The Baptism of a born again Orthodox Christian

Sunday, the 10th of January 2010, I had the privilege to baptize a born again Orthodox Christian. Rareș Rus, is a 26 year old young man that has been seeking The Lord having a relationship with Him ever since he was a child, his father being a deacon in an Orthodox Church in a quarter of Cluj. This inclination towards the spiritual things made it so that Satan stepped into his life fully aware that God has a plan with this man. Evil spirits began to manifest in his life through nightmares during the night, suicidal thoughts, sleepless nights, many days of torment and depression. All that didn’t happen by itself, but it was brought about by people that spoke many curses over his life, and Satan, having found an open door, went in and tried to destroy him, as he did with most of us before we chose to follow Christ. But when God has a plan with someone nothing and nobody can stand against it.

Three months ago, we organized in our Church a concert together with a Christian Band called Acces. Corneliu, a member of our Church and a friend since childhood with Rares, invited him, and starting with that point began a time of restoration for Rares. Every Sunday morning Rares was attending the services with a strong desire to be helped to fight against the spirits that were trying to control him. After many prayers and fasting, Rares has been set free. He accepted Christ’s dominion over his life and decided to fulfill everything that is written by accepting the New Testament baptism as well. As you probably know, our Church’s vision is to see born again Orthodox believers that come to know all the truth and are in need of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, being baptized and equipped so that in time they can witness to their family, friends and people around them.

In Romania there are millions of Orthodox believers that need to be born again and our desire is to get to their hearts by creating a bridge between us and them. We believe that love can break doctrines, religiosity and pride on both sides. We all have sinned and fall short of His glory in the eyes of God, but Christ has paid the price for that. We all need His grace and a fresh revelation of what He represents for our lives.

If you are an orthodox believer and you are looking for a place where to worship together with other Christians, a place where you wouldn’t feel judged because your way of worshiping is different, or that your payers are not spiritual enough, or that you still struggle with sin in your life, then please join us Sunday mornings starting with 10:00, to experience God’s acceptance through Jesus Christ and acceptance from the people that you’ll find here. Don’t be embarrassed if you feel in your heart that you are not convinced whether to believe in God or not, if you are still searching, just know that we are here to help you. We are not here to change you so that you become like us, but we want to help you to become like Christ.

Pastor Rareș Călugăr