Baptism is a symbol of the new life believers have in Christ. This is Emma Voigt’s public profession of faith in Jesus from her baptism on Sunday, April 21, 2024.
I am a sinner, and I need the grace of God. I grew up Catholic, was baptized as an infant and never understood the love of God or the sacrifice of Jesus. I felt empty and alone, though I followed all the rules and did what I was told, I still felt distant from the Lord our God. I was going through the motions instead of trying to really learn and love. So, I stopped attending church because I didn’t feel I was gaining anything from it. I was sold a lie and had a belief that life was all about gains versus losses, everything was transactional, including faith. Do good deeds, say your prayers, and you’ll get to Heaven.
But then in April of 2020 I felt like my soul was broken and I had lost everything with the death of my dad. He had a massive heart attack, and suddenly I realized that the foundation of my life wasn’t built on God like it should have been, and it cracked, and everything had come tumbling down. When the news broke, I screamed and cried, yelling out to the sky. At the time I didn’t know whom I was speaking to, but in hindsight I realized that for the first time in my life,
I was praying authentically. I was pleading with the Lord, begging for it not to be true and for God to bring my dad back to me. Of course, God’s will is above all else, and it was my dad’s time to go home. That night I was numb, as was everyone, but I also felt a wave of strength and comfort flow through me. I felt like my heart was telling me to be strong and comforting for those who can’t be, and that I need to get right with the Lord. I believe this was guidance from God, that He was grieving with me and comforting me in a time where I couldn’t receive comfort from anyone else but Him.
So since then, I have kept special notice of all the times and places that I have felt the overwhelming love and grace of God. I felt it when strangers we hardly knew stepped in and paid for my dad’s cremation when we couldn't afford it. I felt it when my dad’s 90-year-old first grade teacher approached me at his funeral and told me I looked just like him. I felt it when my sister decided to process her grief by diving headfirst into a new life of faith, got baptized, and joined a mission. I felt it when my nephews were born. I felt it when my mom started smiling again. I felt it when I met my fiancé, and he guided me back to prayer, worship, and church. I felt it when I prayed about moving to Texas and the Lord answered that same week with an acceptance letter to Parker University here in Dallas. I feel it now, every time I read my bible, attend church, and spend time genuinely giving my heart to the Lord in prayer. I can see the love of God in the faces of everyone I meet, the care that He put into creating them. The beauty that He put into this world for us to set our eyes upon. The connections and relationships that we make with other. I have realized that God is everywhere, and He always has His hands outstretched to us, waiting for us to accept it and give ourselves to Him completely.
Romans 4:9-12 and Acts 2:38-39 is clear about the necessity of baptism as the sign and seal of one’s profession of faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So, my baptism today signifies to God and the world that as I enter this water, I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and as I resurface, I believe that Christ rose again from the dead and was exalted into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. As I leave this water, my sins and my old life, my old soul, have been buried with Jesus, and I rise with a new life as child of God just as my Savior was resurrected. With this baptism I accept and believe in God the Father’s eternal covenant of grace for me. I accept and believe that my sins are washed in God the Son’s blood and that He has included me into His body and His death so that I am freed from my old life of sin, and I may be counted as forgiven and righteous before God. I accept and believe that the Holy Spirit, intolerant to sin, dwells within me, renews me, and sanctifies me as a member of Christ so that I may join my brothers and sisters for eternal life in the presence of God. This baptism today signifies that I am lovingly freed from my chains, and sin no longer has a hold on me. I am washed in the blood and eternally saved. Praise be to God.