Why I Got Re-Baptized

TESTIMONY: February 23, 2023

This past Sunday, my husband, Logan, and I were baptized together. It's one thing to proclaim your salvation as an individual, but to get to it with my husband was an experience we will never forget!

I was baptized when I was seven years old, shortly after I asked Jesus into my heart. While that was a milestone in my walk with Christ, at the time, I didn't understand the magnitude of what baptism symbolizes. As my faith journey weaved its way through my life, I lived with a lukewarm attitude toward my faith. It was very much compartmentalized and didn't make up my identity like it should have. Last year, I came to a place of complete and total surrender to Christ. What does that mean? That means I told God I was done living for myself, I was done doing things that I knew didn't honor Him, and I was done staying in my comfort zone and staying quiet about Him. I wanted Him at the center of it all. I'm not perfect and thank goodness I'm not, but I have a God who is always working to grow and refine me, even if that means breaking me down at times.

I had been toying at the idea of getting baptized again as an adult. But I wondered if that was even a thing? I talked to my pastor to get his thoughts, and he explained that he was actually baptized twice, as well. And in his words, after he was re-baptized, he "never looked back!" I even found out my Papa was also baptized two times! Not as uncommon as I thought.

Romans 6:4 says, "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

Baptism does not equal salvation. Salvation is asking the Lord to forgive you of your sins and asking Him to be Lord over your life. Baptism is the public display of obedience in proclaiming you have been saved by Jesus and strive to live your life for Him and to point others to Him. When you are dipped in the water, you are essentially laying to rest your former self: the one who lived comfortably in sin, the one that had didn't have the Spirit of the Lord living in their body. When you come out of the water, you are bringing to life the new person who is alive in Christ and has their citizenship locked in heaven.

This is our baptism:

When I was standing back there watching Logan get baptized, something that hit me like a ton of bricks was realizing how God delivered Logan and I from a path of destruction. That's a story for another day, but the truth is that, for awhile, our relationship was not centered around Christ, BUT JESUS saved us! Are we perfect? Heck no! Do we make mistakes? Heck yes! Do we have a Savior who forgives us and redeems? Double heck yes!

I want to encourage you that if you are like me, someone who experienced baptism as a child but don't really remember that experience or maybe you have fully surrendered your life to God and understand baptism's magnitude more clearly now, talk to your pastor & get re-baptized! Or if you've never been baptized before, I encourage you to make it a priority. It's such a beautiful moment of rejoicing with fellow believers. In the video, you can hear my girl Melissa hooping and hollering and that is only a hint of how joyful it's going to be in Heaven! I cannot wait!

I read somewhere that getting baptized again in life is like renewing your wedding vows to the Lord. Renew your vows to Him today and shout it from the rooftops, JESUS SAVED ME!!!!