “Remember when…” to our grandchildren, things will be much different than today.

Christ died for our sins over 2000 years ago—old news, right? How does Jesus dying then mean something to our lives in 2010? Today, this first Sunday of the month, we receive Holy Communion. As a symbol of Christ’s gift of salvation, the bread is placed in our hands; we cannot earn or purchase this gift, it is freely given by Him.

We have many people raised in different denominations in our church family and I know it’s sometimes confusing to figure out the differences between various faiths. The United Methodist Church believes in the sacrament of infant baptism, when you bring your child before God to be baptized into the faith. Your child can later accept their baptism when they make a public confession of their faith during Confirmation as a young teen. Just as the Jews were told by God that circumcision marks them as His children, baptism and confirmation are signs that we are children of the Living God.

Each of us has a reason for being here today—maybe you have come back after being away, you might be new to the faith and are seeking to know Jesus, or you might not know exactly why you are here or what you are looking for. If you have never been baptized and want to be, or you were baptized but never confirmed and you want to make a public confession of your faith, I invite you to come forward. If you were
baptized and confirmed and want to rededicate your life to Jesus Christ, come forward during the altar call.

Remembering Him with you,
Warren