Pastor John,
I had to stop as I was reading the Baptism section in the Iron Kingdom book to write how this makes me feel. I am overwhelmed with a prayer for my Catholic family members to know the truth.
I had a Catholic baptism as an infant. That was supposed to seal the deal that I would go to Heaven when I died. It did not. When I woke up from the coma in 2010, God was in that room and He clearly let me know that He was done playing with me and I was going to Hell if things did not change. That is as clear to me now as it was on that day.
After that experience, I was baptized in a tank in front of the whole Christian church. I wanted so much for it to be real and I wanted to come out of that tank different, better, and clean. I did not. I came out heartbroken because it was not real. I remember the hurt I felt, that it was just another lie.
Then when Jesus sent Jerry and you with the truth and I had a flicker of hope again that God was real, Jesus baptized me. Oh, I want them to know His baptism. It is not a ceremony but a real experience that really washes sin away – every day, not for just a moment. I desperately wanted to be clean, but I could not make myself or my life clean. Only Jesus did that.
I feel like what your father said, that “getting the holy Ghost is your first day of school”, went in deeper. I want them to know it’s not a moment, but a life with a true, clean life with God. I want them to know.
Beth D.