taking the REAL plunge

it's the lame thing to say to a guy/gal who's getting married...."taking the plunge." sorry if you're a fan of saying that to people. not really though. but a little. mostly not.

emily and i had been talking quite a bit about being baptized. we were both sprinkled as infants, but being fully immersed was something we both felt God was laying on our hearts for the past several months. it was tough to think about, sometimes to talk about, since baptism in a Biblical sense is such a debatable topic. some think sprinkling is fine, others say full immersion is the way to go. fortunately for us (ALL humans), getting baptized doesn't get you into Heaven...so i guess technically it doesn't matter? well...it kind of does. for me personally, taking that step to be fully immersed wasn't my way of correcting the way i was sprinkled as an infant. it was simply my way of taking another step, or making more of a commitment to God. also...strictly my OWN opinion, while understanding that everyone has one, i do feel that when the Bible talks about baptisms...i feel it's referring to full immersion. my father-in-law said a cool thing once when we were talking about it. he said that the best way to deal with such debatable topics in the Bible...it's best just to give grace. basically, some people are going to think i'm wrong for saying the Bible means full immersion, and others are going to say they agree with me...but being baptized is NOT what gets you into Heaven. thank God it's not.

another cool way to look at it: in majority of cases, when a couple gets married...they exchange wedding rings. the day after the wedding ceremony, if they walk outside together and one of them has their ring on and the other doesn't...they are STILL married. because of the words they exchanged, because of the commitment they made to each other. and that, my friends....is what it's all about! committing your life to the Lord and accepting that Jesus Christ died for you, so that you can have a gift of eternal life. that's what it comes down to. not if you were sprinkled as an infant...or fully immersed. not if you pray 132 times a day. not if you haven't missed a church service since 1974. not if you wear a w.w.j.d. bracelet. not if you donate thousands of dollars to missionaries. not because you tell people that Jesus loves them. not because you read your Bible every single day and can spew out Bible verse after Bible verse that you've been memorizing since VBS back in 1988. don't get me wrong...all of those things are great, but i fear that some people miss the mark on what being a Christian is really about. it's about JESUS, loving HIM, trying to live like HIM, and loving EVERYONE else along the way.

another really awesome thing that went hand in hand with this experience. besides the fact that emily was baptized too...both of my parents actually decided to be baptized as well. they were both sprinkled previously, but when emily and i mentioned that we were going to be doing this...they felt called to "take the plunge" as well. so, in front of our family and some awesome friends of ours, Pastor Mike Baker from Eastview Christian Church did the baptism for all four of us and it was completely awesome!