Something Beautiful

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

Satan will weave confusion and lies anywhere he can or is allowed.

My baptism was conducted in the church where I grew up, a Methodist church. The pastor who conducted said baptism just recently past away. He was a tremendous influence on me spiritually during my teenage years, and rarely missed any of my football games during that time. Since my baptism was conducted in February, it was a sprinkling ceremony with the congregation, my beloved church family, in attendance. The church wasn't opposed to an immersing baptism by any means which were conducted frequently in warm weather months in a nearby river. At the time, I really didn't know about or understand the oft controversial practice of sprinkling as opposed to immersion. All I knew and cared about was my obedience to follow in the lead of my Savior and be baptized in His name as a profession of my faith in Him...and Him alone.

Fast forward five years, and I'm in my sophomore year of college. I was seriously struggling with matters of faith but trying to remain obedient by attending a church in Nashville...a rather large church. I don't think it is important to call out the denomination at this point, but the church wasn't a Methodist church. As I became more involved...or maybe interactive is a better word...in the church and with members, an inquiry about my history was inevitable. Upon finding out about my Methodist roots, several of the members I had befriended began the Inquisition...Do you believe that doctrine? You honestly think you can lose your salvation? Were you sprinkled?

I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt about my baptism as the group looked on in disgust at my answers. I had developed a good deal of trust with these people. Most were well-learned and several attended Vanderbilt with me...which was just across the street from the church. Doubt began to fill my thoughts concerning my very salvation. Would I actually go to Heaven if I happened to die that day?

There are points in each of our lives when we come to a major crossroads or fork in the path. You might think this particular dilemma of doubt is one for yours truly...and you'd be partially correct because I would face several in a short period of time. More specifically though, the paths I had to chose from with the greatest impact would be ultimately defined by the method I would use to find the answers I was now seeking and needed.

I look back now and picture a fantastical scene from Robert Frost's great poem...and I am tip-toeing to peer down two distinctly different paths. Given the relevance of where I was at this point in my life, I had the path of academia...worn well from the scholarly atmosphere of being in the midst of some of the greatest minds wondering the campus of Vanderbilt University. A school of higher learning that, to the surprise of some, has a world renown School of Divinity.

The other path is overgrown with weeds and barely resembles a path at all. It dips a little way into the journey disappearing from view and then there are obvious hills in the distance...some look quite steep. This path seems familiar to me in a way, but I can't quite put my finger on why.

So off to the library I go, to spend countless hours over several weeks in search of the answers. My determination to find those answers was unyielding, and my friends from the church were relentless in a continued belittling of my spiritual history. I read articles and books. Dissertations and opinion papers. But it seemed the more I read, the more confused I became.

Hours of discussion and debate would stretch into the early morning. Finally, after nearly a month of exhausting research and persuasion (which was above and beyond my normally heavy load of school work), I concluded I must have been told wrong and needed to be baptised again by immersion because I was never truly baptised to start. The service was conducted on a Sunday night...I never told a single person back home... for some reason I felt embarrassment.

When I was raised from the water, I didn't experience an epiphany. As a matter of fact, I felt even more confusion...and a slight tinge of guilt. The people who attended looked as if they had just won a prize fight. Smug and prideful. I only went back to that church a few more times before coming to yet another fork in my life's journey. A path chosen that would lead me through very dark times and even more mounds of doubt about His love and caring for me and His creation.

Now I don't blame the people in that church...no, not entirely. Had my efforts to find answers been spent in God's Word and not into what others thought about God's Word, in prayer and meditation and not discussion and debate, I might have avoided many years of being a spiritual nomad...well, maybe. That was the other less travelled path I had shunned.

God has a plan for my life...just like He has one for yours. I can spend all my time and effort trying to figure out that plan, hoping to shape His plan to my liking, or trying to discover why He has to have a plan at all...but in the end...it really doesn't matter.

It's His plan, not mine. His plan, His game, His rules. He loves me enough to give me a free will and to forgive me when I misuse that gift.

Sprinkle, dunk, shower or swim. God knows my heart...my intention. He knows my first baptism was in Him. My second was in search of something...something I actually already had.

21Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,
22And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. Luke 3:21,22 (NIV)

One Man, Three Baptisms

For Christians in every denomination, baptism is one of the two most common sacraments or religious rituals; the other being marriage. This week your faithful Kingdom Bloggers will write about their own baptism experiences.

For most, baptism is the first experience we have as we attempt to be obedient to the scriptures - or at least follow religious practices and protocol. Here is a list of the stuff we do to participate in obedience to Christ (this is a Catholic list, but true in every church I have been in). I find most folks don't even know what some of the words mean, therefore; I have provided a scripture reference and very brief definition along with a few links for the naysayers.

Sacraments of Christian initiation:
* Baptism - Submersion/sprinkling with water identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus. (Matthew 28:19)
* Confirmation - The laying on of hands to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Confirmation of salvation. (Acts 8:19)
* Eucharist - Communion with wine and bread. (Luke 22.19)

Sacraments of healing:
* Penance and Reconciliation - Confessing our sins one to another. (James 5:16, 2 Corinthians 5:19)
* Anointing of the Sick - For healing. (James 5:14-15)
* Exorcism - Casting out Demons, deliverance. (Luke 9:1-2)

Sacraments at the service of communion:
* Holy Orders - Call to ministry. (Ephesian 4:11)
* Matrimony - Marriage between a man and a woman. (Hebrews 13:4)

As an infant, I was baptized somewhere in East Haven, CT. For obvious reasons, I don't remember the event. For many, a "Certificate of Baptism" and possibly a snap-shot may be the only evidence that the ceremony of baptism or Christening (Baptism, anointing with oil, and baby dedication wrapped into one.) ever took place. For others, they have given to baptism as a sign that they have made a commitment to Christ, and this is a public display of their faith.

Well, as usual, this rebel didn't do any of it that way. I was sprinkled in 1958, born again in 1978, and as a believer I was told that my "original" baptism was viable religious work of God, appropriately done in the sight of God. The same as a marriage before one was saved. I didn't need to get married again - or have "Christian" vows. Well, they were the experts, right? You know seminary and all.

In 1991 I started to attend a Baptist church. I should have known with a name like that I was in for a challenge. The pastor invited me over for lunch, and gave me the speech out of the Southern Baptist Play Book. The only question he had for me after our little "talk" was "so what Sunday are we going to do this?" And by the way, you need to dedicate your kids too. I started to complain, but he showed me the Biblical reason for that too. (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

So, I signed up for the family plan.

Before I tell you the rest of the story, let me tell you what baptism is not.

- It is a not a welcome ritual into the family of God. Salvation by faith is. Romans (10:9-10)
- It is not a "way to Heaven." Baptism is a "ritual" like communion with significant symbolic meaning. HERE is an article that seems pretty well written. All that to say it is not regenerative.
- It is not just some other thing that we do in church. For 2,000 years, believers have been baptized into a convent of "repentance and faith," as Jesus was in the Jordan by John. Jesus is our model, though He never sinned, He showed us how, and why - just like He did with communion.
- It is not optional based on this verse: "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it." Luke 11:28
- It is not specifically a "public witness." Our public witness is loving others in a such a way that unbelievers marvel at it. It is serving others in such a way that all men see our good works and praise God.

Baptism is for us to identify with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Through baptism we descend into the tomb; a place of death, and come out of the waters a new creature - symbolically of course. It is an expression of love for our savior, one that has faith in Him to receive us into glory.

The first Christian baptisms took place on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Need to see how you measure up to real Christianity? Check out this BLOG.

My day came, and in typical Southern Baptist tradition they filled the baptismal tank with freezing cold water. They stood us before the congregation and we were to publicly affirm our faith in Jesus as our personal Savior. As a Charismatic, I asked if I could give my testimony in tongues with an interpretation. After all, that is one of many evidences of salvation, is it not?

I told them about my struggles with alcohol, my need for God and of course my need for salvation from my sin. I quoted Psalm 40.

I went on too long, so they hurried the others through theirs.

A few of us donned our white robes and ascended the stairs to the "diving board." All I could think of on my spiritual day was the words to that old 70's song. "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am; stuck in the middle with you." It seemed spiritual at the moment.

My turn came as I stepped into the water and the pastor looked at me and said, "David, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." He leaned me back into the water, and I saw a flash of white light. The next thing I remember was him holding me in his arms saying, "I almost lost you there brother."

Wow!

I made my way up the stairs to the applause of the congregation as the organist was played "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus." In the dressing room I wept. Something was gone, and something was new. I still can't describe it, I just know it happened.

That was baptism number two.

Number three was a baptism with fire. It is same one that is described in Acts chapter 2. When I first met the Lord, no one told me about that one. Like everything else in my walk, I read about it, and then I asked for it. I feel like I've taken too long - so that's a story for another time.