faith

This past Sunday was our church's annual baptism service. We only do it once a year because the church doesn't meet in a traditional church building. We have a great facility, but our sanctuary is a multipurpose room so we don't have a permanent baptistry in place. In the past, the church has gone to a local church camp & used their pool to baptize people. Other years, we've rented a hot tub & baptized folks on the church lawn. This year however, we were been able to buy a 'portable' baptistry! I've never seen one like this before, but apparently they found it on a website devoted to baptism tubs. Anyway....since I know you're dying to see it, this is the actual baptistry the church bought & used this week!

On Sunday morning, our pastor did an awesome sermon about baptism, what it means and what it is not. He invited everyone there to do 1 of 2 things that day. Either (1) remember your own baptism OR (2) be baptized. There ended up being about 26 or 27 who were baptized. The sweetest ones I saw were daddies who baptized their children. We've been blessed in that Larry has baptized all three of our children. SUCH a sweet time! Of course, I was crying before the first family got out of the baptistry! (The husband baptized his wife & then 2 or 3 of his children!! Wow!)

Here are a few notes I took during the sermon that morning:
Baptism: an act of submissive obediance
Baptism is...
a pledge of discipleship that every believer is called to pursue.
NOT a means of salvation
NOT a work --it's a belief, an act of obedience
NOT a cleansing of sins (that happened at salvation)
NOT a prerequisite for the Holy Spirit to enter your life
Baptism is....
a poem that every Christian is called to finish; to write with your life!
Baptism is...
a "play". The Christian life is not something you DO. It's living out what the Holy Spirit is doing in you.

And these are thoughts from me, not sermon notes:
For those of you reading this blog who may wonder about my beliefs, let me lay it out for you.

I am a Christian.
I've been to many different denominations within the Christian faith. I'm a Christian "mutt". I can find myself easily fitting into many different types of churches. I grew up Southern Baptist, married a fairly-new Christian who had grown up in a non-churched home. Most of his spiritual influence came through his grandmother who is Church of Christ. When we met, he was attending an Independant Christian church (which is basically a Church of Christ with a piano). We attended there for the first several years of our marriage til we moved back to this area & found our current church, which is a Bible church. It's basically a melting pot of people from all different church backgrounds, sort of a nondenominational church of sorts. (however "Bible Church" is actually a denomination, so I guess we're not technically non-denom, huh?) We left our current church in late 2004 when Larry went into ministry at a Church of God (very similar to the Assembly of God denomination if you know anything about them). On Easter Sunday of this year, we came back to our 'old' church (the Bible church we attended prior to ministry) and we have been here ever since. In between all of those places, we've visited other churches and here's what it all boils down to.

The Christian faith believes in the following 4 things.
1. The virgin birth of Jesus
2. Jesus's atoning death for our sins on the cross
3. The Resurrection of Jesus after 3 days in the tomb
4. The second coming of Christ

Everything else is just fluff. Non-salvation-issue fluff. Important to the holders of the fluff? Sure! But fluff none the less. Some churches focus more heavily on one thing or another & whatever things they focus on are just fine. There's no harm in placing weight on what is important to your particular denomination. Once I finally realized this, I recognized that God is sovereign & can work in people's hearts no matter what denomination they belong to. He can move in them, change them, grow them, bring them to Himself. Whether you call yourself Baptist or Episcopal or Methodist or Presbyterian or Assembly of God... whatever....we are all part of the body of believers who call ourselves Christians.

I believe that God created the earth. Not a big explosion, not evolution, not any other sort of theory. God did it. Period.
I believe that the Bible is the holy word of God, written by men through divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
I believe that Jesus was born to Mary & Joseph in Bethlehem. I believe He is the son of God.
I believe that He lived on earth, fully God and fully man, until He was just about MY AGE and then He was crucified, willingly giving His life to pay the debt for MY sins.
I believe He died a very gory, brutal death and then was placed into a tomb where guards stood watch...and that He ROSE from the grave & ascended to Heaven.
I believe that He is coming again one day to take all of those who believe in Him, those who have placed their faith in Him, to live in Heaven for all eternity.

Do I realize how ridiculous it all sounds? Do I recognize that the Bible really looks like a book of fairytales if read through an intelligent eye? Sure I do! It takes faith to believe that it's all real!

But you know what the best part is? I've SEEN God's hand at work in my life. I've HEARD His voice. I've FELT His presence. I talk to Him EVERY SINGLE DAY and I SEE Him moving & changing things. I look around outside & recognize that there is NO WAY all of this "just happened". There are stories that I hear ALL THE TIME that I listen to & wonder "how could anyone NOT see God in that?".

And so, what do I believe about baptism? I believe that it's something God asks us to do when we place our faith in Him. I believe that it's not a REQUIREMENT for a ticket to Heaven's gates, but I think that God asks us to do it to show the world that we are HIS. It's a symbol that shows everyone around that we belong to Jesus. Just like wearing a wedding ring shows the world you are married, baptism shows everyone present that God has forgiven your sins (washed them away!) and you are rising up as a new person, ready to go forward in life with a big "Jesus Freak" stamp on your forehead. :)

So you see, Sunday was a big deal for me. Seeing someone place their faith in Christ and make the public commitment to let Him be the Lord of their life is emotional & beautiful. I'm so honored to have been there to see so many people begin that walk with God as their savior!

I know that most of this post is probably information you already knew about me if you've read my blog for any length of time, but sometimes I want to put it all out there one more time so that there's no doubt in anyone's mind where I stand.

(NOTE: This post is not up for debate. I will not respond to anyone that chooses to attempt to tear apart my beliefs with words. Comments worded in such a word will be deleted.)