Dunked

Tonight was the craziest church service I have evern been to...The entire church staff had on blue shirts that said dunked...the message was called dunked.  We sang as we normally do and Chris started speaking.  It was obvious that the message was about Baptism. 

I was baptized in October of 1987.  The reason I remember the date is because I had the First Baptist Church of Malakoff look it up once.  I am a believer that baptism is a sign that you have gien your life to Christ.  I do not believe it is necessary for salvation, but I do believe it is an important part of our faith.  The problem with October of 1987 is that I didn't become a Christian until 1994....Sure I prayed the prayer and asked God into my heart in 87, but the reason was because a person I looked up to got baptized a few weeks earlier and I thought it was the thing to do.

As a Christian I believe it is hard to put a date on "when" you recieved salvation.  Some people can remember the exact date and dont get me wrong that is awesome.  For me I know it was in 94, because that is when, for the first time, I felt the Holy spirit fill me up.  It was the first time I truly decided to change my life and walk with God, to let Him guide my thoughts and actions.  Have I messed up? YES!  But it is during the time when I have messed up that I am reassured that I have the Holy Spirit in me......

fast forward to 2011...I have always felt the "need" to be baptized again because I never really knew WHY I was baptized...I didn't have an option tonight.  Pastor Chris gets up and speaks about Acts 10:36 (look it up). Basically it's a story of people accepting Christ and getting baptized afterwords....Chris got up and said tonight is the night to get baptized...TONIGHT????? I thought!  Then he explained that the church was providing clothes, underwear (new), shorts, shirts for the men....shorts, shirts, panties, hair dryers, make up, hair spray, mirrors and get this.....femine products for the women...He erased any excuses we had about being in our own clothes...At first I thought this is NUTS, but then the Holy Spirit worked in me.  He said, "Justin this is your time"  take the plunge and get dunked!  I had to listen.  I had to swallow my pride and say it was time.  Here I am a 33 yo male that is 9 hours away from a seminary degree dressed up to get baptized.  Come on in the water is fine.....

Rebecca was there with me.  She was young in her faith when she accepted Christ and I had the opportunity to baptize her in 2003....There were some concerns about her baptizm back then and has always wanted to do it the right way...She was there by my side as we were both dunked as a confession of faith..Both of us, pride swallowed, Christians for years taking the humble walk to the pool at our church....

Is it a new beggining?  I don't think so, it is just doing it right...Being able to explain to our kids what went on today and why so that they can make that choice on their own and not be influenced by others walk.

Aug 20, 2011 a Christian of 18 years finally took the plunge and was dunked.