http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/ Christian fellowship forum with a bible study. en Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:03:20 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/ http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/wonderful-walk-116/ Sun, 30 Aug 2009 11:56:32 GMT I went for a walk yesterday morning. I had to drop the car off at the garage to get something fixed, so I walked home. It's about a 20 minute walk.

It was early morning (at least for me on a Saturday!), and I felt I ought to be starting the day in prayer. I'm very good at "oughts" - Ali will back me up on that! So I tried "being spiritual", and I just wasn't in the mood, didn't get anywhere.

Walking along, it was a beautiful morning. Sunny, without a cloud in the lovely blue sky. As I walked along, I found myself appreciating God's creation, and just naturally started praising him for it. I looked around, and became aware of how much beauty there is around me. The skies, the plants, the life all about. I often am not that keen on the part of the country I live in, but that morning I was grateful to God. I thought "I can see why God loves the world." Things were alive, Christ has redeemed the world, and I felt a part of it.

Then my thoughts turned to bits of the world that aren't so beautiful. The bits man has trashed with pollution. And then men themselves, with all our sin. Not so nice, quite the opposite in fact. But then I remembered that God loves all of this, and sent his Son to redeem all the world. Not just the beautiful bits, but all of it. I can love the nice bits, but God's love for all is on a completely different level, that I can only marvel at.

I'm glad I had a walk. So much better than my attempts to be spiritual. ]]> eddybear http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/wonderful-walk-116/ http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/thoughts-baptism-77/ Sat, 09 May 2009 12:43:06 GMT A while ago, I wrote some thoughts on Communion. Now, I want to post some thoughts on the other sacrament common to all Christians, baptism. This is... A while ago, I wrote some thoughts on Communion. Now, I want to post some thoughts on the other sacrament common to all Christians, baptism. This is something where my thoughts have been changing a lot over the last year or so, and a comment in a recent thread has made me decide to post.

I was not baptised as a child. When I came to faith in 1990, aged 19, I knew I had to be baptised, and indeed I wanted to be baptised. I started going to an Anglican church, and the way they do things, I had to wait, and attend classes, along with others who were being confirmed. It worried me that I had not been baptised, especially reading John 3. (This was the passage that largely caused me to turn to Christ in the first place, but it referred to water and the Spirit, and that bothered me). When the day came, it was a very special time for me..... but more on that later.

After a few years in Anglican churches, I moved to Colchester, and went to a free evangelical church for many years, followed by a New Frontiers church, and then nowhere for a year and a half. I believed that baptism is only symbolic. But....

Last year, I started going to an Anglican church again. At Communion, the Nicene Creed is sometimes said, and that contains the line "We believe in one baptism for the remission of sins". That bothered me, because I thought, actually, I don't believe that, yet that is what virtually every church considers a basis of faith. Did that mean I was a heretic?

I decided to look again at the scriptural passages relating to baptism. It was in a study Bible, with commentary underneath. I read Mark 16:16 "Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved" ..... and the commentary made the point that it is only symbolic. Odd, I thought, it doesn't sound symbolic. Then there was Acts 2:38 "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call."

Moving on to Paul, and particularly Romans 6:3
"don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" Paul uses the phrase "baptized into Christ" ..... and the commentary said it is symbolc. Paul goes on, that we are united with Christ in death through baptism.....and the commentary said it's symbolic.

Further into the epistles, and there was Peter in 1 Pet 3:21, "....baptism that now saves you also....." And guess what, the commentary said it was just symbolic.

You can probably guess where I am headed with this. Time after time I saw the Scriptures using language that says baptism actually does something, but each time it did, the commentary said it was just symbolic.

Earlier in this blog, I said I would get back to my own baptism. This last year, I have struggled with doubts, big doubts, especially about my salvation. That may seem strange, after 18 years of being a Christian, but I have. And in the midst of one struggle, I felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit, "Remember your baptism". A bit later, struggling again, I felt the same prompting. Another time, and the same thing happened: I was walking back to my car from the train station after a business trip to London, and this time, I thought "OK, I will", and in my mind I started to replay my baptism. I went up to the front of the church and knelt on the steps up to the altar area. I affirmed my faith in answer to the 3 questions put to me by the Bishop. He then poured water over my forehead, saying "I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit". And then he took some water, and made the sign of the cross on my forehead. I can't remember the exact words used, but as I recalled this.......it hit me. I belong to Christ. I belong to Christ! And I know I belong to Christ, because I have been baptized into his Name. The doubts vanished, destroyed. I have been marked with the sign of the cross. I belong to Christ!


I don't have a theology of baptism all worked out. But this I do know, I have been baptized into Christ, and for that I will be forever grateful. ]]> eddybear http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/thoughts-baptism-77/ http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/thoughts-communion-15/ Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:13:23 GMT Reading one of the current threads in the forum has inspired me to write about my journey so far relating to communion. I'm not a theologian, this is my personal story.

My background for the 1st 4 years of my Christian life was low Anglican, and the church I went to in Oxford was Calvinist Anglican. I was taught that Communion was a symbol, with terms like "Zwinglian" thrown around. After I left university came 13 years of being in free churches, which could be described as "charismatic evangelical", until last year Ali and I left our church (for reasons I won't go into here).

For well over a year, most of our fellowship was online, in forums like this one, and its predecessor "The Christian Lounge" where I first met a few of the folk I now see in here. We didn't go to church, and to be honest, I didn't miss it. I enjoyed the freedom of Sunday mornings, and used the time for reading and prayer, and coming on forums.

But ...... I missed Communion, and there started to stir in me a desire, indeed even a feeling of need, to take Communion again. During this time, on another forum, I had the privilege of meeting a Catholic brother who enthused about the Eucharist in a way that was new to me. As far as I had been concerned, transsubstantiation was one of those dusty theological topics that Catholics wrongly taught, and which we protestants were well rid of. But here was someone who was passionate about it, indeed he had left the Catholic church, but after years away had come back because of the Real Presence. Interesting.

This autumn, I started feeling it was time to start going back to church. A good friend had said I would know when it was right. I wanted to go somewhere that would have Communion, and chose a nearby Anglican where a couple of friends go. The service was quite good, and then came the Communion part. I went to receive the bread and wine, and as I took the elements..... it's hard to describe, but this is how I blogged (on another site) when I got home that morning.

Knelt at the altar rail, though, something strange happened. I can only describe it as a sudden craving for more of Christ. That here I was meeting with Him, and yet I wanted more, more. The other things that happened in (and after) the service were all good - but this was what mattered, this is what caught my heart, my soul.

I didn't expect that to happen at communion. Much as I have been blessed in the past at communion, this was different. In some ways I don't quite understand it. But maybe I don't need to. Christ was real, is real. And I am changed by meeting with him.

There is something extremely precious about the gift of Communion, and meeting with Christ there. I haven't got the theology straight in my head, but repeatedly Christ blesses me when I take Communion, and gives me some new grace. I have been blessed many times in the past by remembering Christ, but maybe, after a period away from church, I am now ready to receive something more - even more of Christ. And no words can describe how wonderful it is to draw close to my Saviour. ]]> eddybear http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/thoughts-communion-15/ http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/blessed-lunch-4/ Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:13:53 GMT Or more accurately, a blessed lunch-time at work. Spent some time sat in my car, reading a Christian book and spending time with God. I've been going through a time where God has been dealing with some of my fears / doubts etc, and today he gave me an assurance of his love.

Afterwards, as I walked up to the sandwich shop, the air seemed crisper and the sky bluer. I felt alive. ]]> eddybear http://www.lampstandstudy.com/forum/blogs/eddybear/blessed-lunch-4/