The Lord was ready...and he moved

You got to move; you got to move
You got to move child; you got to move
When the Lord gets ready
You gotta move - You Got To Move, The Lost Dogs

 It was already one of the most awesome Sunday services I had ever been a part of and it was hard to hold back my tears and impossible not to celebrate. One by one, members of my church family (most of whom I did not know) were plunged into the water and brought back out again going public with their faith in Jesus Christ and their desire to follow him for the rest of their lives. But God was still getting ready.

During the sermon one of our pastors laid out the theological significance of baptism and why we as Baptists perform it the way we do. We follow the pattern explicitly laid out in the Bible where someone is fully submerged under water and brought back out again as a picture of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection and their commitment to a full and undivided trust in Christ. He also issued an invitation for anyone who hadn't previously indicated that they wanted to take part in this massive baptism service that they could do so. They even prepared bags for people to use which had a t-shirt, shorts, underwear, brushes...everything they needed to heed the call that God may be placing on their hearts that day. Little did I know that God was getting ready.

 We had talked about baptism to our boys in the past but wanted them to want it for their own obedient walk with God rather than wanting to do it to please us. I didn't even want to look at my boys (they were sitting on the other side of my wife anyway) because I didn't want to push them into something they may have not been ready for. But that fear was unfounded because God was getting ready. 

 As the baptisms just started my oldest son leaned past my wife's back and told me, "I think I want to do this." which is something very unusual for him with the respect he has for us and his timidity in asking for things. Now I had all kinds of plans for his baptism. I was supposed to baptize him. We were supposed to be surrounded by family and friends that both knew God and were far from him. Our pastor was supposed to preach an awesome sermon and we were going to be loud when he came up out of that water. But God got ready. He had to move. I had a one word answer for him: "Go."

 He went and my wife and I looked at each other and we cried together. Right there. As if we weren't emotionally spent enough seeing all of this now our son was moving under the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit to say, "Yes. Yes world...look. See. I am one of His. Follow me as I follow Him." 

 God got ready. My son had to move. And he moved. 

 We are so thrilled that we saw the results of a clear movement of God in his life. Please pray with us that he never stops moving when the Lord gets ready.

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