Baptism, Communion and Church Membership

March 1st will be a wonderful day for my family. As I said in my last blog, it is the day my son and son-in-law join with us as members and it is also the day that my son-in-law and grandson get baptized. I was raised as a Lutheran and had no real understanding of the purpose of baptism. Now whether that was because I wasn't listening (this is a good possibility!), I don't know but my beliefs were VERY fuzzy. I grew up, was confirmed at the end of the 8th grade (as is customary in that particular Lutheran church), and was married in the Lutheran church. I was always thankful to come from a conservative Lutheran church and that the word "obey" was a part of our wedding vows but other than that my "faith" was pretty much based on tradition. As a young married woman I joined a Baptist based church. Well, it was really an independent Bible church but their views are pretty much Baptist. They don't believe in infant baptism, they do believe in an open communion table without wine (grape juice is used). There are several key points of doctrine that disagree with the Reformed view of things. I fell into those doctrines because I had no real basis for believing the doctrines of the Lutheran church. By God's providence a pastor from the RCUS offered to preach at this little independent church while we were without a pastor. Two of my best friends left the independent church and became members of the RCUS. God used this to create in me a thirst to find out what the doctrines of the Reformed church were. I went through the "TULIP" book and looked up every single bible verse that was listed in that little book. What I saw opened my eyes! Wow, the Bible speaks of God's election everywhere. Wow, man cannot be saved by any action of his own. Wow, wow, wow! Well, needless to say I transferred my membership to an RCUS church and have never looked back, except with great thanksgiving for that pastor's willingness to come and preach to us.

After I joined the Reformed church I began to learn so much! We went through this little book on infant baptism and there I learned about baptism being a sign and seal of the covenant. I had never heard that before and suddenly infant baptism made sense to me! We talked about communion and what that means and how God uses it to remind us of the sacrifice of His son, our Lord. Now when we have a baptism or take communion my heart is full to overflowing. I am so thankful for the blessings of the covenant, for the communion of the saints, for all that God does for us in His mercy and grace.

Do I believe that baptism or communion saves? No I do not. I believe that God has a covenant with me as a believer and these things help me to know that He ALWAYS keeps His covenant, even when I am unfaithful. I have reflected a lot on this lately because we will be seeing 2 kinds of baptism on our special day. One will be a sign and seal for a covenant child and one will be a sign and seal of an adult's confession of faith. I am so thankful to God for His covenant promises. He doesn't ever promise that any of my children are elect but He does promise that He will deal with them because of His covenant with me. They will be blessed because of that covenant.

Once upon a time, someone asked me if my father was saved. I responded that I didn't know (as how can we ever know the state of a person's heart) but that he had been baptized and was a communicant member of the Lutheran church. The man replied that that didn't mean a thing. Well, after much thought I believe that it did mean something. This man was looking for an experience, i.e. did my father walk the aisle?, did he have some great conversion experience? Well as far as I know he never did. But on the other hand, we are not commanded to base our salvation on an experience. This conversation helped solidify my beliefs because I had to look them up and see whether I was correct. I never found any scripture that led me to believe that everyone must have a conversion "experience". I did find a lot of scripture about how God deals with His elect. Was my father one of His elect? I don't know but God gives me peace about all of my loved ones. When you get right down to it baptism and communion do mean a lot more in a believer's life than an experience. They tell us something about that person. He did as he was commanded by God. Some people are converted because of an experience. This doesn't mean that some pastor's words "saved" that person. It means that the person was one of God's elect and He used that experience to bring one of His elect to Him! For me this has been a real blessing. Once I realized that God Himself is in control of who His elect are, I could rest in His will. I do not have to "save" anyone. God uses everything I do in the life of His elect, even my sin! Does this mean I should sin against people with impunity? God forbid! It means that I do not have to take a burden upon myself that God never meant me to carry! I can rest in Him when it comes to my family and know that EVERYTHING works together for good to them that are called according to His purpose. I can rest in Him and know that if one of my family members isn't elect this is good as well! What a blessing to know that God isn't just sitting up there letting "fate" run its course. He controls everything and not a hair can fall from my head without His knowledge and will! WOW!

Now, about church membership...I have been thinking about this an awful lot lately as well. One of my dearest friends renounced her church membership and says that she now believes that the visible church is not necessary. This brings up several questions in my mind. The first being how do you get baptized if you are not a member of a church? Do you have to renounce baptism in all of its forms? The second is how do you take communion? Do you always make sure that you attend a church that has an open communion table? How do you know ahead of time? If you are "grazing" at many different churches how do you get truly fed? What are your doctrines? Is it a case of anything goes? I know myself too well to think that I could mature in a situation like that. How do you deal with personal trials without the fellowship of the saints? Can you truly have fellowship without that bond of church membership? If I go to this church this Sunday and that church next Sunday can I ever truly get to know those saints? Can I ever truly partake of their trials in order to pray for them as I ought? How do they get to know me? If I am indulging in unrepented sin, who confronts me as the Bible commands? How is discipline administered? If I am accountable to no one on earth, how do I resolve these issues? These questions have solidified for me in my own heart that church membership is vital in the life of the Christian. Over the years I have noticed that usually there is some unrepented sin that causes these breaks within the body. Whether it is unresolved anger with another person (unadmitted anger with God) or an admitted anger with God because He didn't answer our prayers in a way we thought He should. These things have caused me to examine my own life and truly question the unrepented sins I find there. As our pastor said in a recent sermon, it is easy to see that sin but we must see it as sin and then confess it. It is a lot harder to put it into words even to myself and ask forgiveness. It is easy for me to ask God to forgive me in a blanket prayer. It is much harder for my sinful heart to say to God that I refused to submit to my circumstances, please forgive me for this sin. I am so thankful for a faithful pastor who preaches the gospel to me every week, for faithful saints to help hold me accountable and share my joys and my sorrows, for my family (who God uses to show me my sin on a daily basis) and even for all of the turmoil in our church family because God has used it to bring me to repentance in so many areas of my own sinful walk! God is good!

I could probably sit here and blog all day but I had better get busy!

Till next time...

P.S. For those of you who are wondering, I am not doing this at school! I am not going to do that anymore! I will be a faithful servant! I am home today with a sick boy. He threw up 3 times yesterday! EEEWWW!