fellow sojourner

Friday January 16^th, Mark 1: ⁷And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."  In our baptism we hear the words, “Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ forever.”  The Holy Spirit points us to the love of Christ.  We find it in our hearts, and then we are called to turn and find it in the hearts of others.  We close the baptismal part of our worship service with the following.  “We welcome you to the Lord’s family; we receive you as fellow members of the Body of Christ, and workers with us in the Kingdom of God.  We are the collective voice of God saying, you are our brothers and sisters, whom we love; with you we are well pleased, and with you we will journey through life together, brothers and sisters in Christ. We welcome you as a fellow sojourner as we live out God’s calling for our lives at this time through our combined ministries in the Kingdom of God.”  There is no greater gift we can give others than to join in the journey.