When I was 15 years of age I was involved in Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Crystal River Florida known as Seven Rivers My sister who is 3 years younger than I were baptized without really my parents knowledge and/or my sisters and I’s knowledge. Let me set the premise up a little better, my parents talked with our minister about the possibility of having their children Baptized and they never fully came to a final decision and it just kinda happened. I know that it was a miss-communication in the flesh but it was loud and clear in the Spirit. When I was Baptized I sprinkled. I was not immersed, but, even though the argument of the ages is about being immersed vs sprinkled to me it is irrelevant. The Holy Spirit is already with in you when you except Jesus as your Lord and Savior, when you pray the sinners prayer and really submit as a servant to the Lord and try and be obedient as one can being in the flesh, then the Holy Spirit already dwells within you.
I am living proof of this, I am going to Heaven, not because of my own submission nor because I wasn’t immersed but because of the blood that was shed on the cross. I am not here to argue whether immersed or sprinkled I am here to share another triumph, another win.
I grew up going to several different denominations, everything from Southern Baptist, Church of Christ, Methodist, Presbyterian, and non-denominational. The reason I say that is because I am not a believer that one denomination is better than the other, as long as they are Biblical based and teach from the Bible, The Word of God and know that Jesus is the King of Kings & Lord of Lords I do not care that one has a different doctrine than the other. Men wrote doctrines and came up with ideas to put in place why a certain denomination believes the way they do or even a better use of words would be the different denominations “traditions.” Sorry this is turning into more of a rant than anything, I promise there is a point to this.
About 8-9 months ago as a father and head of my household I decided that we needed to start going to another church, because it was closer and would give us a better chance to be a part of the local community and would allow us to be more involved on a daily basis, our other church has a wonderful church family but was 35 minutes away after we moved and it was hard to be as involved as before, so I prayed about it and we church hopped for a few months until we found the church that we are at now. Creekside Christian Church is and continues to be a great home for my wife and kids as well as myself.
My wife and I talked about whether or not we wanted to transfer our membership to Creekside and we decided to meet with the minister and after a great meeting and discussion we really wanted to join. However, you can only become a member if you have been immersed at some point. I was at a crossroad with this, I have already been Baptized at age 15 just not immersed. However, I didn’t want this to be a pride issue, I didn’t want to not be a part of this church family because I was so prideful and set in my ways. I needed to seek advice, I wanted to ask and pray about it.
I had recently befriended the newly acquired Worship Minister and asked if he would like to go to lunch to discuss. After talking with him the one thing I walked away with was, be an example to the kids.
I then also sought out council from my Earthly Father who is also an Elder in his church and his council turned it back on me and asked me if I wanted to be a part of the Church Family there, the answer of Course was Yes.
With all that being said I have not been immersed yet we are going to make it a family event, probably in August stay tuned…
The Baptism of Jesus
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:13-17
