cleansed

I was baptized yesterday. It was a wonderful experience. I shared my testimony in front of my church family and was dunked by my mentor and friend, Pastor Dan Painter. I felt like a star afterward, being approached by numerous new faces, having hands laid on me, having conversations, and sharing stories. I met a lot of new people yesterday! My church is really big on prayer. It's awesome.
Baptism is the final step in the salvation process. Going under the water was the death and burial of my old sinful, dreadful life; coming up out of the water was the resurrection into my new life - living for Christ instead of myself.
It was an outward, public expression of my faith through grace.
My God is mighty to save!!

BY ETHAN:



There's more that rises in the morning
Than the sun
And more that shines in the night
Than just the moon
It's more than just this fire here
That keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger
Than this room

And there's a loyalty that's deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegiance
I owe only to the giver
Of all good things

CHORUS:
So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

There's more that dances on the prairies
Than the wind
More that pulses in the ocean
Than the tide
There's a love that is fiercer
Than the love between friends
More gentle than a mother's
When her baby's at her side

And there's a loyalty that's deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegence
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things

CHORUS(2x)

And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home