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Baptized!

Hey y’all!! Hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July weekend!! I have a few orders of business to take care of… so I will wrap it all up in one blog post. ;)

First and foremost…. I got baptized!!! :)
I’m not exactly a new believer… I accepted Christ exactly 20 years ago. And, in fact, I was baptized when I was 5 years old. Even though I knew who Jesus was at 5 years old and I certainly had no opposition to Him… I hadn’t prayed the “sinner’s prayer” and I really had no idea why I was being sprinkled with water at the front of the church. However, I had always figured that baptism “counted” after I did accept Christ. In fact, I was was under the impression that baptism was more or less “optional”… perhaps just an outward expression of the work that had already been done inside…

Consider these scriptures:

John 3:1-5 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Matthew 3:13-16

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Mark 16:15-16 And he said unto them, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, and he that disbelieves shall be condemned.

Romans 6:3-5

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.

Acts 22:16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

I came across a website called bebaptized.org which gave scriptural references and commentary on baptisms as preached in the Bible. I noticed a point that was given on this site:

Mark 16:15-16

And he said unto them, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, and he that does not believe shall be condemned.

Notice Jesus said, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.”

Notice also what Jesus did NOT say. He did NOT say, “He that believes and is saved shall be baptized.”

YIKES! WOW! I had it all backwards…maybe this baptism thing shouldn’t be taken so lightly! Yes, I was baptized as a child. No, I didn’t know what it meant at the time. Since then, I had accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior… Of course I believe the Bible is the spoken word of God. And if Jesus is saying to get baptized… then by golly, I’m getting baptized! :) And perhaps I should have been baptized as soon as I accepted Christ into my life… but that is all hindsight. I might be a little late… but now, as an adult, I decided better late than never to obey Jesus… so off to church I went!

Jon was in the same position I was in… both of us being baptized as children… both of us have been long-term believers. So we decided to get baptized together. Literally. We both were baptized at the same time… almost simultaneously. Except we didn’t get a 1…2…3… go. ;) I had to pause to plug my nose haha… and then when I came up Jon dunked again because he didn’t fully submerge under water the first time. OK, so we are less than perfect and a little inexperienced in the baptism department. But our hearts were in the right place and that was all that mattered. It was such an amazing day… to confirm our faith in Christ as individuals… but also symbolically together to confirm our desire to honor and glorify God collectively through our marriage.

I couldn’t believe I forgot my camera… so I didn’t even have someone take a picture. :( I did, however, take a picture with my camera phone in the car when we were done… that is all I have.

All sopping wet… but happy. AND BAPTIZED! :)

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July 3rd, 2009 |

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