God is Good

Last week we hosted everyone from our church, after church, for the dedication of our house to the Lord. Maybe that sounds strange to some of y'all, but... think about it for a bit. :-)

Everyone went into a different room in the house and we all prayed together. And then we all ate some good ol' hot soup the sistahs had prepared whilst we listened to stories from the old timers.

No doubt you read my testimony earlier of how God provided us with our home. It's becoming more and more apparent how much a work of the Lord it really was. I just thank the Lord for his grace.

It's getting cold here in Atlanta. It's been in the low 30's for several nights - the leaves are changing, and the few mountains we have around us look absolutely stunning. Zach asked me the other morning "Why did God give us eyes?", and I was ready with a lengthy lecture on how if we didn't have eyes, we wouldn't be able to see all the wonderful things God had made, like rainbows, spider-webs, the leaves changing colors, snowflakes, clouds, and so forth.

Good ol' Zach. To him, hearing about God is like eating potato chips. He can't hear just one story - he wants to hear a whole bag of stories. We'll lay in bed at night staring up at the ceiling, and as soon as I finish one story he'll say, "Daddy, tell me more about God." We have a symbiotic relationship. He wants to hear more about God, and I want to talk about God to someone without fear of repercussion (that's a good topic for another post, by the way, heh heh).

A few months ago Zach said he wanted to be baptized. And then he heard he would have to be baptized in front of a lot of people and he changed his mind. I made up my mind a long time ago my hands would be completely and totally off of any decisions my kids make regarding their walk with God. My wife and I can live a life before them, and teach them about the Lord, but when it comes to decision making, whether for good or bad, it's all in their court. No prodding, pushing, or such-like. I know how the devil plays that trick - he'll come back 10 or 20 years later and try to convince you someone influenced you to be baptized, or that your repentance wasn't genuine, or whatever. Tricky devil.

So last week Zachary told his Mom he wanted to be baptized. Except he calls it ba-per-tized (three syllables). I told him the water was going to be very cold - was he sure he wanted to be baptized?

"Daddy, I don't care how cold it is."

So yesterday he was baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the unbelievably cold water of our Pastor's son's swimming pool. While we were standing there waiting for the baptismal service to begin I felt the Presence of the Lord there with us. As soon as he was baptized we wrapped him in a towel and rushed him inside the house, and the Presence of the Lord followed us inside. I felt like I had received a baptism.

Bro. Dale's grandson was also baptized Sunday, which is a testimony all its own. It was a day to remember for us all.

God is so good.

Note: only the two kiddies on the right are mine.