Dear Friends,
We have heard from many regarding the baptismal service last Sunday evening. I believe some of the most common words which described the evening were: informal, family orientated, healing, and relational. Thank you for praying and participating in every aspect of this experiment. Bill Petersen was the initiator and Erin both carried this in their hearts. I love the little copper plaque above the baptismal tank, which summarized the entire purpose: In Memory of Adam.
Testimonies (with permission):
Wow! What a wonderful afternoon and evening of teaching, worship, and the awesome manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit through the waters of baptism!
Thank you all so much! We were overwhelmed with the depth of teaching; the practical aspects of setting this up and caring for everyone's needs; and the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe there was much ground gained for Carol and Emily while both deposited fear into the water. Carol has called herself to us "Carol the worrier." We told her that last night she became renamed, "Carol the Courageous." The progress in the Lord that Carol has made is remarkable....she has so much more peace than ever before. Emily has become "Emily the Brave" even as she fought her dad (the fear was tough for her) in the water, she finally allowed him to put her totally under the water...(to put fear under.)
This morning the Lord spoke to me and I would like to share part of it with you:
"Genuine love- genuine love- genuine love- That is on the record for last night...the genuine love for Me shown by all who attended and were baptized. It is on the record- all the words spoken and sung; all the displays of lavish love. And the witness of the Lamb, the Spirit, the water and the Word were displayed as a wonder and a sign to all.
No one can understand pure and genuine love- love that dies to self--the cross --the humiliation--so hard to embrace and understand --BUT...LOVE was the developed theme of the night. Love stretching out, hinging heaven and earth together so that angelic beings were released, dancing and rejoicing! Blatant...unrepentant love....who can resist??? And if they do resist...it is not without the conviction of refusing the Love. Any judgment rendered (of the activities last night) will come back to those who scoff or deliberately choose to reject such love poured out. They will not be able to deny the love. They will know you are Christians by your love." (love for one another, love for ME)
Thank you so much for putting the baptism "event" together. Next time I'm going under!
In the love of Christ,
Mary and Bob
Just me here responding.
It was a wonderful day. I was very blessed by what your family shared in the events of the day. It was a huge day in the Spirit for our region. It was an honor to witness the people being baptized and I was moved to tears in worshiping the Creator, God Almighty, for their testimonies of His great Love. I agree. Love, genuine Love was evident in all the teachings, words spoken and sung in worship, meals eaten together, and fellowship shared in the preparation/clean up. Thank you God for leading us in your ways. We truly are thankful.
Again, thanks for your attention to details in your family and sharing them with us.
Carlene
Hi Everyone! We never did share anything publicly on Sunday about what has been happening with us. So I'll take the time now to share with all of you.
Over a month ago, the Lord began showing us we had made two negative vows early in our marriage that needed to be broken. Awhile after that He showed me that the vows we made to each other during our wedding 42 years ago, were made in our own strength, not including the Lord at all. I know some of you may think this strange, but it's what we felt we heard from the Lord. So the last Sunday in May, we broke those vows. I had a picture of a large wedge between us that totally disappeared, and the heavens opened up over us. The following Wed, May 28th, we went to Bill and Delight's and they remarried us! It was a wonderful time of dedicating ourselves anew to the Lord. Several wonderful words came out of that time, which I won't go into all of them right now. One, however, stood out to me. It was something Erin said about the two of us in ministry together.
Also during the time all of these things have been happening to us, the men had been discussing being rebaptized and plans were being made to do that. Larry had decided he wanted to. I felt I wanted to also, but I kept seeing a picture of both of us being baptized together. When I asked Larry about it, he said it wouldn't work probably, because the tank was too small. So we asked Bill and Erin and both of them agreed. Probably wouldn't work. I was so sure that was what the Lord wanted. The day before the baptisms we were at Bill's and I had a chance to check out the tank, and I felt we could do it. So our time of baptism was a sealing time and a new beginning for us. What an awesome day it was for all of us. Thank you all for witnessing it! Blessings, Vonny : )
I testified before my immersion that the LORD had been preparing me for baptism, the following is a brief account of those events:
About four weeks before, Bill announced at the Men Of The Spirit (MOS) meeting that there would be a baptism. I couldn't see any point in being baptized again. A week later I asked Bill at the MOS meeting why he was getting baptized again and what more specifically did he hoped to gain by it. He had a good answer which he followed up with an Email explaining it in depth.
Two weeks before, I had a series of dreams, one of which I was leading singing, directing it with my hands, then I was slain in the spirit, got up and went down again. Several people came running up to see if I was OK and they went down too. Erin told me at the MOS meeting that he could see The Spirit all over me, then several men prayed for me. I was slain in the spirit during this time, and after the prayers I began laughing uncontrollably. When I stopped I felt a cool breeze blowing on me, then my face turned back to its normal color and my glasses cleared from the perspiration.
The week before we had a meeting at Bob Geister's office in Sandy and I shared that the LORD had called me to fast solids from Friday through Sunday. I began to get the assurance that something out of the ordinary was going to happen to me at the baptism.
When it was my turn to be baptized, someone began speaking words over me and I was slain in the spirit again, so they had me get into the baptismal and I began shaking. During the immersion I stiffened and felt the LORD wanted me to stay under for awhile. When I got out of the baptismal tank, I began shaking uncontrollably, and this lasted until the end of the service. After I got dressed, Larry said something and I started laughing again, like at Bill's house. What a joy to have the power of God fall on me. PTL
Bob Musgrave
