Believe the Gospel and Be Baptized

For several months my son, Brandon, has been hinting that he may be a believer. I gather this from his statements when we talk about what it means to be a Christian. He will say things like, "Daddy, I believe in God," or "Daddy, I trust Jesus." Monday night, after our family devotion time, he seemed to indicate again that he believed in Jesus, so I decided to give him some work to do.

I worked from home yesterday in order to help with the kids since my wife was feeling under the weather. I gave Brandon an exercise: read in the book of Acts and write down what one must do to be saved, and what one should do when they are saved. He worked off and on during the afternoon, and he made it through Acts 9. I helped him here and there, and finally he had written enough that I thought he could recognize a pattern. His results were something like this:

accept the message, be baptized (2:41) believe the message
(4:4) believe the good news about Jesus, be baptized (8:35, 38) be filled with the Holy Spirit, be baptized (9:17, 18)

I asked him, "Brandon, do you see a pattern?" He smiled and said, "I need to be baptized!"

I told him to go tell his mom, and we talked about it briefly. I am planning to spend more time talking with him about this, but I think the first fruits of a believer are clearly evident.

I'm looking forward to celebrating his faith in Christ when he is immersed in believer's baptism!

Todd