When I Was Baptized   

When I was a child growing up, my father was a preacher. About the time I was just getting started on my teenage years, we lived in a small town called Rosamond, California. Dad preached there for a couple of years, but he needed a little more income to provide for our family, so he quit preaching for a little while and got a better paying job. Unfortunately, that meant having to leave that church in Rosamond and move to the next town where my dad would be working.

That big town we moved to was Lancaster, and I remember a lot about that town. I was 14 years old, a freshman in high school. I remember what our house looked like inside and out. I remember my best friend who lived just down the street. I remember I had a paper route every morning, and I mowed a lot of yards in the summer. I remember a lot of things about that year living in the big city. But I don’t remember anything at all about the church that we attended there. I know we went because that’s what our family always did. But the church there must not have made much of an impression on me.

That’s probably why it wasn’t long before we started driving the 10 or 12 miles to go back and be a part of the church family in the town where we used to live. I think my father knew his family needed that, and, specifically, that I needed that. I was 14 years old, I had been raised in a Christian family, I knew that the Bible said I needed to be baptized for the remission of my sins so I could become a child of God. But for some reason, I just kept putting it off.

Not too long after that, on one Sunday night, they had asked my father to preach one more time. I hadn’t heard my dad preach in many months, but that night he did. I don’t remember what he preached about, but I do remember there was a kind old man who came up to me that night and said, “I’ve been waiting for a long time to see you become a Christian. Tonight, during the invitation song, I’m going to be looking for you to make that step.”

And I guess that’s just what I needed. When the invitation song started, I knew what I needed to do, but I had a problem. My mom was actually in the hospital that evening, so I was taking care of my three younger sisters. That meant I was holding my baby sister, and I couldn’t just sit her down. So I turned around and handed her to the people behind me. I didn’t know who they were, but thankfully they took her. And with that, I finally took the biggest step of my life. As I said, I don’t remember what my dad preached about that evening, but I will always remember the look of joy on his face when he saw me walking down the aisle toward him.

The salvation of your soul is the most important thing in life. If for some reason you have been waiting to be baptized into Christ, or to otherwise make your life right with God, I'm confident there are people in your life who dearly love you, and they are longing for you to make that most important step.