Flying the flag of baptism

A few years ago when Georgia changed it’s state flag, I was entering Candler Hospital in Savannah, when I looked up and noticed the new flag flying at the hospital. As I entered the lobby, I commented to the man at the desk, “I noticed they’re flying the new Georgia flag.” He waved it off and said, “It doesn’t matter. It’s just a piece of cloth.”

But he was wrong. It’s not just a piece of cloth. It means something. Just ask some of the people who passionately debated the change in the flag. Don’t say it’s just a piece of cloth. Don’t say it’s just a symbol. The flag has great meaning.

I know that I do not have to fly the flag to be an American, but I fly the flag, because I am proud to be an American. I see the 50 stars and 13 stripes, the red, white and blue and my heart swells with pride in this great nation that the flag represents.

So don’t say, “It’s just a piece of cloth.” Don’t say, “It’s only a symbol.” This cloth, this symbol, has great meaning!

There is a similar action for a believer in Jesus Christ. It, too, is symbolic of a great truth. I am referring to baptism.

I choose to be baptized to show my faith in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to set me free from the penalty of sin. He was buried, and He rose from the grave and now lives in my life. One day I will go to spend eternity with Him in ehaven.

I know that I do not have to be baptized to be a Christian, but when I was nine years old and came to faith in Christ, I chose to be baptized, because I am proud to be a Christian. When I went under the water and came out again, I remembered his death, burial and resurrection for me. The apostle Paul put it this way: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4, NIV)

So don’t say that it doesn’t matter how you are baptized. Don’t say it’s just a symbol. This symbol of baptism has great importance as it represents our faith.

What does it mean to fly the flag of baptism?

I. It matters how it looks (Matthew 3:16; Romans 6:4).

For one thing, it matters how it looks. If somebody tried to sell you an American flag that had 12 stripes and 49 stars, would you want that? Would it matter? Of course it would! It should have 13 stripes and 50 stars. Would you want an American flag that had a green field instead of a blue field, and yellow stripes instead of red stripes? It has to look right to have the right meaning.

Likewise, it matters how baptism looks, because it has meaning. It must be by immersion to show death, burial and resurrection. Sprinkling or pouring does not have the meaning of immersion.

The Greek word baptizo means to dip, immerse. There are Greek words for sprinkling and pouring. Rantizo means to sprinkle. Epicheo means to pour. But those words are not used for baptism in the New Testament. The Greek New Testament uses baptizo, to immerse. It is interesting that the Greek Orthodox Church, which understands the Greek language, still immerses to this day.

Matthew 3:16 says that when Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water, because he was immersed. He went down into the water, and came back up.

Romans 6:4 tells us why: we are buried with Christ and raised with Christ. You cannot symbolize death, burial and resurrection with sprinkling or pouring. Only immersion shows the true meaning of baptism.

Don’t say it doesn’t matter. It does matter.

II. It matters how it is used (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:41).

It also matters how it is used. We do not put up with misuse of the flag, do we? A person should respect the flag. We salute it, we don’t let it touch the ground or get tattered and torn. A flag should not be worn as a piece of clothing, because it’s more than just a piece of cloth. If a protester burns an American flag, we are outraged by such treatment of our flag. It matters how it is used.

Likewise, it matters how we use baptism. It must be for believers, not infants who have no faith.

In the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19, we are told to go and make disciples, and baptize them. It doesn’t say make babies and baptize them, it says make disciples and baptize them.

Acts 2:41 says that those who heard the gospel and accepted the message were baptized. In every instance in the New Testament, baptism was for believers. In cases where whole families are baptized, it is because the whole families trusted Christ. There are no references in the New Testament to baptizing babies.

Some have argued that baptism replaces circumcision, and just as a Jewish family circumcised their child as a sign of the covenant, so Christian families should christen their children as a sign of a covenant with Christ.

But Jeremiah 31:31-34 prophesied that God would make a new covenant with His people and it would be a covenant written on their hearts. Hebrews 8:7-13 quotes this passage from Jeremiah and then comments in verse 13, “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.” (Hebrews 8:13, NIV)

So if you take your practice of baptism from circumcision, you are basing baptism on a covenant that is obsolete and disappears. But if you base your baptism on a believer’s baptism from a changed heart, your base your baptism on the new covenant of Jesus Christ that will last.

Don’t say it’s just a symbol and doesn’t matter. It does matter.

Senator John McCain was imprisoned for a symbol. Fighting under the American flag, he was shot down over North Vietnam was a prisoner of war for many years. He tells this story:

In the final years of our imprisonment, the North Vietnamese moved us from small cells with one or two prisoners to large rooms with as many as 30-40 men to a room. We preferred this situation for the companionship and strength we could draw from our fellow prisoners. In addition to moving us to new quarters, our captors also let us receive packages and letters from home. Many men received word form their families for the first time in several years. The improved conditions were a result of public pressure on the North Vietnamese by the American public. In our cell was one Navy officer, Lt. Commander Mike Christian. Over a period of time, Mike had gathered bits and pieces of red and white cloth from various packages. Using a piece of bamboo he had fashioned into a needle, Mike sewed a United States flag on the inside of his shirt, one of the blue pajama tops we all wore.

Every night in our cell, Mike would put his shirt on the wall, and we would say the pledge of allegiance. I know that the pledge of allegiance may not be the most important aspect of our day now, but I can tell you that at the time it was the most important aspect of our lives.

This had been going on for sometime until one of the guards came in as we were reciting our pledge. They ripped the flag off the wall and dragged Mike out. He was beaten for several hours and then thrown into the cell.

Later that night, as we were settling down to sleep on the concrete slabs that we called our beds, I looked over to the spot where the guards had thrown Mike. There, under the solitary light bulb hanging form the ceiling, I saw Mike. Still bloody and his face swollen beyond recognition, Mike was gathering bits and pieces of cloth together. He was sewing a new American flag.

Don’t say it’s just a piece of cloth. Don’t say it’s only a symbol.

Baptists in some countries have had their children confiscated by the state church because they didn’t baptize them as infants. During the Communist rule of the Soviet Union, Christians were either forbidden to baptize at all, or forced to wait until they were 21 years of age. Often baptisms had to be carried out in secret. Yet that did not stop them from following Christ in believer’s baptism.

In Muslim countries, baptism symbolizes death, burial, and resurrection, and sometimes it leads to the person’s literal death. Ali Mustaf Maka'il, a 22-year-old college student and cloth merchant, a former Muslim who was baptized into faith in Christ in 1995, was shot and killed in Mogadishu, Somalia in 2006, simply because he refused to join a crowd in chanting verses from the Qur’an. His story could be repeated again and again and again in the Muslim world. Some missionaries say that the greatest danger is that when they share the gospel in Muslim lands and Muslims accept Christ, they know that many of those Muslims will then be killed for their new faith.

Baptism represents death, and in some places in the world, you will die for daring to be baptized. Don’t say it’s only a symbol.

How about you? Christ died and arose for your salvation. All he asks is that we proudly wear his badge of baptism, which symbolizes our own death to the old life, rising to follow Christ. What flag are you flying?

Southern Baptist Convention resolution on President Obama

I am in Louisville, Kentucky, attending the Southern Baptist Convention. Today we passed a resolution on President Obama. My guess is that the media may distort this resolution, so let me include a summary of it here.
The resolution makes several positive statements about the president, then explains about which we disagree, and concludes with a promise to pray for the president.
Here is a summary of the long resolution.
The first "resolved" paragraph says we "share our nation's pride in our continuing progress toward racial reconciliation" by electing a black president.
The second paragraph commends the president "for his evident love for his family" and commitment to his wife and spending time with his daughters.
The third paragraph commends the president for retaining "foreign policies that continue to keep our nation safe from further terrorist attacks."
Then the resolution shifts from praise to caution, calling on the president to "keep intact" our strong military, and then it begins to list ways that we disagree with the president.
The fifth paragraph deplores the president's decision to "expand federal funding for destructive human embro research."
The sixth paragraph decries the president's decision to "increase funding for pro-abortion groups and to reduce funding for abstinence education."
The seventh paragraph oppose the president's determination to "strip pro-life health care professions of their conscience protections" by punishing them for refusing to do abortions.
The eighth paragraph urges the president to nominate "strict constructionist judges."
The ninth paragraph strongly protests "any effort by the President or his administration to eradicate the symbols of our nation's historic Judeo-Christian faith from public or private venues."
The tenth paragraph pledges to earnestly pray for the president in obedience to 1 Timothy 2:1-2, saying we would pray that he promotes "liberty and justice for all people, including the unborn."
The final paragraph says "we will join hands with President Obama and his administration to advance causes of justice insofar as those efforts are consistent with biblical principles."

It's a bold resolution, but on the whole, I like it. It lays out the moral issues upon which we disagree with the president's policies, while commending him where he has done well, and pledging to pray for him. After adoption of the resolution, the convention stopped to have a special time of prayer for God's blessing and wisdom upon President Obama.
Some people may criticize the Southern Baptist Convention for this resolution, but I believe we have a right and responsibility to speak out on moral issues, and I think it was an accurate Biblical evaluation of the president's administration thus far.

10 things that will not be in Heaven

TEN THINGS THAT WILL NOT BE IN HEAVEN:

1. No sea. (Revelation 21:1)
2. No tears. (Revelation 21:4)
3. No cemeteries. (Revelation 21:4 - no death)
4. No hospitals. (Revelation 21:4 - no pain)
5. No temple. (Revelation 21:22 -not needed because God is there on His throne).
6. No sun. (Revelation 21:23- God is the light.)
7. No night. (Revelation 21:25; 22:5 - and thus no evil or fear.)
8. No locks. (Revelation 21:25)
9. No sin. (Revelation 21:8; 22:15)
10. No unbelievers. (Revelation 21:27 - no admission unless their name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, written in the grace-soaked blood of Jesus.)

Should NAMB merge with IMB?

Should the North American Mission Board (NAMB) merge with the International Mission Board (IMB)? In a surprise statement, Tim Patterson, chairman of NAMB, said yes. Read the article here.
He may be right, but I'm not sure. NAMB is a very different animal from IMB. IMB has a simple focus: sending missionaries to other nations and people groups around the world. NAMB is much more diverse, including production of training materials and literature for Men's Ministry and RA's. Also, NAMB coordinates most of its work with local state conventions and associations, jointly funding work with them, whereas IMB sends its missionaries itself, without joint funding (although it cooperates with local national conventions.)
It seems to me that Chairman Patterson should have explored this idea with NAMB president Geoff Hammond and with the other trustees of NAMB before making a public statement such as this. My understanding is that he did not talk to them about his statement, which caught them by surprise. I know that as a pastor, I would not want my chairman of deacons publicly stating that my church should merge with another church, without even talking to me about it first. If I were still a trustee, I would call him on the carpet for making this statement the way he did.

Five questions for a 5-point Calvinist

Calvinism is a term for the teaching of John Calvin that God is sovereign and salvation is all of God, not earned by man. However, the five points of Calvinism were developed after his lifetime, and some people have taken Calvinism where Calvin himself never went, adopting a view of double-edged predestination that teaches some people are predestined to damnation before the foundation of the earth, and there is nothing that can be done to persaude them nor can they ever come to faith in Christ.

This extreme view is sometimes called hyper-Calvinism. I have five questions for the five-point Calvinist:

1. Why would Paul desire salvation for his people if their destiny was already cast?

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. -- Romans 10:1 (NIV)

2. If people are predestined to hell, why send preachers and missionaries?

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" -- Romans 10:13-15 (NIV)

3. If election means we have no free will, why call on brothers to confirm their election?

Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. -- 2 Peter 1:10 (NIV)

4. Why would God give the wicked up to their will if God’s will takes away man’s free will?

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. --Romans 1:24 (NIV)

5. Why would Paul endure all things for the elect to obtain salvation if nothing can be done to reach the lost?

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. -- 2 Tim 2:10 (NIV)

Operation Noah - Thursday

We finished work today, although there remains work to be done before the Jackson's can get into their home. Lou, the crew chief from Operation Noah, said that we had given this couple hope that it can happen and they can eventually get back into their house. They had been trying to do a little here and there and hire a few work crews when they had the money, and they were discouraged and feeling they would never get into the house. But we got so much done this week, that they now have new hope. Becky took a "Before" and "After" picture of the outside of the house, and the difference inside was even more dramatic. "Glenn's Wall" is now painted and looks great, as do the baseboards and tile in many of the rooms.
We took up a collection and bought a Home Depot gift card for Mr. Willie across the street, as a thank you for him letting us use his water all week to wash our hands, wash our brushes, etc. He was touched, and we hope that we left a good witness to him as well as to Julie and Tony Jackson. But the other part that was such a blessing was how our team of 12 got to know each other. We had devotionals together each night, sharing and praying. We joined hands to pray over meals and enjoyed fellowship as we ate together and worked together. We came to help rebuild New Orleans, and we are leaving with a new bond built with one another.

Operation Noah - Wednesday

We had a great day on Wednesday and got a lot done.
Julie, the homeowner, came by again with her daughter and granddaughter (picture with Frances). They were really excited and grateful to see the progress we are making. They showed us pictures they took after the hurricane, showing how devastating it was before they began renovating. I just wish we could finish the house this week, but it will probably take at least one more team to get the house ready for them to live in it.
A man came by from the power company and stopped just to thank us for what we are doing and to say that he knew the couple we were helping, and that "if anybody deserved help, they do." It has been so rewarding to play a small part in the rebuilding of their lives.
Pray for safety as we are climbing on ladders a lot to paint outside. Also pray for the neighbor across the street, "Mr. Willie," who has really warmed up to us and today invited us all over to his house. He is Roman Catholic. I did not have an opportunity to talk to him about his personal faith, although we did talk about his attendance at a local Catholic church.

Operation Noah - Tuesday

Today we got a lot of work done at the house, which is located in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans. Glenn built his sheetrock wall to cover a huge hole with a lot of help from Frances, and Dan and James also put down a lot of baseboards and thesholds. Most of the rest of us painted or helped them with those projects. Julie and Debra spent a lot of time painting the baseboards. Bob scraped the ceiling of the porch and Bob, Milton and Becky painted a lot outside, while Mary, Pat and Greg painted a lot inside.
There are a lot of druggies in the area who will steal anything to sell it for drugs, so we had to keep a constant watch on our supplies, and after we finished we had to take it with us or hide it so they couldn't look in the windows and see what was there. We may have hid the equipment from the thieves, but the love bugs found us, and we had them even get into the paint!
The owners, Tony & Julie Jackson, came by to see the work and we got to talk to them. Julie came in the middle of the afternoon after getting out of class. She is going to school to be a nurse. Tony got off work early from his job at a container company, and came by to see us in the late afternoon as we were finishing for the day. Here is a picture of Julie with James, Mary, Dan, Milton and Becky, and a picture of Tony with Brother Bob.
We learned that Tony & Julie's home had about 5 feet of water inside it after Katrina. The water was actually 8 feet deep, but the house is about 3 feet off the ground. They went to Texas, then Hurricane Rita made them flee Texas and go to Georgia. After over a year and a half, they were able to come back, but they are having to rent a place in East New Orleans while they try to fix up their house. He said, "We go two steps forward and then two steps back," because their house has been broken in twice. The thieves even stole his door. The good thing is that his neighbors watch his house and report anything to the police.
Tony and Julie are Baptists, although Tony admitted to me that his work had kept him from attending church much. We prayed with both of them, and Tony was eager to get a "Here's Hope" New Testament in modern English. They were very excited about what we were doing and very appreciative. Tony said, "Everybody here knows what Operation Noah is." Since June of 2006, there have been 25,000 volunteers with Operation Noah in New Orleans who have completed 1735 jobs, including 169 homes completely rebuilt, 18 churches completed, and 407 people have accepted Christ as Savior!
Pray for the safety of our equipment from thieves, and pray for Tony & Julie as they rebuild their lives.

Operation Noah - Monday

On Monday we began our work. We went to a closed church which had been transformed into a warehouse for Operation Noah, and got our supplies. Then we went to the home on Piety Street in New Orleans, in a neighborhood where more than half of the homes are abandoned. We began work on a home that is basically a duplex. A family lived in one apartment, and their adult children live in the other apartment. The neighbor across the street said his own home had 7 feet of water after Katrina. He said the home where we were working, the owners had gone to Texas, but now they were back. They had hired contractors to renovate, but the contractors did shoddy work. So now Operation Noah teams are working on it. We were painting the inside, and several places some of the men were repairing places in the floor. Glenn Womack worked on a place where the wall was open and you could see straight through the floor to the ground below. Frances Callaway was Glenn's helper, and they were able to close up the hole with sheetrock and put putty over it.

Operation Noah- Sunday night in the French Quarter

Here are some pictures from our visit to the French Quarter on Sunday night. We enjoyed a meal at Cafe Maspero. We walked down Bourbon Street, famous for it's bawdiness, and saw the bar with all of the homosexual rainbow flags. We moved away from there pretty quickly. Then we went to Jackson Square where St. Louis Cathedral is located, and across from the Square we had the French donut, called beignets, at Cafe du Monde. As you can see, Greg really got into the beignets!
I guess you could call Sunday night "the good, the bad, and the ugly."

Operation Noah- Sunday: Arriving in New Orleans

We arrived in New Orleans on Sunday afternoon, and checked in to our lodging at Hopeview Baptist Church in Chalmette. This is a church that closed, and was taken over by the North American Mission Board as the operations center for Operation NOAH. They made the Sunday School classrooms into dorm rooms with bunk beds, and the worship center is a cafeteria and meeting room. We were given an orientation by Nicole, pictured here with the group, who is the manager of the headquarters at Hopewell Baptist. Then we drove into the city and toured New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (my alma mater) and went to the French Quarter to eat and tour.
New Orleans is a strange contrast. You see many abandoned homes and homes that are falling in, but other areas, particularly the French Quarter, are thriving with activity and tourists. Sadly, some of the things we saw in the French Quarter are too vulgar to post on this site. Suffice to say that the "Big Easy" is hard in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Operation Noah- Sunday: Church in Mississippi

On Sunday, we left our hotel in Mobile, Alabama, and drove to Gulfport, Mississippi, where we went to church at New Evening Star Baptist Church. This is the church that we helped in January 2006 to repair after it was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. At that time, Rev. Charles Harris was pastor. They have a new pastor now, but Rev. Harris and his wife were there, and there is a picture of him (seated in the chair) and his wife with our group. It was a great service, and wonderful to see the church doing so well. They baptized six young people at the beginning, and I remembered that we had repaired the ceiling above that same baptistry back in 2006. The members were excited to see us. After church, we drove on to New Orleans.

Operation Noah- Saturday: On our way to New Orleans

We left Rincon at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, and drove all the way to Mobile, Alabama, before stopping at our hotel for the night. We ate lunch at Lane's Packing, the famous peach place, in Fort Valley, Georgia. Here's a picture of us at the peach at Lane's. Everybody is doing well.
We have decided to go to church on Sunday morning in Gulfport, Mississippi, at an African-American Baptist church where a friend of mine, Rev. Charles Harrison, is pastor. This is the same pastor that we helped in 2006 when his church was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. He is starting a new church in Gulfport, and we're going to attend that church before we head on over to New Orleans to check in to our lodging.

New Orleans mission trip

Pray for the 12 people from our church going to participate in Operation NOAH (New Orleans Area Housing) April 25-May 2. I will attempt to post pictures and reports on this blog regularly.
Pray for:

Bob Rogers

Greg Hartzog

Debra Long

Glenn Womack

James McElveen

Milton Morgan

Dan Frailey

Becky Cowart

Frances Callaway

Julie Weddle

Mary Lynes

Pat Bagley

Why men LOVE going to church!

On March 28, 2009, I posted a blog at MyChurch.org about a book I was reading, Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow. I never dreamed that the post would generate over 4,300 reads and 177 comments in less than a month. I even got the cartoon you see here, thanks to Steve Waldrip of Horn Lake, Mississippi.

But now it's time to stop asking questions and start giving answers. So this blog is dedicated to Why Men Love Going to Church. Let's share great ways to reach men for Jesus Christ. Some of those ideas were shared on the other blog, and you are welcome to repeat the best of those ideas here.

I will start out by listing ten of the ideas from Murrow's book that caught my imagination.

1. The pastor should focus on being a spiritual father. After all, the apostle Paul said he was a father to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:14-15). Have the pastor mentor 12 men, and teach those men to each mentor 12 others, etc. Women can meet for discipleship groups as well to mentor women on this model.

2. Get groups of men to "partner up" (don't say build relationships) by doing ministry activities together. Perhaps the groups could be called "platoons." Let the activities have a beginning date and a time to finish. Then start more platoon projects to follow those.

3. An idea that might work especially well in a smaller church: at the end of worship. Dismiss all of the women a few minutes early for fellowship, asking the men to remain for a minute, and the pastor can give the men a 5-minute story or object lesson to teach a spiritual truth to his family. Then encourage the men to use it during the week. The women will naturally be curious about what the pastor said, and the men can then tell the story or share the object. This teaches men who to be spiritual leaders.

4. Make sure that your worship service is constantly moving with changing activities, no element lasting too long. Use lots of video and visuals.

5. Expand ministry in areas where men can excel. Why not have a ministry once a month where men work on cars of the poor, the elderly, single moms, etc., offering oil changes and light maintenance.

6. Encourage women whose men (husbands, sons, etc.) are away from the Lord to band together for intentional, focused prayer for the salvation and spiritual growth of the men in their lives

7. Have male-only events on a regular basis (such as Wild Game Banquet, Fishing and Golf Tournament, Auto Repair Class, Christian comedian), where men in the church must bring with them a man who does not go to church.

8. When groups pray, instead of holding hands or a bunch of people laying hands on someone (actions where are uncomfortable to men unless they have been attending church a long time and got used to it), try a more masculine "prayer force" where a group sits in a circle, and as the Spirit leads, people pray one at a time by going to the person and putting a hand on his shoulder and praying.

9. Ask your music minister to take the words to some of the strong, masculine-spirited Reformation hymns, and match the hymn to a popular contemporary tune to sing in worship

10. Set challenging goals in your church, and challenge your people to go after them. Men respond to a challenge, and it's Biblical. After all, Jesus told men to drop everything and follow Him, and they did.

Okay, these ideas are a start. What has worked in your church? What ideas can you share? Remember, we're only looking for positive things that reach men for Christ. This is not the place to complain about the church or anybody else. If you want to do that, go back to the other blog on why men hate going to church and post a comment there.