I’ve just begun rereading-through the prophets. I started Ezekiel today, and in the initial monologue from God to his chosen messenger, Ezekiel, are these striking words!

As if to ward-off any unwillingness on the part of the unsuspecting Ezekiel (like Moses tried to argue with God), God tells him not to worry – His words will be with him, and He will protect him from the rebellious house of Israel who won’t heed his words.

The house of Israel should listen because it’s a prophet who has been among them. And yet they’re so hardened, that even the warnings, exhortations, and condemnations of the Lord Almighty will be ignored!

How many times has God sent to you and I messengers with His words that we’ve ignored? I can say it’s at least in the hundreds for me – all those Sundays I was in church, ignoring my Sunday School teachers, the pastor, parents, concerned church members.

Years of not caring, and sometimes willful refusal to listen. How fortunate I am that God is patient with us! I wasn’t converted till sometime in or after highschool – my mid to late teens.

But Israel – God’s CHOSEN people! Israel – the nation for whom God destroyed pagan cultures, nations, and peoples so they could have an inheritance promised to them. That Israel. The Israel who was in captivity in Babylon because of their sins was going to ignore yet another faithful messenger God was sending them.

God told Ezekiel he’d be ignored – but he still had to deliver his message. We know Ezekiel was faithful to his calling, because it has been recorded for us. But I shudder to think of the souls condemned who wilfully ignored and refused to listen to him when God Himself sent him to them!

God is patient, indeed – but His patience is not forever. Eventually, He gives those up who will not listen. Even when He knows they willnot listen, though, He still sends messengers to them pleading that they repent and turn to God! Israel was going to be liberated from their captivity in another couple decades, but how many souls were lost to eternity because they wouldn’t heed the Lord’s message?

3:17-19 “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.”

Ezekiel was God’s warner in his day. Today we’ve been given pastors, teachers, godly parents, and friends – all of whom are trying to warn those around them of God’s coming judgement. Ezekiel was absolved of the blood of his countrymen because he gave them the warnings from God.

Are we taking heed to that warning issued to Ezekiel today? Are we engaging those around us, warning the of what is coming if they do not repent? Are we trying to talk to our neighbors, family members, friends, coworkers? Are we sharing the wonderful news of redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus? Or are we hoarding that news all to ourselves? Will we squeak into heaven when we die because we’ve thrown our sins on Christ, but nothing more? Or will be triumphantly presenting our captured souls before the Lamb – showing Him that we have been faithful servants, reinvesting what has been entrusted to us for the benefit and furtherance of the kingdom?

How quick we are to presume we know the whole story! I never noticed the passage in Ezekiel before, either!

How many of the things in that list – arrogance, gluttony, apathy, uncaringness/unlovingness, haughtiness – are you and I guilty of?

Again how true is what Jesus says to his disciples: “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

There is no one sin that is any worse than another – we’ve all sinned and deserve death and punishment.

How awesome is it that God provided a way of escape through his Son!

I am a firm adherent to believer’s baptism. When a sinner is saved by grace, it is both their responsibility, and their privilege to be baptized and join the church.

But at what age can a profession of faith be “trustworthy”? Is there something magical about turning 16, 18, 20, 21, etc that makes a statement about an internal change of heart more true or more believable? I was not converted until about when I graduated high school. I knew for a long time that I was playing by the rules so I didn’t get in trouble. So by the time I was a Christian, no church I knew of would have had an issue with baptizing me.

But what about people I know who were converted around age 6? Or 10? Or 13? What is about turning 16 or 18 that makes some churches think that now they can believe that a person is really saved? What must be going-on in a converted child’s mind when a church won’t let them be baptized for 8 years because they’re only 10? Does that not lead to a great deal of self-doubt and wondering if what they’ve learned and accepted and believed is really true?

If a person has been truly saved, they can never become “unsaved” – but they can struggle with issues of assurance for years because someone they trust (a pastor, parent, Sunday school teacher, etc) has told them they have to wait.

All of the examples we have in the Bible of people declaring their faith in Jesus have them immediately being baptized as soon as a suitable source of water can be found. Yes – the apostles had special insights that our pastors can’t have today. However, even in the Jerusalem church were there found people who agreed to lie to the Holy Spirit about how much money they received for the plot of land they sold.

Were Ananias and Saphira false converts? I don’t know. But they didn’t show well in the only instance we have recorded of them in the Bible.

My personal conviction is that upon a credible profession of faith, any person should be baptized as soon as possible. As humans, we will make mistakes. We will occasionally recommend the wrong person to the church. Or misapprehend a profession as being what we want to hear, rather than what is really going-on. A verbal profession, followed by some [short] time of observation by both the person’s family, the church, their friends, and maybe coworkers ought to be enough to determine the likelihood of their statement being true.

But when that short observational time is done – and they’re still following what they claim to believe, withholding baptism from them becomes no longer a verification that they are what they say they are, but a way for the church to impose extra rules on top of the examples shown to us in the Bible’s account.

I am not convinced that church “membership”, as implemented by most churches I have attended or visited through my life, is a Biblically-valid stance to take.

Certainly we are not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together. And in order to be a vital part of the bride of Christ, we need to be engaged with a local manifestation of that body.

But does that mean that a church can or should offer, let alone require, membership?

From observing many churches, membership is a formal process whereby a given professing Christian applies to become a part of a local church. They [generally] must agree to the church’s constitution and confession of faith. They [typically] must meet with the elder(s) in an interview who will probe their background, why they want to join this church, and then be submitted to the congregation to consider.

Once the consideration period is over, the new member generally reads their testimony in front of the congregation, and then is voted-upon for reception into membership by the current members.

Various churches have differing standards over aspects of this process: how old must the applicant be, what type of background they have, how new are they to the church, etc.

My question is why is there such a formal process of joining a church? Yes, I understand that if you are not a “part” of a church, church discipline doesn’t make much sense. I do not see any direct evidence that the early church practiced a “membership” process – though some of that may just be based on the relative lack of mobility amongst first-century people. Or it could be related to the likelihood that a given city or area might only have one church because they stood out so much from the surrounding society. And certainly, claiming to be a Christian in the first century AD was not something to be taken lightly.

We also see Paul commending certain people from one city to brethren in a different city to be accepted by their gathering if/when they come. We see in 1 Corinthians Paul calling-on the church to put away from their midst the sinning brother. We also see in 2 Corinthians Paul now urging the church to take him back if he’s truly repented.

If I am a member of a church, and I decide for whatever reasons to move to a different area, or find my convictions no longer lining-up well with the church I had been attending, I believe it is my responsibility as a Christian to find a body of believers with whom I can more readily identify and cooperate with. My duty as a Christian is first to my King and His work, and secondly to the local body I work with.

I’m not suggesting that if you don’t get along with somebody in the congregation that that’s grounds for just moving-on. Nor do I think it is a good idea to try to be engaged with more than one or two churches at a time. But I cannot see how the formal practice of membership is a healthy add-on to the Christian life.

It seems that the church as a whole has taken lessons from other organizations whereby you must join to be a part – such as the Elks or Freemasons. Joining the church happens when a person is converted and baptized. Once I was converted, I became a member of the universal body of Christ. My attachment to a local representation of that body took a while because the church I was in had draconian policies which had to be fulfilled before someone could be baptized and become a member. Such policies turned-off many of the people I grew-up with form wanting to join that specific church.

I’ve attended other churches that had completely no concept of membership or belonging… and I can see the issues with that, too. I do believe it’s important to belong to a church. But the concept of membership needs to be re-examined.

The sermon was on Deuteronomy 32:1-4, “Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain; My speech shall distil as the dew, As the small rain upon the tender grass, And as the showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of Jehovah: Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. The Rock, his work is perfect; For all his ways are justice: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and right is he.”

At the end of his long and varied life – 40 years of being raised as a prince in Egypt, 40 years as a shepherd, and 40 years as the earthly head of Israel – Moses had this to say: “I will proclaim the name of Jehovah: Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. The Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and right is He.”

After 120-plus years of walking the earth, Moses was still praising his God – THE God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the one true, living God.

His confidence even in the final moments of his life was that he would proclaim the name of God. In 120 years he could not look back and see anything more worthy of comment than that his God was truth and faithful.

I issue a challenge to any who call themselves ‘Christian’ – can you say today that as you look back over your life, God has been truth and faithful to you? Not in the abstract, but in the personal.

If you were to die today, would the last words on your lips be “I will proclaim the name of Jehovah: Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. The Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and right is He.”?

If not… why?

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

I have a question to pose to any church, any pastor, any Christian: what are you saying about Christ, the Gospel, and your walk if you never change your practices?

Are you saying, “I’ve arrived, I don’t need to change”?

Are you saying, “I’m better than everyone else, therefore they need to catch up to me before I advance”?

Are you saying, “I don’t care about ‘advancing’, I’m satisfied with my progress”?

Or are you saying, “I am who I am, and I don’t have to change”?

I am not an advocate of change for the sake of change.

I am not an advocate of change if means compromising Truth.

I will advocate EVERY change that BETTERS myself towards God, and that brings more people to His Gospel.

What does it say about a pastor, church, or individual Christian if they refuse to change to society, when that change does not affect their walk with God? What does it say about a pastor, church, or individual Christian when they won’t listen to others who have Truth to convey, or who have received insights into God’s Holy Word that they haven’t yet?

Does it say that they are stubborn, and won’t hear what others have to say, won’t take the time to see if what they’re saying is out of line with the Bible, won’t come out of their ‘comfort zone’ because somebody else might know something they don’t?

Does it say that they’re staying with what they’ve become accustomed to that is in line with the Bible, but that they won’t move away from that ’safe zone’ because they’re afraid they might do something wrong in the process?

Or does it say that they are stagnating in their walk and no longer advancing along their Christian walk? That they’re happy enough with where they’ve gotten to; that they don’t need to get any further along their walk because they’re getting into heaven from where they are – and, after all, isn’t being “a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord” better than a thousand days elsewhere? After all, why get any further into God’s kingdom than I have to, because the world is fun? Why become a “choice servant of the Lord” if I can just be a servant?