I do not pray for success, I ask faithfulness.

New Life Fellowship Phnom Penh Thmey Churches, Cambodia

          

        Our church just baptized 41 new believers on the Sept. 18th. These believers have been added to cell groups for at least 3 months, gone through discipleship and membership classes and they got baptized by their cell group leaders. Praise and Glory be to God the Father.
By NLF: Pastor Sophea

Jesus said that his disciples would be baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) This means that a baptism candidate recognizes the authority of Jehovah God and of Jesus Christ. (Psalm 83:18; Matthew 28:18) He also recognizes the function and activity of God’s holy spirit, or active force.—Galatians 5:22, 23; 2 Peter 1:21.

           However, baptism is not a mere bath. It is a symbol of something very important. Going beneath the water symbolizes that you have died to your former life course. Being raised up out of the water indicates that you are now alive to do the will of God. Remember, too, that you have made a dedication to Jehovah God himself, not to a work, a cause, other humans, or an organization. Your dedication and baptism are the beginning of a very close friendship with God—an intimate relationship with him.—Psalm 25:14.

                   Baptism does not guarantee salvation. The apostle Paul wrote: “Keep working out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12)

 I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.

Looking at the next fruit of the spirit, we come to ‘faithfulness’, sometimes translated as simply faith, in the Message paraphrase it is listed as: “being involved in loyal commitments”.
Faith and faithfulness are qualities much admired throughout the Bible. Both Testaments are littered with stories of, and calls to demonstrate them:
Abraham faithfully follows God to a new land, making some pretty tricky decisions along the way; Moses discovers that faithfulness is one of God’s key characteristics; It is something rewarded; there are almost 50 references to it in the Psalms; Jesus tells parables to illustrate it’s importance, and criticises the religious leaders of his day for their failings in this area; John writes with almost childish excitement to Gaius, enthusing about his; and Paul commends Timothy to the Corinthians with praise of his faithfulness.
We asked ourselves what we consider the nature faithfulness to be, and here is a selection of our speculations:

• Faithfulness is demonstrated when we remain with something or someone we have made a commitment to.
• Some tenacity, discipline, commitment, and concious choice is needed for faithfulness to flourish.
• Faithfulness is something that grows, but in what way? Principally, it feels, faithfulness is something that grows by being put into practice, like the weight-lifters’ muscles, or the footballers’ silky skills.
• Faithfulness is something that has many facets to it.
• Loyalty and truthfulness are intimately connected with faithfulness.
• Rewards can motivate faithfulness, are maybe a key in many situations (Christians usually believe that they will receive a reward for faithfulness in some form or another).