#9 Rebirth - Part 2

1998 (2AD)

Echo Beach, Tallebudgera Creek, Gold Coast, Australia

One Friday night, my mother in law Nell phoned to invite me to her daughters baptism. I had been married three weeks to Mark, and it had been 18 months since my three night encounter with God in Nel and Noel's home (see #7 Rebirth – Part 1). Since that experience, I had continued to remain devout to my newfound God of Love, Healing and Wisdom, but I was yet to identify Him with an organised religion.

Mark’s sister, Sandra, was an adult so it was a curious notion to me, having only known babies to be baptised. I understood Mark’s family held some unusual Christian views; Mark affectionately referred to them as the God Squad, as they travelled throughout Australia and overseas on regular mission trips. He preferred to keep his distance from their activities but loved and respected them as Mum and Dad.

I had only met Mark’s parents briefly, four times. Whist I had spent little time with them, they had been immediately loving and accepting of me, happy their son had found someone to build a life with. They were very gracious, overlooking my many imperfections and loving me as I was.

I joyfully accepted Nell’s invitation to the Gold Coast, keen to get to know my new family, and share in their special occasion, but I was not looking to expand my knowledge of the Christian faith. I had already concluded my God was far too alive, powerful and liberating to belong to any organised religion. When I was off the phone, Mark indicated he had no interest in attending the baptism, so I would be on my own with his family.

Early the next morning, my parents-in-law, Noel and Nell, picked me up from our Brisbane home to drive to the Gold Coast. Nell had mentioned we would be going to the beach so I figured it was an all-day trip, church followed by the beach. I dressed accordingly with togs under my outfit. Sliding onto the back seat of their car, I felt like a kid again. It had been decades since I had known the security of a Mum and Dad in the front seat covering me with their unified love; my parents had divorced when I was nine years old. There was some small talk among us, till I heard from God and He left me speechless!

Thirty minutes into the drive, I felt God's familiar enveloping love as He spoke into my spirit, “Today you will be baptised.” As it was with our relationship, I accepted the foreknowledge and said, “OK.” Then I waited, quiet, awed by love, but also nervous about the unexpected agenda item.   

I was uncertain where exactly we were going, what an adult baptism was, and what it meant for me to be baptised. I didn't share with Noel or Nell what God had whispered into my spirit, as I had learned to keep quiet when I heard His voice, to guard my sanity's reputation. But I was curious how I was supposed to crash someone else’s ceremony. The baptisms I had seen in the past were formal church events, certainly not an event at which a stranger could pop up and say, “Can I interrupt proceedings to jump in on the action?” But I had learnt that if God said it would be so, so it would be. I waited to see how events would unfold.

We pulled up at the southern side of Burleigh Headland and walked down onto the sands of Echo Beach, on the shore of Tallebudgera Creek. East of Echo Beach, the Creek runs a further 500m out to the Pacific Ocean, after flowing 25km from its origin in Springbrook National Park. Echo Beach is a popular family beach, offering beautiful white sands and calm waters, with swimmers remaining in the shallows to avoid the tide sweeping them out into the open ocean, or into the suburban canals, depending on the tidal direction. This place was familiar to me as I used to live about 2km south in Palm Beach - familiar, but certainly not where I expected to arrive for a baptism.

On the beach, we joined Sandra, her husband and children, and another couple, James and Mim, and their young children; it was a surprisingly small gathering. Everyone was dressed for the beach so I was unsure what was happening, I wondered if we were doing the beach thing before heading to the baptism. Quiet conversations followed and I stayed back, quietly watching, awaiting the next instruction, unable to relax into the occasion.

It seemed everyone who was coming had arrived, and then James and Sandra headed into the water. I sat on a blanket with Mim, James’s wife. Mim began chatting to me, explaining that she and James were Sandra’s Connect Group Leaders, their group met every Wednesday evening. I then realised James, dressed in his boardies and T-shirt, was the bloke who would be baptising Sandra. I continued listening, Mim continued talking. She went on to recall the man James had been before he knew Jesus, and how Jesus had saved James from his addictive behaviours of drugs, pubs and partying, and in turn saved their marriage. It was not the conversation I was expecting at a Christian baptism. Nothing about this baptism was what I was expecting. I could not recall hearing of the sordid past of any preacher I had met in my younger years; this organic expression was refreshing and non-pretentious.

As Mel was chatting, my eyes were turned to what was happening in the water. There was a radiance flowing from within James and Sandra as they stood waist deep in the sun-soaked water. They chatted and laughed for a few minutes. Then with James’s arm supporting her, Sandra fell back into the water, fully submerged, then resurfaced, her joy and peace evident in her huge smile.

As they began to leave the water I realised I had just witnessed my first adult baptism, without audio, apart from Mel’s out-of-the-ordinary narrative of James’s past behaviours overturned through Jesus. I had such a mental block on Christianity I could not see the parallel of what Mim was telling me, with my own experience of God eighteen months earlier when he miraculously healed me in an instant. I was still unsure of God's purpose in what he had lined up for me to do.   

Sandra and James came back onto the beach, hugs and joyous chatter followed. After a few minutes, James asked, “Is there anyone else who would like to be baptised?”

My turn! “Yes please!” Everyone was a little surprised, then joyful. I was so relieved that my opportunity to follow Gods direction had presented itself, rather than me trying to make it happen. I walked into the water with James and followed his lead, trusting God’s words, “Today you will be baptised.” The same God who for eighteen months had spoken to me, guided me, rescued me, healed me, cleansed me, re-established my life, loved me, protected me, miraculously transformed me. He had provided me a husband, new friends, a home and employment, and now wanted me to be baptised on this day. Waist deep in the beautiful waters of Tallebudgera Creek, James asked me, “Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?” I felt my God all around me. Jesus? Really? It has been You with me for the past eighteen months? Jesus remained silent but for His enveloping love. I replied to James, “Yes!”

I fully gave my rest and trust to Jesus and fell back into the water, submerged. I came up out of the water, relieved to have ended my search. I had found the identity of my miraculous, living, loving God. Jesus Christ. WOW! All this time, it was You Jesus, the God of my devoted maternal grandmother. Why had no-one ever told me about You the way I was experiencing You?

I went to work on Monday and mentioned to one of my Christian work colleagues I had been baptised over the weekend. She was so excited and invited me along to her church. I went with her the following Sunday and immediately developed a thirst for church community and the Word of God. I was hearing about God though Bible scriptures, and this God shared the same nature as Gods Spirit that had been leading me. I knew I was where I belonged, I was home. And I discovered that discerning Gods voice was so much easier with the Bible in hand. I began to relax and trust people again. I have remained in church and a follower of Jesus Christ since that day.

Four weeks after I started attending church, God gave me a new truth, a warning about who attends church. This foundational safety tip has helped me avoid the pitfalls of church community, and find the beauty of God within. See #1 This Is Church.

God’s Word

1 Corinthians 12:13

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit.

Ezekiel 36:25-26

[The Lord Yahweh says,] “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

Romans 6:4

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we may live a new way of life.

1 Peter 2:24-25

He [Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds. For you were going astray like sheep; but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Matthew 7:7-8

Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.”