Baptism round 2!

For those of you who didn't read my childhood and churches post (please go read it after you finish this one...) I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school, and accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour in 7th Grade at Horseman for Christ camp. Since I was raised Catholic I was baptized as an infant. This was a beautiful day for my family when I was a baby, and I understand why people choose to baptize their babies. Justin and I plan on dedicating our children at the next opportunity our church offers but we will be waiting for them to make the decision for their baptisms after they accept Jesus.

I started reading the book of Acts this week before the kiddos wake up in the mornings, and it was kind of random that I chose to start that study in the first place. I literally woke up Monday morning and decided that I would read it... so I woke up each morning before the girls, read in Acts, and journaled about what I was reading. I was reading about all of the baptisms in Acts which all take place after the person accepts Christ. Now being that I was raised Catholic and have already been baptized, I have given this a lot of thought throughout the years. I have felt for a long time that I needed to be baptized again because it is what the bible tells us to do (get baptized after accepting Christ). The issue I had with it was that I have been a Christian for 13 years already, and it is usually something people do right after they accept Christ. I don't really know why this was such an issue for me, but it was and as the years went by it only got worse. I knew that I would eventually do it again, but hadn't really sought out the opportunity. Well the Lord smacked me in the face with that opportunity this morning.

Our church had a spontaneous baptism! Yep we got to church this morning, checked in the kids, and settled in for worship. Pastor Daniel got up, talked about all of the baptisms in Acts (again the Lord smacking me in the face with it...since I had been studying this all week!) and let us know that the opportunity was open to everyone there, they would baptize people all day if necessary. I was pretty excited and nervous and knew that I was supposed to do it! They provided a change of clothes and everything we would need after being dunked so we didn't have any excuse for not being prepared. I went out of the service with the other people, changed clothes, went outside and publicly professed my faith! 132 people were baptized this morning between the 2 services!! Amazing! The best part of it was I watched several of my friends get baptized this morning, friends who have also been Christians for a long time. I was very proud to 'take the plunge' with them!

I chose to be baptized again this morning because it is what we are instructed to do, and in order to be obedient to the Lord we need to do as we're told! I am thankful that my parent's had me baptized as a baby because it set me on a track to a personal relationship with the Lord. Their encouragement and support of my faith has been amazing, and I am so excited to say that I have been restored, made new, washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ, and was baptized (again, finally) this morning! Thank you Lifepoint Church for all you do, I am thrilled to be a part of the mission to reach people far from God!