Washed Clean Part 3
36As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”
37“You can,” Philip answered, “if you believe with all your heart.” And the eunuch replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 38He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. (Acts 8:36-39)
It started with me.
As I described in Part 1 of this “Washed Clean” series, the Bobr River that runs along the western border of Boleslawiec, Poland, was calling to me from the first day we entered the city. I have three favorite spots in this beautiful city: the top of a majestic stairway where I often went to read the Holy Bible, pray, and type out devotionals on my phone.
The soaring statue of Christ where I would go to seek forgiveness for the times of my life I walked away from Jesus; where I would go to aggressively pray for miracles for family, friends, and this broken world.
And, finally, the Bobr River, where I would go to run, watch the sunrise, hear the majestic sound of the raw power of nature. I knew early on in this deployment that I would finally be baptized as an adult in that river. I was not going to return to the States without doing so. And there was a perfect spot to do it.
I called this spot the “Bobr Beach”. A small, sandy enclave where I would see people enjoying the scenery on most weekends. It indeed met all our needs, and provided an ideal location for the baptisms.
This weekend, as the countdown to the Baptism Event ticked down, I prayed a lot. I began confessing all the sins in my life to God in prayer. Then I reminded myself that God knew everything I had ever done, He knows the depth of my sin. There was no need for me to remind Him. He has already forgiven me. I just had to forgive myself. I was the one still holding onto those mistakes. I was the one who needed the baptism to symbolize to myself that sin no longer had a grip on me!
There was part of me that wondered if some supernatural event would happen during our baptism. Would dozens of birds come swooping in, singing their loud songs of spring all around us? Would I be overcome with the Holy Spirit and literally feel the Spirit moving through my entire being?
Well, the supernatural had already happened when the temperature went from the 40s to the mid-70s in less than a week. God blessed us with a perfect spring day. A little field mouse did come scampering by my feet after the baptism. And while I did not get that Holy Spirit sensation, and mostly because I was under the water long enough to feel exactly how cold it actually was. My breath was taken away, but that was because of the freezing temperature.
When I raised to my new life in Christ, I did not feel any different. But when I reflected on this later, I realized why that was. My personal relationship with Jesus Christ really began long ago. From when I was just a boy, climbing to the top of a maple tree in my parent’s property and talking to God as the wind whipped around me; to the moment I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit leave my side while standing on the stage during our high school graduation ceremony at my local church. I came back to God after the birth of my first child and have been walking beside the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ever since. This baptism, while I never wanted it to be about me, was the one act I felt like I needed. I needed to be washed clean for all those mistakes I made from when I graduated high school and when God grabbed ahold of me at thirty-years-old. While I did have an encounter with the Holy Spirit during the baptism, I did feel a whole lot lighter walking back from the river. And as you can see in the video below, the weight of the sin washing off of me was enough to knock me off my feet.
So, again, dear readers, if you have never been baptized before, do not wait any longer. Ask your church if you can be baptized for part of their service. Find a baptism event going on this summer. Or be like the Ethiopian eunuch from the verse at the top of this post, and just find any body of water and surrender your life to Jesus Christ. Leave your sin, your shame, your regrets, your mistakes, your worry, your pain, your old self. Leave it in the water, and begin your new life today.
Common Sense Reborn 