It's time to be dunked...

People tend to be shocked when I give my testimony since I have been a Christian for about 10 years now, but yet I have not been baptized.  In part, I always had hesitancy in being re-baptized outside of the Catholic Church, but this past week, God has called me to take this step of obedience and commitment.  And ironically, I believe this rounds out the year I call "the year of obedience" as it relates to my faith.

My post yesterday outlines how God made me listen earlier in the week by blessing me with a case of strep which left me speechless.  I revisited Colossians 2, which has been weighing on my mind and heart for the past couple of weeks.

Colossians 2: 6-15 (NIV) 

6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.  8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces  of this world rather than on Christ.  9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.  11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands.  Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.  13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you  alive with Christ.  He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.  15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. 

Colossians 2: 18-19 (NIV) 

18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you.  Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.  19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
 

On Friday, I dumped the guy I had been dating.

On Saturday, I heard our pastor preach, and maybe for the first time ever, I clearly heard God speak to me.  Everything was connecting in my head all at once.  I think the most powerful portion of the sermon was when re-visited John 1: 12-13 - God gives us the right/authority/power/ability to become His children, but through belief in Jesus' name.  We believe in His name by confessing His nature, embracing His mission, and seeking His glory. 

On Sunday, I was blessed to hear the sermon again since I was not needed in Camp Fun.  It confirmed everything I already knew. 

Indecisiveness wiped.  A new beginning.  A child of God - innocent and believing.  Freedom through baptism.  Perfect for this blog - Transformation.