Grace - Getting What I Don't Deserve

The day I was baptized the sermon was about broken marriage and God's redeeming grace. Rebecca and I are both children of divorced parents. We love and enjoy all of our parents and step-parents, and God has redeemed each of the relationships, but divorce even in it's best case, is difficult to say the least. Being baptized was a decision that took me a long time to make. I had been baptized as a six or seven year old in the congregation I grew up in. I do think I had faith in the true Jesus when I was baptized, but I was not baptized in the name of the true Christ. The Jesus I was baptized into that day was a created Jesus who was little more than a glorified example for me to follow. I met with pastors and decided I needed to be baptized into the true Jesus, the uncreated, eternal God the Son.

So, on the day of my baptism, Rebecca Joshua, and Andrew came to stand behind me. I held Joshua as the pastors asked me questions about my faith in the gospel and told a little bit of my story. My pastor, Scotty, told the church that I had grown up in a place that failed to preach the gospel. I knelt for baptism and felt the cold refreshing water rush down my back. I held onto Scotty's leg and listened to him pray.

The redemption of the day overwhelmed me. Not only had God faithfully delivered me from the bondage and false religion of a cult. He had redeemed my family and given Rebecca and I a marriage of grace and forgiveness and children who are learning the gospel every day.

We took this picture a couple days ago at the beach. When I look at it I'm reminded of God's grace and redemption in my life. I think of the refreshing water of baptism and the promises of God.

Grace, like the waves of the ocean (or Gulf of Mexico) will always come. There will always be another wave of grace. We don't make it, but we are welcomed to jump in and splash around in it's life-changing wonder.