It is with joy of a father and mother that we can witness and participate together in the baptism (immersion) of our first child, T.  We give thanks to God our Father that, by the Holy Spirit, T has been drawn to Jesus His Son.  T has responded by asking Jesus into her heart even from the age of five and now, by obeying Him, to be baptized by faith in His Name. 

Baptism is essentially a public act of acknowledgment that the one being baptized believes with all his or her heart that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and that He saves the believer from his sins.  When we are baptized we are agreeing with God that the Lord Jesus died for me and my sins on the cross in my place, and that I have died with Him.  And even as He rose from the dead, so will I be raised from death.  Baptism in water gives a vivid picture of our sins being washed away by God’s Word on the basis of Jesus’sacrifice.  When we are baptized we are saying that we want to be with Jesus and with His people.  We are saying that we need to be changed from the way we are and think and feel and do to the way God is and thinks and feels and does.  In other words, we need to die to ourselves so that we can live unto God in the power of His resurrection, because God loves you, T.

God your Father in Heaven, T, is very happy and pleased that today you are taking your first big step of faith – the faith of a child which is so special and precious to the Lord that He even tells big people that they must have the simple, trusting, dependent faith of a child in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now that you are born again by God’s Word and Spirit through your believing God and His good news about Jesus Christ, your mother and I want to read to you from our announcement at your birth almost eight years ago our blessings and prayers for you then that we see God is wonderfully in grace and mercy bringing to pass:

Your name T means the date palm tree and the fruit.  The date palm tree symbolizes uprightness, righteousness, prosperity and fruitfulness; beauty; salvation and victory; kingly glory; constancy, perseverance.  We hope and pray that you will grow and develop in accord with your name and in the fear of the LORD.

לשמך תמר יש פרוש עץ תמר ופרי שלו, ויש לו סמלים יושר, צדקה, הצלחה, פוריות. הדר. ישועה ונצחון. כבוד מלכי. חזק, התמדה.  אנו מקווים ומתפללים שאת תגדלי באופי שלך לפי השם שלך וביראת יהוה.

Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God? . . . . yes
Do you believe that He suffered and died for — and because of — you and your sins? . . . . yes
Do you believe that God the Father and Jesus forgive you for all your sins? . . . . yes
Do you believe that Jesus is Lord and is now alive in Heaven and in your heart? . . .. . yes

Then in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ – I baptize you, T, into His death and into the newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit of God in you.  Praise the LORD!