Some of you may know that on July 4th I was rebaptized.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve been waiting for the Lord to tell me when was the right time to make this public\u00a0in a\u00a0blog post.\u00a0 I haven’t been keeping it a secret, but I haven’t blogged about it yet because for\u00a0some people\u00a0the idea of rebaptizing\u00a0might be\u00a0offensive.\u00a0 I think the Lord is prompting me to share this with you now.<\/p>\n
The baptism was held during a July 4th church party at a members’ home.\u00a0 The baptisms were performed in their backyard swimming pool by the pastor of our church.\u00a0 I think it was through God’s divine planning that my parents were present for the baptism, even though they did not know before they made their travel plans that I was planning to be rebaptized.\u00a0 In fact, I don’t know if the date for the baptism had even been set yet.\u00a0 I think this is incredibly ironic considering, unbeknown to me or my sister, my sister would be present in church when I gave my testimony to the church about the cracked pitcher.\u00a0 Keep in mind that I only see my sister about once a year typically.\u00a0 God has a way of weaving our plans together to agree with his greater plan.<\/p>\n
I put a lot of thought, prayer, and study into the topic of baptism.\u00a0 Being such a critical component of a believers Christian walk, it’s amazing to me the vastly different conclusions denominations have come to regarding baptism.\u00a0 And coming from a\u00a0denomination where infant baptism is the norm, I felt that I needed to clearly articulate to myself and others the reasons I was being rebaptized.\u00a0 What follows is the testimony I wrote and read prior to being baptized:<\/p>\n
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been raised in a family where everyday of my life I have known the love of God.\u00a0 Knowing how skeptical and stubborn I can be, I shudder to think how long it would have taken me to accept Christ if I hadn\u2019t been born into the church.\u00a0 My parents loved me, taught me bible stories, and ensured that I had opportunities to grow in my faith.\u00a0 I am who I am today because of them.<\/p>\n
According to their tradition, I was baptized as an infant.\u00a0 I publicly accepted that baptism as my own through confirmation, and went on to be involved in many different ministries in high school and college.\u00a0 Through these ministries I had many more opportunities to grow in my faith and give testimonies.<\/p>\n
A couple years ago my brother-in-law told me that the Greek word for baptism literally means \u2018immersed\u2019.\u00a0 Maybe I had heard this before, I don\u2019t know, but this was the first time I was willing to receive it, but only a little bit.\u00a0 I filed it away under \u201cthat\u2019s interesting\u201d and down played its significance.\u00a0 But in time, as I revisited scripture with this new piece of information in hand, I can\u2019t help but admit that the clear biblical model is believers\u2019 baptism by immersion.<\/p>\n
Now, I don\u2019t think I need<\/em> to be baptized again.\u00a0 I am secure in my salvation.\u00a0 I have made public professions of faith.\u00a0 I love Jesus, and more importantly Jesus loves me.\u00a0 I have no question that the Holy Spirit lives within me.\u00a0 I am not being baptized today to please men, especially considering I know this action risks insulting friends and family who were also infant baptized.\u00a0 I am not being re-baptized today because I think my first baptism was illegitimate.\u00a0 In fact I can make some persuasive arguments in favor of infant baptism because I\u2019ve spent the last few years doing that.<\/p>\n But I have to ask myself, \u201cwhy make an argument?\u201d\u00a0 If Jesus meant \u2018immerse\u2019 when he gave us the Great Commission, why argue with Jesus?\u00a0 If Acts gives us clear examples of believers\u2019 baptisms, why speculate about the validity of infant baptism?<\/p>\n I\u2019m here because I want to be obedient to Jesus.\u00a0 This year I have come a long way in my faith-life by submitting myself to Christ in obedience.\u00a0 It might be a tad legalistic, but I\u2019m willing to take that chance if it means receiving blessings from the Father or knowing my savior more intimately.\u00a0 One of the blessings I anticipate is a deeper appreciation of what it means to be baptized into the death of Jesus, and raised into new life (Rom 6:4). \u00a0I look forward to what else God has in store.<\/p>\n At the cross, I can’t say that much has changed for me since the rebaptism.\u00a0 I didn’t expect to.\u00a0 I knew I was saved by grace then just as much as I do now.\u00a0\u00a0 I knew I was a child of God just as much then as I do now.\u00a0 I didn’t feel like I needed to be rebaptized to turn from some great sin or to reconnect with God.\u00a0 But I do feel peace knowing that I was obedient to what God was calling me to do:\u00a0 to humble myself, to submit to Him, to desire to be obedient.\u00a0 I receive\u00a0joy from the\u00a0fact that I was baptized becauase I wanted to be, not because it\u00a0was expected\u00a0of\u00a0 me or because I didn’t have a choice about it.\u00a0 It was me, all me, the adult version of Nate making an adult decision for the Lord,\u00a0stepping out in faith.\u00a0 And I am very excited about that.<\/p>\n God bless, Some of you may know that on July 4th I was rebaptized.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve been waiting for the Lord to tell me when was the right time to make this public\u00a0in a\u00a0blog post.\u00a0 I haven’t been keeping it a secret, but I haven’t blogged about it yet because for\u00a0some people\u00a0the idea of rebaptizing\u00a0might be\u00a0offensive.\u00a0 I think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[910],"tags":[892,21,82],"class_list":["post-834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimony","tag-baptism","tag-faith-2","tag-nate","wpcat-910-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p504YJ-ds","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15134,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/baptism-sunday","url_meta":{"origin":834,"position":0},"title":"Baptism Sunday","author":"Becca","date":"July 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Joel got baptized today!The video from the church was initially blocked due to music rights but I think it is working now.\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WacoFirstAssembly\/videos\/277103103366869 The full photo album is here","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/faith"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/12-family2.jpg?fit=1200%2C960&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/12-family2.jpg?fit=1200%2C960&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/12-family2.jpg?fit=1200%2C960&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, 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So exciting.","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/faith"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/28-nate-tyra-kylie-landyn-bentley.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/28-nate-tyra-kylie-landyn-bentley.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/28-nate-tyra-kylie-landyn-bentley.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/28-nate-tyra-kylie-landyn-bentley.jpg?fit=960%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10691,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/baptism-2","url_meta":{"origin":834,"position":3},"title":"Baptism","author":"Becca","date":"March 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Our church is having a baptism service at the end of April and Benjamin decided he is ready for the plunge. :) Love his heart!","rel":"","context":"In "Benjamin"","block_context":{"text":"Benjamin","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/kids\/benjamin-kids"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6289,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2015\/08\/baptism-day","url_meta":{"origin":834,"position":4},"title":"Baptism Day","author":"Becca","date":"August 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Hannah's special day was yesterday. We had cake and she got a little locket from us. We put the date on one side and will put a picture on the other. All the photos are here. She was the last to be baptized and had to run to the bathroom\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hannah"","block_context":{"text":"Hannah","link":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/cat\/kids\/hannah"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/02-joel-becca-nate-benjamin-hannah.jpg?fit=910%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/02-joel-becca-nate-benjamin-hannah.jpg?fit=910%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/02-joel-becca-nate-benjamin-hannah.jpg?fit=910%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themoehrings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/02-joel-becca-nate-benjamin-hannah.jpg?fit=910%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":924,"url":"https:\/\/www.themoehrings.com\/index.php\/2010\/12\/my-new-possibly-heretical-view-of-water-baptism","url_meta":{"origin":834,"position":5},"title":"My new (possibly heretical) view of water Baptism","author":"Becca","date":"December 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Another baptism post from the Moehrings. . . 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\nNate<\/p>\n
\nNate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"