At Least It Was Warm Water!

I was Baptized today. The church had all the candidates draft up some words before they were immersed to give some background/context/thoughts on what it means. I'll paste those down below. I'm glad I did it, we'll have to wait and see if I'm any different. Kristi asked me on the drive home if I felt any different. She was mostly joking, but there is some truth in the question. What I found very interesting was how comfortable (and not nervous) I was throught the whole event. (Kristi says I was nervous - and doing funny things with my feet).

I tried hard not to make a big deal out of it. It wasn't about a big production for me...it was just something I wanted to do. Here's the story I wrote.

I was born and raised in a Christian home. I attended church from birth through college. I was baptized as an infant, then was confirmed/joined the church when I was a young teenager. But I was just going through the motions. I did not have a relationship with the Lord.
Things changed when Kristi and I moved to Las Vegas. We started attending a Church with a message I had not understood so clearly before. We started attending a small group Bible study, and I had many close friends who had firm foundations as Christians. We had our first child in Nevada as well. I was surrounded by contrasts. I lived in Sin City, but I was seeing God for the first time.
I developed a personal relationship with Jesus and have been a firm believer for over 9 years. The issue of Baptism has been something I wrestled with for quite some time. Is it necessary for salvation? Did my infant baptism mean anything? Many friends and various churches have shown me different sides of this issue. My pride kept me from finding an answer and held me back from taking a step that was a simple command from Jesus.
I am being baptized today so that I jump over the hurdle and just move on. It’s not necessary for my salvation, but I pray it helps me to rise up and find more of Christ in my life.