“Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations.
and of the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew
28:19
I have
a confession. And I hope what I am
about to say doesn’t make any of my friends or family think less of me or
question my practice of faith.
Okay, here it goes…
As of
this morning, I am a Baptist.
is true.
The
mixture of teams has been quite an interesting experience. There has been so much freedom and truth
come out of this group of seven people over the past week and a half that it
has just been incredible. But,
there will be more on that later.
If you would like a sneak peak to what I am talking about you can read
Birkleigh’s blog.
So, in
the midst of all the freedom and change that has been happening we have also
been going through a video series on the Holy Spirit. It’s very insightful and empowering, to say the least. This morning after we watched one of
the sermons we were talking about being baptized and what it symbolizes – the
declaration you are making of what the Lord has done in your life and how you
are going to choose to serve Him because of it.
It was
put on Daina’s heart that she needed to redeem her day of confirmation and
stand up again and proclaim the new things the Lord has done in her life. So, she shared her heart and we
rejoiced alongside of her.
And
then we saw it. That big,
beautiful, pink-capped bottle full of water. I think it was Bethany who verbalized the thought first. “We should just baptize you right here,
right now.” I suggested going into
the bathroom and doing it over the sink to avoid making a huge mess. It was then that the seven of us walked
down the hallway to the small Hungarian bathroom on the seventh floor of a
church. Tres read from the word
and we prayed over our sister. I
poured water over her and baptized her into her new place in Christ. In the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit my sister was mad new again today. She was washed in the living water and purified by the blood
of the Lamb.
We
turned some worship music on and just began to thank God for who He is and for
how good has been to each of us.
We claimed freedom and wholeness over each other and over our friends
and family back home. The Spirit
fell in a mighty way. With
empowerment and boldness we committed, as a family and a community, to stand up
and fight for salvation. Fight for
freedom and purity. Fight for His
namesake and for our inheritance, the nations.
a beautiful morning and a privilege to be in a place with other believers to
seek the face of God wholeheartedly and without reservation. It is an incredible blessing to be in
such community. Loving, gracious,
radical, we don’t care what this costs because we are just going after Jesus
community of saints.
Thank
you God for family and community. Thank you for baptizing Daina today with new
water and with a fresh outpour of your spirit. Thank you Holy Spirit for showing up this morning and for
glorifying your name. Thank you
for freedom and liberty and the call you have on my life. Thank you God for patience and
grace. Thank you for the boldness
and courage you gave me this morning to step into something new; to baptize my
sister. I love you, Lord.
