Left It In The Water….

Have you ever seen over 50 people baptized in the ocean before?  I hadn’t either…until today that is.  Of course, as awesome as it was to see all of those individuals profess their belief in Jesus Christ, their belief that He died, was buried, and then arose….all for their sins…….their was a particular couple of New Believers that I had particular interest in.

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My family has been looking forward to this day for a few months now. Over the past week I wasn’t even sure it was going to take place.  The weather has been pretty bad recently, with remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto blowing through and our seasonal afternoon thunderstorms.  Planning an outdoor activity for June can be difficult.  Luckily God made this day as perfect as could be.

We had family members come in to town starting last Wednesday to be a witness to this event as well.  Grandparents and parents, from Mississippi and Ohio.  Some drove, some flew, all made their way here to show their support of the decisions that had been made.

It all started this morning with another amazing church service from the book of Haggai. The message was about putting God first in our lives.  Twice God tells the Israelites to “Consider your ways.” God was not happy that the rebuilding of the Temple had been put on hold….because other important things were going on in the lives of the Israelites.

Over 50 people today decided at some point recently to put God first.  These people not only decided to put God first, but step out on a public beach and show the world.

I can’t imagine what those tourists and locals thought as a huge crowd came up over the dunes….gathered….and began singing.  As the second song started another group of people, all in purple shirts made their way into the water.  Then as the third song was over, lines began to form in front of those who were about 30 yards out into the sea.

And at the back of the “pink” line was my wife and oldest son.  My wife had made her decision to follow Christ just before Christmas….6 months ago to the day.  My son made his decision for Christ the night before Easter Sunday, at a special Saturday New night service we had.  Before heading down to the beach they had to choose a word to write on their shirts for what Jesus meant to them.  What’s crazy is, that without even talking to each other, they both ended up writing “Found” on their shirts.

As they splashed out into the water, together, I was surrounded by family and Staff members that have grown to love my family like their own.  They were just as excited to see my wife and son get baptized today as I and my other family members present were.  My son’s best friend even showed up and he and his family were cheering my son on as well.

Baptism is the outward showing of what we have accepted on the inside.  As Paul says in Romans, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life (Romans 6:3-4, NASB).

I’ll be honest with you, I never saw this day ever happening for anyone in my family.  I was not the good Christian father that I should have been.  But you see, God had a plan that was far greater than anything I could ever have imagined.  You see, if I would have, on my own, lead my wife and child to where they were today, then I would have thought it was me that did it.  However, God made it happen, in His time, in His way, so that He received the glory.  I could have never done any of this by myself.  But God placed many special people in our lives at the right times for the right words to be said…..and all of this lead to the decisions that were made, to the joyous occasion of today.

God is amazing.  When you place Him at the center of your life, the blessings will come.  I know they will.  I’ve seen them first hand.  I pray that each of us can continue to stay focused on God and the things that truly matter.

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I couldn’t end this blog without a quick story of what happened after their baptisms.  As my oldest son, youngest son, and their friends headed out into the water to play, my youngest started screaming.  Come to find out that a crab about the size of a quarter attached himself to my youngest son’s toe.  After said crab was pulled off, my son said he never wanted to play in “that” spot of water again.  He said, however, he would go play by where they were doing the baptisms because that area was okay.