Frank,
 
I am glad you responded. It was good to see the Lord working in you. I have to tell you that I spent 5 hours the other night typing, reading scriptures, and formulating 2 different responses to you. I ended up erasing both of them. You see, I realized that this thing about baptism is between me and Jesus Christ (my personal saviour). It's not for me to explain, it is for me to work out. I think I have worked it out.
 
The Lord speaks to us all in Love. And gives us each what we need when we need it....A time to every purpose under the sun. It takes some time to learn to hear the Lord, when he is talking to us, or giving to us. I have been a hard one for my Lord to communicate with, a bit ignorant at times, prone to mistakes over and over again, and just plain tone deaf from all the interference of lifes falsehoods. My race has been the wrong race Frank, and I am now 52 years old, worn out, tired, sick of it.
 
I love the Lord with all my heart, and I have prayed to him all my life. He is my Father Frank. But I am a sinner, and my flesh is corrupted by the sin. I hate that I, with my heart, want to be perfect in the Lord, but my flesh wants to bring me down to the gates of hell. I am tormented every day, by all the sins that I fight against, to become a good man and get back the walk I had with God as a young man. I miss my best friend. But I keep going on, because Jesus has promised me that he loves me and I belong to him. I am hanging on Frank, to the promise of my Lord, to finish this life, and not take it from him, because it belongs to him. After my first heart attack when I was 30, I had almost died from fear. I collapsed during a tread mill test. I went from total fear to a peace beyond comprehension. I did not want to come back to the fear. But I did. I quit smoking cigarettes and binge drinking. I had to quit college and then 3 weeks later, my job.....to much stress, doctors orders. Seven years later, heart attack, bypass surgery this time, 38 years old. I told Jesus that he can have my life if he would just let me live. In recovery, a tube got pulled out of my chest by accident and my chest started gurgling. This was right after I woke up and I about had another heart attack from fear. They came running and an angel named Susan saved my life this time, she put the tube back in my chest.
 
I have been working as a general contractor since I was 30 at my own business. My son fights for our freedom in the Air Force and my daughter is a Registered Nurse. My marriage didn't make it after 24 years, that was my pride, gone.
 
I have the hand of the Lord on me now, he has brought me to safety, a new home, a new wife, and a new spirit of faith. Only the Lord could have done with me what was done in the last 6 years, because I was a totally broken man. And my extended family wittnessed the whole thing, with amazement, as I. You see Frank, God loves me more than I love myself! So I go on for him. He is using me to witness to others, and there is one job left to be fulfilled, then I can go home and embrace my Father and tell him that I love him as much as he does me. If he wants me to come home in the rapture, I will go in the rapture. If he needs me to stay to complete our agreement, I will do that. you see Frank, I am one of the 144,000, I just don't know yet if I am a wise virgin or a foolish virgin, either way though, I am a winner.
 
May God bless you my friend,
 
Michael