Baptism

[JesusPrincess]

I've grown up in a Christian household, I'm 14 and I've not been baptised. I don't know when the time is right to do it. I think I should be closer to God before I do it, and I'm afraid of how my life will turn out after I do it. I'm scared. I see all my friends getting baptised, and I've still not done it. I don't know when to do it. If you've been baptised, how has it changed your life?

[Iceman]

Chill about it. Baptism is definately not something you should do because your friends are doing it. I recommend you speak with your parents and a pastor or leader in the church. Although it's very popular in certain churches for baptism to be considered a trend or benchmark in christianity. I don't know your church, so I'll say that anyone who says 'get baptised because it's what you do, or is awesome, or it's part of christianity' ect ect. Don't listen to their advice. Find someone who will explain baptism to you, and let you move at your own pace.

[CaptivatedEmz1]

on the Baptism front im not very helpful
i was Baptised when i was a baby so i dont remember
my parents made all the promises for me
but when i was 10 i had Confirmation where i took the Baptismal promises again for myself
it was basicaly me accepting the Holy Spirit into my life
at the time it felt good but then i sort of turned away from God
But now im back on the right road and trying to stay there

i have no idea if this will be helpful in any way

[Preacher of KJV]

Originally Posted by JesusPrincess

I've grown up in a Christian household, I'm 14 and I've not been baptised. I don't know when the time is right to do it. I think I should be closer to God before I do it, and I'm afraid of how my life will turn out after I do it. I'm scared. I see all my friends getting baptised, and I've still not done it. I don't know when to do it. If you've been baptised, how has it changed your life?

I was baptized when I was 13 years old, on September 18, 2005. Baptism doesn't do anything much for you spiritually. All it is, is you telling everyone what Jesus Christ has done for you. Going under water shows Christ's burial and rising out of the water shows the resurrection of Christ. Baptism shows that your sins were buried with Christ. It should also only happen after you have trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior.

[Damaris]

Baptism is a symbolic and public demonstration of your relationship with and commitment to God.

If you're afraid that after being baptized you might be more obligated to live for God and not for yourself then definitely hold off on it until you give God your whole life. The Christian life is one of dying to your flesh and its wants and desires and living instead for God and His desires. It is constant, daily sacrifice. If you aren't certain that's what you want then I recommend you set aside thoughts of baptism for a while and just focus on figuring out whether or not you want anything to do with Christianity at all.

My baptism story is fairly long, but I enjoy telling it so if you want to read it pull up a chair and a cup of tea and make yourself cozy.

I was baptized the day before my tenth birthday. My church felt it was extremely important that the person being baptized is making the decision for themselves and fully understands it, so for this reason the absolute youngest people being baptized in my church were teenagers. So no one had even come near to even thinking about discussing the subject with me and there was zero peer pressure to do it, in fact, from the way I was raised one would expect I would see no need for it, at least until I became an adult.

But, at the age of 9, one night as I was talking with God in my room, I realized that God wanted me to be baptized. I knew it as clearly as if God had spoken the words out loud to me; I have rarely been so convinced of anything as I was of this issue. God wanted me to be baptized, and immediately it was my heart's greatest desire to do so out of obedience to Him. My time with the Lord that night was very sweet.

Since I had never even seen or heard of a child being baptized (though I of course knew of infant baptism) and I knew my parents believed it was of utmost importance for the person to make the choice themselves, it took about a week of working up my courage to broach the subject with my parents. I mentioned it as casually as I possibly could while the family was getting into the car after church. They suggested that I talk with the (senior) pastor about it.

Now, our pastor was great, but I had been living in another country for most of my past four years so I didn't know him very well. And for a 9-year-old the thought of walking up alone to that big, well-respected spiritual giant who preached every Sunday and announcing my desire to be baptized was more than a little intimidating. But it was never a question to me of whether or not I would do it, because my yearning to be baptized was steady and increasing by the day. I had a sense of urgency about it, like the second I know what God wants of me I want to obey as quickly as possible. So the next week as the pastor was socializing after the service I took a deep breath, marched up to him, an informed him that I wanted to be baptized.

He smiled kindly and told me I should talk to the children's director about it.

Now, the children's director was a very broken woman, who did not treat me well and who often said things to me that bordered on verbal abuse. It was not a secret in our church--I was not the only one she treated badly and many people left our church on account of her. So when the pastor said I should speak with her about it, I knew that my confidence in the Lord was about to be tested.

Her first response was that baptism was for adults, and that I have to go through a long process of workbooks to demonstrate that I understand what I'm getting into. I asked her when could I get started? It took several months to complete all the work she gave me, always working under her watchful eye and trusting her as my tutor. Her slights were as nothing to me compared to that glorious goal of being baptized. Most of the stuff was memorizing information about my church's denomination (C&MA), explaining salvation and verses pertaining to it, and those sorts of things. I worked as quickly as possible, and the day finally came when I gleefully informed her that I had finished all the work assigned to me, now when could I be baptized?

She said I'll need to talk with the elders of the church, and then they will decide whether or not I may be baptized. I was concerned that I might come so far only to be rejected at this point, but with the faith of a child I trusted God to make a way for me, since He alone had placed this issue on my heart in the first place.

So the day was scheduled when I would be interviewed by two elders of the church. They asked me all sorts of questions about my walk with the Lord and quizzed me on various spiritual matters, as well as inquiring why I wanted to be baptized and what I think baptism means. Some of their questions were too hard for me--some of them I had to say I didn't know. But on the issue of baptism I replied with complete certainty that God wanted me to be baptized, and that is why I wish to be baptized because I love Him. And there, during that interview with those elders in the church library, was the first time in my life that I wept tears of joy. Before that I honestly thought that when people said "tears of joy" they meant just getting a little watery-eyed, but this was uncontrolled tears-rolling-down-my-cheeks happy. They asked me why I was crying and with all the sincerity in my heart I replied that I was just so happy that I was going to be baptized and they were going to let me be baptized. This was during the discussion, before they had informed me of their decision. I was simply overcome by joy, after all the hoops I had jumped through, that this was the last step before being baptized. It was so close, and I was just so amazed at all that God had done. I'm crying even now as I write this post, so powerful is that memory.

The elders discussed it among themselves, and I was informed that I could be baptized at the next baptizing ceremony. I would have preferred to be baptized outdoors in a lake, but the next group of baptisms was scheduled to happen inside the church using the church baptismal and waiting any longer was out of the question in my mind. In the days leading up to it the pastor asked to have a meeting with me, and we discussed what I was to say. He was looking for something along the lines of a testimony, of why I chose to be baptized now, but I guess my "God told me to" wasn't exactly what he was looking for and my conversion story was similarly cryptic. So he suggested John 3:16 and I said sure, I could recite that.

At long last the day came, right before my tenth birthday. As I waited backstage and walked towards the baptismal there wasn't any way I could keep my tears of joy in check. Feeling self-conscious about it I actually wanted to hurry up and get wet so that no one would see me crying! When it came to be my turn and I walked in it became evident to all that the tank was built for adults and not for 9-year-old kids--it was so deep I couldn't reach the bottom so the pastor had to carry me to keep my head above water. He could have dunked me vertically if he had been so inclined, but my church was traditional and I don't know how he managed it but in the end I had been dunked in the "proper" fashion.

In my church each person who is baptized gets to choose a song either to be played from CD or sung by the worship team beginning the moment they come out of the water. There was never any question in my mind which song I wanted that to be, a worship song sung often at my church that encompassed my heart's cry:

Purify my heart; let it be as gold and precious silver
Purify my heart, let it be as gold--pure gold

Refiner's fire
My heart's one desire is to be holy, set apart for you, Lord.
I choose to be holy, set apart for you, my Master.
Ready to do your will.

Purify my heart, cleanse me from my sin and make me holy
Purify my heart; cleanse me from my sin--deep within

Refiner's fire
My heart's one desire is to be holy, set apart for you, Lord.
I choose to be holy, set apart for you, my Master.
Ready to do your will.

That was all I wanted, to be cleansed, purified, and made holy, to be set apart for God instead of like the world. As a Christian, I was already all that, but baptism was the final seal, the cherry on top, the point of no return. I was publicly announcing to anyone who cared to listen that I have been crucified with Christ, raised to life with Christ, and this is where I stand without apology or any waver in my conviction. I was set apart for God's purposes, for God's will, which was my heart's strongest desire, and removed from sinful things. Here I was, ready to obey Him--that was the public message of my baptism.

With these things in mind I can see why my church and my parents were skeptical of a 9-year-old little girl boldly announcing her readiness for baptism (at the time I didn't realize how unusual my request was), but God worked it all out and I think in the end everyone saw Him glorified for it. I obviously didn't do anything really special to be "spiritual enough" to be baptized--God is the one who made Himself known to me and I only listened. He had taken up residence in my heart and I had welcomed Him, and these things were merely the result of His work in my life.

I never looked for a specific change in my life after baptism, because it seemed like more of a symbolic thing and if my relationship with the Lord was already thriving then why would I expect a big change for the better? It wasn't until years later that looking back I realized my excitement over and hunger for Scripture dates back to soon after I was baptized.

Not like I didn't enjoy the Bible before that. I had grown up with the Bible, memorizing chapters at a time from the age of 4 at my mom's instruction and studying it during school (homeschool) and church. I had The Beginner's Bible and had, at my own accord, read through it cover to cover three times by the age of six, at which time I practically begged my parents for a "real Bible" of my own. I received it for my seventh birthday and treasured it dearly. I still have it.

I say these things not to make myself sound spiritual, but to demonstrate what I'm talking about when I separate these things from a hunger for the Bible and an excitement over the Bible. Even though I loved the Bible, had memorized large portions of it and knew every story by heart I did not hunger for it. It's like trying to enjoy eating food when you're not hungry--the food itself is nice, but there's nothing particularly compelling you to consume it. So it was with me and the Bible.

Then right around the time I turned ten I got really excited about the Bible because I began to understand it spiritually, and it was as if I was reading a different book. I hungered for the words of the Bible; I needed the words of the Bible. They were sustaining to me. It started with Proverbs, and I would write down verses and carry them around with me, and I would take my Bible everywhere so I could read whenever I wanted to and I would talk about verses with my peers until they were sick of it. You see, other kids my age weren't excited about the Bible and they couldn't understand why I was so earnestly compelled to read the same verses over and over and loudly exclaim over them as if I had discovered a pot of gold. But that's the way it was, as If God had opened my eyes and placed heaps of treasure before me. I'll be 21 soon, and I'm happy to say that this special hunger for Scripture and excitement over God's words remains as new as ever.

But again, I did not get baptized expecting any big change to happen, and I don't believe it should be a factor in anyone choosing to be baptized. God could very easily have opened my eyes to the spiritual understanding of Scripture at any time He wanted; this sequence of events is is just the way He did it in my life. Please do not do it because your peers are doing it, and please do not deceive yourself into imagining that baptism could be your ticket to spirituality. It isn't. If you know God in an intimate, personal relationship the way every true Christian does then talk with Him and He will make this matter clear for you. But I suspect He'll want to talk about a few other things before approaching the topic of baptism. If you want to get closer to Him, the best time to start is right here, right now. Don't wait.

[Becca]

Thats the most wonderful story!!!!

I'm also thinking about baptism but you've shown me I should wait and have it done when I want it done for God and only God and not just to feel more 'affirmed'. Hopefully JesusPrincess has also got something good from it