Todd

A few Sundays ago I had the most awesome opportunity to experience a best friend of mine stand up in front of his family and friends and declare that his life was the Lord's.

His name is Todd and we've been friends since 7th grade. It really is crazy what all we have been through. Todd showed me how to live like Jesus in 9th grade. It's kind of funny, because it's almost like we switched roles after that. It was heart breaking to see Todd go through some tough stages in high school, but if anything Todd taught me the power of the Lord's sovereignty and exquisite timing and put to truth for me so many times the accuracy of how Healing is in His Hands.

Todd got to record a video that was played to the church before he was Baptized on Sunday. And it was pretty fantastic. Todd told everyone how he did the whole popularity/jock thing in high school and then the party thing in college. One powerful thing really clicked for me and helped me realize why Todd struggled so much in high school with going in and out of both worlds. He told us he was taught that a life in Jesus Christ was only about good works. If you did right and went through your Christian checklist of what to do and what not to do everyday then you would get to heaven, but the minute you messed up, that was it. (WHAT? That's not Jesus! No wonder you struggled!) When he got to college and got plugged into a men's bible study, he was then brought to a few scripture verses and was told the truth.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5: 17-21

And to make it a little sweeter (not that it had to be), Todd told me that he was encouraged to finally take this next step in his life after attending my baptism. He had been thinking and praying about it for a while, but made the final decision after his visit at The Ring that night.

Blessed I could be a part of this special day.

Blessed to have him in my life.

Healing really is in His hands, huh?