Baptism

Last night was a baptismal service at church. As each person was baptized I remembered what my son's pastor in Minneapolis had taught us in a sermon. Though I have heard many good sermons I don't remember many of them but this one stayed with me. He said that baptism was the initiation into the family of God. Communion was the privilege of the the family. He went on to talk about teaching in the family and then the responsibility of the family to go out and advance the kingdom. He said the order was important. First baptism, then communion, teaching and finally going and making disciples.
In Joshua's day it was circumcision as the initiation into the family, then the passover as the privilege of the family, followed by instruction then finally battle. The first thing the Israelites did after crossing into enemy territory was to incapacitate the entire army by circumcision, then take time to celebrate the passover before they even thought about preparing to advance the kingdom.