On Saturday 4th December I was baptized by immersion at Parkland Baptist Church where I have been fellowshipping for almost two and half years now. How did all this come to be? For a very long time I have been meaning to become a member of the church, this calls for attending membership classes. For the times when i have attended the service and every Sunday when I see the announcement for the membership classes I have always found reason for not attending. Where some of those reasons were valid, many are the ones that could have been avoided I was a victim of the procrastination, shamefully!
So this time round when I finally saw the announcement I knew my chance was here and now and I decided to go for the Thursday class. The classes run for 5 weeks and as part of being a member of the Baptist church one of the requirements was that one should be baptized by immersion, after the acceptance of Christ. After signing up for baptism and talking to my small sister she reminded me that I had been baptized by immersion years back when I was a teenage, can’t quite recall the exact age in Catholic church and this was after being baptized by sprinkling in the Anglican church when I was about 5 or 6 years, its only through the pictures that I was aware such an event happened!
After much thinking about it I decided that I still wanted to be baptized, yes for the 3rd time in my life. Why? Because this time I felt that the decision was being made by a fully grown woman. It was not a decision influenced by my parents, it’s a decision being influence by me, meaning that I am more responsible for it.
So as I walked to meet the deacon inside the cold water for the immersion and he held my hand, I felt like I was experiencing a new rebirth. God’s timing is perfect and that was my time and I felt peace and calmness in my heart.
“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised through dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in the newness of life.” Roman 6: 4 And the same was significant of my life and my sins and as I walked out of the water my prayer was that I will walk in the newness of Christ thanking Him for cleansing and washing my sins away.
I feel free, happy, healed and so proud for making that move, I am looking forward to being a member of the Church on Sunday the 12th. I am even happier of the friends that I have made because it creates some form of accountability to each other and my greatest prayer is that I may continue to obey God’s word and live a life that is pleasing to Him.
I wouldn’t have thought of a better way for marking the year 2010 than this!
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14
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