Baptism

What is your take on baptism? I've been wrestling with this a lot recently.

I agree with Colonel Richard Munn who stated The Salvation Army's stance on the issue: "With regard to tradition, the Army views itself as providing a distinctive witness to the universal Church concerning the non-observance of sacraments. Salvationists stand as a reminder to the Church that grace is mediated from Christ, not Christ and prescribed ceremony." (In his article: An Army of Salvation)

This past week, one of my core classes was focused on Baptism. Baptism's necessity was affirmed, not for salvation, but for some different communal and individual accomplishments. Communally - to recognize the need for accountability and to acknowledge this person's commitment to be beneficial on the communal level (for the Body of Christ) as well as on an individual level. Individually - in being baptized, a person is being brought to his or her right place in God's Meta-Narrative (Grand Story). This is a twist on the issue, for me, because I thought it was always argued that baptism is intended to be a means of salvation and receiving grace, but this is not always the case.

The main argument in class was that baptism is not necessary for receiving grace but it is still necessary for Christians. Christ commanded it to be done and it is as such necessary for believers to be baptized. (I really think I am justifying the argument well, but please correct me if this isn't the case.)

I brought the point in class that, personally, I have had every good result of what they brought up about baptism - communally and individually - yet I have not been baptized, and have witnessed this in the lives of others as well. I argued that the meaning for which baptism is done is essential, of course, but that water baptism is not necessary for the person who believes. My reasoning is: If the meanings of baptism can be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit outside of water baptism (this I testify to be experiencing, and do witness others to experience it as well), and baptism is done solely in order to accomplish these certain communal and individual needs, the result is that the physical act of baptism is, at most, very useful in portraying the subject, but baptism is not something needed to have been done.

Let me contrast with foot washing: Jesus said that this was to be done among believers, and while the essence of humble service is evident in genuine Christians, it is not portrayed in the act of washing feet. In this way, I feel like I am experiencing unity in the Body of Christ and unity with God, because of the commitment I have made to Him in the presence and community of other believers, in accepting His commitment so graciously and faithfully made to me. It is argued that foot washing was meant to be a metaphor, and the reasoning is that we don't see the early church continually practicing the act. But why should our lesser response to this commandment be determined to be as such in view of the early church's lack of practicing it? I find it inconsistent to respond differently to these two commands.

My very limited experience and understanding leads me to the following consideration: we must determine what Jesus is commanding. Is Jesus commanding us to (physically/ritually) reenact the Lord's Supper in remembrance of Him, or is He commanding us to (spiritually/daily) live in unity with one another in Him? Is Jesus commanding us to (physically/ritually) wash each others feet, or is He commanding us to (spiritually/daily) live in humble service toward each other? Is Jesus commanding us to (physically/ritually) be baptized with water in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or to (spiritually/daily) live in unity with other people as the body of Christ, and in unity with Christ Himself?

I'm in a hurry, because I need to go to work. But I hope this is clear and humble, not worded offensively toward any opinion or denomination. Please share your thoughts!

How Appearance May Lead to Corruption

You say that you love the ‘beat’ of the song, the ‘moral’ of the movie, and do not pay attention to the lyrics or sex scenes, not to mention the violence and profanity. In other words, you love the external and ignore the internal. What if God did that?

What if God decided to lift Hitler up into glory because He admired his mustache? What if God decided not to lift Mother Theresa into glory because of her deformed feet, overlooking the sacrificial humility behind her having that defect?

It would not happen because this logic is the exact opposite of God’s logic. The Scriptures say “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). I came to the conclusion, above, that you love the external and ignore the internal, but you must acknowledge that, no-matter what you profess to admire and despise, you entertain both the good and the bad by listening to the song anyway, or watching that movie anyway. This is not justified for the worker of God because evil in and of itself is not welcomed in God’s house. You are the presence of the One True Light in this dark world. You ARE God’s house.

My thought is that God wants His workers to have hearts like His - to hate the things He hates and to love the things He loves. Consequently, NOTHING with unholy intentions should be attractive to the worker of God – that’s a high standard. The workers of God today (even ones in roles of leadership) become entertained and consumed by these things. Even if you are not in a role of leadership, even if you are a child and are understanding these words, do not overlook the absolute foolishness of that lifestyle! God does not allow anyone into His Kingdom on the opinion of physical appearance. Although, He may admire the beauty in his or her face, He will not defile His Kingdom with sin. Likewise, you ought not to entertain anything with your mind on the opinion of the external. As this also goes for impure music, you may appreciate the tune a lot, but do not defile His Temple by entertaining the whole of it. Do not find justification on the premise of the sound (outward), but justify everything according to the intention (inward) of the song laid bare before the Gospel of Christ. (This goes for many things, not just music.)

God will not let anything unholy, internally, defile His Kingdom. The external doesn’t matter, for His Kingdom is for those who “believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13); His Kingdom has nothing to do with outward appearances and everything to do with the conditions of the heart – INTERNAL conditions.

Why, then, should you buckle at movies and music as if you don’t let those unholy parts bother you (which is YOUR edict). First of all, imagine how God feels when He hears you state that these things having to do with profanity, violence, and sexual immorality are no longer things that bother you. Evil and injustice should move you to anger, as it did Christ in the temple (Matt 21:12-17) – and that was only in reaction to cheating. If you are one who still continues to find ways of justifying this behavior, you need to ask yourself the question ‘why are you trying to be a worker of God?’ It seems that you will only be disappointed in the lifestyle of a Christian, anyway. If you are eager to live for the Lord in the sense that He wants you to live for Him, call on Him. You will never be satisfied with Christ until you realize the entirety of the sacrifice God requests of you and, at once, by the power of the Holy Spirit, leave it all at His throne. How the Lord weeps over your entertainment with evil. How He must grieve at your cheating on Him with the evil one! He who is good to you, He who provides for you, He who loves you faithfully, must suffer every time you choose the abusive master over Him. Imagine His hurt when the majority of your decisions are just like that!

The Lord of Hosts, Almighty God, Savior of the broken, wants to give you peace and remove your suffering and guilt. He wants to fill you with things having to do with Holiness and Righteousness and Godliness, but characteristics of God cannot dwell with the characteristics of satan. This is why “no one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). For a long time, you have chosen television above diligence, violent movies above the peace of Christ, profane music above purity of heart, and the list goes on and on. You are so loved and held so dear by God! Know that! Surrender with tears and sobbing! In your realization of His Lordship over you, His power over your sin, and His perfect plan over your entertaining lifestyle, surrender. Yes! Surrender your all to Him today!!

Here is my heart! It is questionable and vulnerable, but intending to be used in the way You desire.

Response to reading Ezekiel 1-5:

The Lord says to return to Him, to do away with your distracted lifestyles. Television is your plan for the week. Entertainment has become your priority. Comfort, you are not willing to sacrifice. Financial security in your homes and organizations has taken priority over the needs of others. False efforts are given in your hope to justify your laziness! Hollow words are used as your defense! Does God not look at the heart? Does He not see YOUR heart? Will He not tear down all that denies Him, lift high all that acknowledges and honors Him, and, with rage, destroy all that falsely testify (I don’t only mean with words, but with two-faced/inconsistent lifestyles) and use His Wonderful Gospel as a means of financial gain or some job accomplishment? It’s better for you to become an atheist or Buddhist or someone else who denies Christ than for you to claim the Almighty as the one responsible for guiding you into making your lousy decisions. I mean you – YES YOU! – who are able and blessed with the opportunity to do good, and deny it. Don’t you know the Scriptures? “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves, do what it says.” (James 1:22) It is your business to bring the Gospel to this world, yet you are easily entertained with unwholesome junk. Please stop trying to justify those television programs and music and other things which defile your mind. Stop trying to justify your deeds which do not match up with the sound-doctrine: To do the works of Christ in His Holy Spirit to glorify the Father in Heaven. You who proclaim Him are now supporting the absence of God in one additional dark corner of life. WHY!?

Fast! Sacrifice! Become filled with passion at the realization of your stupidity! If you are not in the business of saving souls, you are working against the Lord of Hosts…..good luck with that. If you claim to be one of Christ’s own and still do not save souls, weep uncontrollably, feel deep compassion for the lost souls, or feel anger toward the evil forces keeping them lost and in pain, then you do not understand the Scriptures with your heart. Pray! that you may be a worker for God, that you may feel conviction for the lost and that you may feel pain and agony at the thought of millions in the world dying without the light of Christ in their souls. And if you're still filled with selfishness, continue to pray until the Holy Spirit reveals to you the condition of your own heart. When you are brought to know your value outside of God's will and power, you will find foolishness in selfishness.

Dude, turn back to the Scriptures. Stop arguing about abortion, homosexuality, smoking, murder, suicide, and all the issues that the Scriptures claim as obvious sin. Stop arguing about secular music, rated R movies, the ‘morals’ of it all and remember the verse which says “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do, and does not do it, sins.” (James 4:17) Do you trust that the Holy Spirit will show you what TO keep from doing or watching or listening to if He really despised your doing so? Anyone who does not trust Him will never be at peace, and certainly will not experience the fullness of Christ. Such matters are between you and God; why do you need to justify your reasoning to others? You, why do you need to challenge others of their personal decisions because they are different from your own? Are workers of God not called to live as the body of Christ? Why, then, do you make assumptions and judgments about others in your mind? Worse, why do you verbally attack others? Eyes like yours see the evil in everyone but yourself. Your intention is to bring attention to yourself and your accomplishment, sadly, is the bringing of division to the Body of Christ.

Whether it be television you stop watching, or food you stop eating, games you stop playing or some other lie of a proclaimed human [relational] [interactional] [insert YOUR excuse HERE] ‘need,’ take the time to fall on your face before the throne of Grace. Your loving Father is merciful and has the greatest plans for you, if you would only leave your selfishness at the foot of the throne to be executed and invite the Spirit of the Living God to be your guide. Your life will be filled with good things and you’re genuine efforts will produce good fruit as soon as you begin to be more alert and aware of the Lord’s speaking to you and guiding you.

Your potential is far greater than where you are now. Listen, you are not making the opportunities happen of which the revolutionary does make; you are not praying in the Spirit in the presence of God as does the spiritual giant; you are not taking the opportunities already granted you and are beginning to desensitize yourself to the convictions of the Holy Spirit. If you are not being a follower of Christ in the sense that He wants you to be, than your efforts will only produce partially committed followers (hired hands), inconsistent to their proclamations of the Gospel, like yourself. Before you can save souls, you need be saved. Where is your courage and your confidence in Christ? Come to Him and be saved!

The God of Hosts wants to speak with you right now. Not to lecture you or to make you feel guilty or to condemn you of all the things you know you’ve screwed up on, but to offer you the chance to be forgiven of it all and start brand new. Take His offer. Turn to God. Leave your old, rotten, selfish self behind.

Lord, help me to act on the convictions that You put on my heart.

TAM Reflection - MASKS

The first time I saw the masks we used at TAM - I could only think of how weird they looked. Honestly, it was difficult to take the whole idea very seriously - at first.

What a revelation! ... that sometimes God doesn't 'look' or 'sound' or 'feel' anything like what we expected Him to. Actually, I'm thinking that it is extremely rare for God to reveal Himself to us in ways which we totally expect Him to.

I saw some people dressed up as knights and swordfighting with woden swords not long ago... In watching them, I realized that if all things we DO are found righteous or unrighteous on the premise of what is Godly and what is unGodly, than no action we do is different to God than any other given action, so far as the physical nature of the movement itself. In other words, I move my arm up and down when I strum the guitar - riight? I move my vocal chords in certain tunes and sounds and what-not... right?? What I do can very well be an act of worship no more or less than the movements of those people sword fighting. Why? Worship a condition of the heart, not a movement of the body.

I walked past a garbage bin last summer - NOT a peaceful stream of spring-water - a GARBAGE BIN, and I thought about what was inside that I began to smell as I walked by. It reaked. To God, sin is far worse than that trash was to me - and that was one of the most powerful realizations I've ever experienced. Ever since, I will randomly see a garbage can or bin or whatever - and think of all the things in my life which I should 'throw away,' and make a concious effort to do so.

Okay, so when I first learned that God says (in Jeremiah 29:13) "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart." ...I expected to like find Him - to feel a certain way all of the time - the big one was I wanted to HEAR Him. I learned, by means of walking past trash cans whilst watching people sword-fighting (hahhaa), that He reveals Himself in ways we sometimes would literally never expect coming. There is no way for us to discern how God 'looks' or 'feels' or 'sounds' except by our constant drawing near to His Heart.

So, even while I write, God uses uncommon things to speak to me. Masks (the oddest looking masks I've ever seen) have been the tools, this time, with which God has revealed to me the irrefutable, undeniable beauty of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What a wonderful Savior! :D

Loving with the heart of God

A few days ago, it was my earnest prayer to see the world as God sees it. To have understanding as He does about it. To have the love that God has! Well, tonight, me and my dad went downtown Canton to eat the Dominoes that we picked up, and to walk around the 'First Friday' fair thing going on.

My eyes and ears are not sheltered from the 'corruptness' of society, but tonight I have understood that corruptness in a different viewpoint - God's. It was not 'uncomfortable' to walk amidst the many different characters that appeared tonight, as many Christians would explain their experience to have been 'uncomfortable,' as if in the presence of evil. I do believe them, surely there is tension when evil sees Christ in us. We do fight a war not of flesh and blood, but of the Spirit.

Driving home, me and my dad spotted black smoke in the air. We decided to follow it and see what was up. At first, we thought it was just a big mechanical plant or something, I would have laughed! But there was a truck-fire at an auto repair shop. This was yet another notable moment in my life. As we slowly drove past, I could not help but see the people standing on the street observing - again, many different characters, all of which shared common threads: hopelessness, carelessness.

My heart was torn apart as we were getting on the highway and a rusty old car cut us off, nearly side-swiping the front of our blue Toyota. It missed, only because my dad put on the breaks. The car acted as if, quite literally, we were not there. When my dad pressed on the horn, there wasn't a reaction from those in the car, except the small amount of energy the passenger was willing to deal with, lifting the finger out the window.

When we were finally on I-77, I wanted nothing but to go back to where we had just left. It would do no good to wave a Bible in the faces of passerby's, screaming "TURN OR BURN!" It may even do no good to try and speak rationally about the Bible with them. But what I saw in the people tonight was far more than Godlessness. I saw the Godless, restless, friendless, fatherless, hopeless, careless, and the list is never-ending.

It was natural to think "what would Jesus be found doing, here?" I saw a man sitting on a bench alone - Jesus would have spoken to that man. I saw people dressed in knight's armor, battling each other with wooden weapons, Jesus would have asked them about it! Does not Jesus love the things we are passionate about, like "Facing the Giants" says when the coach explains how God is out on the football field with the players? Yes, Jesus would have shared the passion these people had for the fun they were having. It is just like Him to meet us where we are.

I'm beating myself up tonight. I did nothing. A conversation could have brought a friendship - which could have led hundreds of people to Christ in itself. God provided the opportunity; twenty times at least. I walked right on without thinking twice. Now, I'm feeling discouraged because I was not faithful to discerning His specific purposes for me.

Lord, do not keep Your Holy Spirit from me. Please deal with me as you have David! My I have the privilege of having a heart so like Yours, a mind so like Yours, discernment as from Your wisdom, courage as from your confidence! Give me success in just one 'part' of my life - the part that is completely surrendered to You; bringing You glory and a smile.

Just thinking (about the comings of Christ)

The 'pastors' of the day in Biblical times were so excited about the Christ' soon-coming. They expected Christ to be, as was told by the Old Testament, a war-Lord, a conqueror of nations, a victor in battle, etc.. Jesus was all of these things, but each in a way that the leaders were not expecting. For, our battle is not one of flesh and blood, but of the Spirit.

Thinking about Christ' second coming, we usually are told in church that it will be magnificent, unforgettable, marvelous! All of these things, it couldn't help but be. However, do not keep your eyes looking for a flash of light! Do not keep your ears intently listening for a loud trumpet blast! The religious leaders held expectations for the day Christ would come to save them of sin. Little did they know that their imagination was not nearly in line with the ways of God, let alone know that they were the perpetrators who would execute the very Son of the Living God, who came to save them, that they've been waiting for since the fall of man.

When reading the Scriptures, it's easy to take away our own image of what an event will look like. Especially with events like the second coming of Christ (trumpet blast - the opening of the heavens - the multitudes of angels). Make no assumptions, however; especially audible and visual assumptions! Have little expectation other than for the Almighty God to be glorified. Ask for His wisdom and insight when concerning the Scriptures; lest we have the very Word of God in our worldly minds, like the pastors and religious leaders of Biblical times, and fail to receive the heart-translation.

Just Thinking (about prayer)

Conversation with myself today:

You’re a Christian, right?
How do you spend your time?
How do you use your energy?
What do you think about most?
An idol is something that takes up your time, energy, and thought.
Ouch.
Is God your idol?
Where is your loyalty?
Have you lied to yourself all along, believing that you are living for God when you are really devoted to yourself?

You profess to be for Him, in Him, and of Him.
I wonder if you know Him.
I wonder if you love Him.

Today, I recognize:
God's infinite wisdom - about everything!
His ultimate power - to do anything!
His transformation - so we can do something!
I recognize the desire of God’s heart - to be being loved by His creation.

I proclaim that God is calling every person to play a considerably small and eternally significant role in His grand story.

Nobody can fill your shoes. God only called one person to build the ark, to deliver the Israelites, to draw water from a well. You are called to do something(s) especially, things which nobody else ‘will do.’

Instead of focusing on the sea of regrets and unholy routines that are in your life currently and need to be replaced, just follow the streams flowing into that sea (sea = your life). Construct a single stream to overcome all others, a stream of prayer! Let His love be flowing from His heart into your life, that you may truly be of Him, for Him, in Him, and truly devoted to Him. (Romans 12!)

I agree with Phillip Yancey who said, “Prayer, and only prayer, restores my vision to one that more resembles God’s.” When you pray, you will be given insight from the mind of God as to what you are called to do. Whatever you decide to do with the wisdom you are given determines who/what you are serving.

As for now, pray. For me, prayer is a matter far greater than life or death. William Booth once said something like this: “Work as if everything depended on your work. Pray as if everything depended on your prayer.” Yet another person, I’m still unsure who – I believe he is from Akron Citadel Corps – once said,

“The greatest regret Christians will have when they get to Heaven will be when they realize how powerful prayer really is and how lightly they regarded it while here on earth. They will realize how much more of a difference they could have made, but it will be too late.”

Praise God for the power and wisdom and guidance He gives us through the gift of prayer. I praise Him too, now, for the realization of my slack of a prayer life. I’ve said a prayer for you today, who read this. May you feel the Lord’s tug, call on Him, and reap the tools and peace and guidance He has in store for you by it.

(Stream/Sea illustration was the idea of Phillip Yancey, used in his book "Prayer")