Saturday 29 October 2016

Baby Dedication v Blessing

I've always found baby-dedications boring. Even more than the announcements!

Announcements always seemed to break the flow of the Spirit in a meeting. Baby dedications were even flatter. And I think I know why.

Only a child's parents can dedicate a child to the Lord - no-one else, no minister, no priest, can do that. The child isn't theirs to dedicate! But a minister can bless your child.

Dedicate v bless.

Parents dedicate - a minister can bless.

As a parent you can bring your child to the congregation and ask a minister to bless the child. That's Scriptural. Jesus laid His hands on children and blessed them.

But to think that the services of a minister are required in order to have your child dedicated to the Lord - that you must hand your child to a minister, that he must take the child up in his arms, that he must be the one to hold your child up to the Lord - that's either a carry-over from pre-Reformation times when only ministers and not all believers were regarded as priests; or it could even be a carry-over from Old Covenant Levitical-priesthood times.

Parents dedicate their child to the Lord - directly, without needing the services of another; a minister can bless their child.

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