I Got Baptized with my Husband this Morning
If you saw my status update today, you might be thinking, “Haven’t you already been baptized? You’ve been a Christian for a long time.” The answer is “yes.” I was baptized as a young girl at the church I grew up in, but I was so young that I didn’t really understand what it meant to publicly proclaim that I am a follower of Christ. I did it because my parents wanted me to and all the other kids in my Sunday School class were doing it. Also, I spent several of my teen years wandering away from God before I came back to Him in my college years. My husband, John, was baptized as an infant in the Lutheran Church and also had never publicly proclaimed his faith through baptism in his Christian life. We thought about being baptized again several times, but until this point, never felt convicted to actually do it.
This morning at our church, Christ’s Church of the Valley (CCV), our pastor, Jeff, gave the most amazing sermon on the purpose of baptism based on the gospels of the New Testament. Jeff talked about how new believers in the Bible immediately proclaimed their faith through baptism. He reminded us that baptism in NOT a requirement of salvation, but rather a public proclamation that we have been washed of our sins and made new. He also emphasized that infant baptism is never mentioned in the Bible, so those who were baptized young are encouraged to do it again as believers. Like ALL of Jeff’s sermons, we were deeply moved and could feel the Holy Spirit prompting us. Then, Pastor Jeff challenged the congregation that if there was anyone in the room that wanted to publicly proclaim that God is their Lord and Savior, to walk forward to the stage and be baptized at that very moment. They had the baptismal ready and had also put 2 temporary baptismals (kiddy pools) on the stage and they were ready to baptize as many people that chose to come forward. Within minutes, maybe even seconds, hundreds, literally over 100 people, flooded the front of the church. John and I were baptized together at the same time and our best friends, Bill and Janet O’Malley, along with their teen son, Conor, were baptized together after us. It was by far one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
CCV is a large church with a congregation of about 4500 people with 6 services a weekend: one service on Saturday night, 3 services Sunday morning and 2 services on Sunday night. We were baptized during the 2nd service on Sunday morning. There are still 2 services this evening, 6:08 and 8:08. If you want to experience an incredible time of worship, teaching and baptism, go to one of these services! Even if you’ve already been baptized and you just want to be a witness to this incredible event, I encourage you to go. CCV is in San Dimas on Covina Blvd. across from San Dimas Hospital.
Follow-up note: Janet, Bill and I decided to go to the 6:08 evening service, this time as observers rather than participants. We were through the roof to experience such a proclamation of faith again. By the end of this 5th service well over 400 people had been baptized in just 24 hours with still 1 more service to go! There’s no doubt in my mind that all of heaven was rejoicing with us and the enemy was throwing quite a hissy fit! God has the victory!!!!
*I heard this week that over 500 people total were baptized that day!!! God is good!
Here's the link to our church website to see some of the many baptisms that day. Click on the video "Baptism Video." http://www.ccvnow.com/events/lastsunday.asp
If you'd like to see more videos from the baptisms that day or other videos from CCV, click here: http://vimeo.com/2975355
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