Tomorrow – April 13TH – marks the 10TH Anniversary of the “Baptism Melee” that I experienced on a Sunday afternoon after service with my original church family. It was one of the first such defining events on my fantastic journey in which I realized that walking this walk with God and my brothers and sisters would not be easy at times. There would be trials and tribulations along the way. This fantastic journey is not a straight line. It is a winding and curving road, and frequently you can’t see what’s up ahead. You have to believe, follow, and trust in God to continue to lead you towards His light.
In my own words from my original blog entry of Sunday April 13TH 2008 – here’s what went down:
This afternoon about three dozen of us gathered over at Homestead Bayfront Park for a fun time of food, fellowship, and a few baptisms. What happened at the beach with us, a trio of lifeguards, several Miami-Dade County Park Officers, and a bunch of innocent bystanders that aren’t even part of our church family but defended us and our God-given rights – was totally amazing. Words can’t do justice to what occurred at the beach this afternoon, but an hour-long video of the entire scenario certainly can. Alex had the video camera in motion, and a lot of it was captured on tape. What you will soon see on that tape could indeed shock you, but it was some of the stuff that wasn’t captured on tape that was even more shocking. Self-admitted Christians who were lifeguards were taking their orders from County Park Management to call the whole thing off. And they did. What was supposed to be the quickest water baptism in Life Pointe Church history turned out to become the longest such event in our history. In the meantime we were verbally assaulted at the beach with a war of words – many of them cuss words – by these apparent Christians that ruled over the beach. You can call yourself a Christian in public all you want, but if you act like the darkness of the world and chastise our First Amendment right to announce our faith in God in a public setting then you are the enemy. You have a lot to learn about being a Christian, and truly acting like a Christian – in public …
So that was me – exactly 10 years ago – blogging on the unexpected events of that day at the beach. That was less than 20 months after salvation began. I was still an adolescent Christian at the time – even though I was approaching the age of 41. Looking back – I’m glad I’ve continued growing and maturing in Christ over the past 10 years. Gotta keep moving forward on that winding and curving road.
