Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, signifies the believer’s intimate fellowship with Christ through the symbolic sharing of bread and wine, representing His body and blood (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). It is a sacred moment of remembrance and spiritual nourishment, often portrayed with images of joyful reverence and deep contemplation as believers unite in gratitude and faith.
The sacrament is a memorial to keep alive the remembrance of Christ's death.
If a friend give us a ring at his death, we wear it to keep up the memory of our friend; much more, then, ought we to keep up the memorial of Christ's death in the sacrament. Thos. Watson.
Deep joy and holy contemplation often follow partaking in the Lord’s Supper.
A more devout communicant at the table of the Lord, says Dr. Doddridge, in his life of Colonel Gardiner, has, perhaps, seldom been any where known. Often have I had the pleasure to see that manly countenance softened into all the marks of humiliation and contrition on these occasions: and to discern, in spite of all his efforts to conceal them, streams of tears flowing down from his eyes, while he has been directing them to those memorials of his Redeemer's love. And some, who have conversed intimately with him after he came from that ordinance, have observed a visible abstraction from surrounding objects, by which there seemed reason to imagine that his soul was wrapped up in holy contemplation. And I particularly remember, that when we had once spent a great part of the following Monday in riding together, he made an apology to me for being so absent as he seemed, by telling me that his heart was flown upwards, before he was aware, to Him whom having not seen he loved; and he was rejoicing in him with such unspeakable joy, that he could not hold it down to creature converse.
answered he with surprise, "are there There are almost as many as there are lines." You astonish me," said I; "what then have all these authors been doing?" "These authors," returned he, "never searched the Scriptures for what ought to be believed, but for what they did believe themselves. They did not consider them as a book wherein were contained the doctrines which they ought to receive, but as a work which might be made to authorize their own ideas."
# THE LORD'S SUPPER.
Jesus thanked God for the cup of sin and suffering. Ultimate test of thanksgiving. God expects all his creatures to praise him. The psalms are full of praise.
Jesus was thankful for:
1. The common necessities of life.
2. Little children.
3. Answered prayer.
4. Opposition.
5. His death.
Looks at the history of the Jewish passover and how Christians adopted it. Early Christians followed it closely while we have lost much of the significance. Redemption is a key element. Easter is now mostly a celebration of past history, while originally it had an eschatological focus. The original meaning must be revived.
The first century practice of the Lord’s Supper has Jewish roots.
Moshe Rosen, founder of “Jews for Jesus,” was converted to faith in Jesus Christ. He went to a Baptist church on communion Sunday and asked a member what communion was, since he had never taken it. They said it was much like Passover. Moshe got excited because Passover was a big deal. Lots of food, many courses.
He came to church starved and waiting for a good time. At the very end of the service the deacons passed out chunks of bread. Very tiny chunks. Then a thimble filled with a little juice came around. Moshe’s stomach was growling, but no food was in sight. They stood and sang “Blest Be the Tie that Binds” (he noticed they all had ties on) and the service ended.
Moshe Rosen was very disappointed. Communion was not like Passover one bit.
You have heard of South Africa's "apartheid" policy. Here is how it began: in churches. In 1828, a Malaysian slave brought her dark-skinned husband to church there. The official teaching of the Dutch Reformed Church was that no one should be discriminated against concerning communion. But some of the whites were offended that this man would be sharing the Lord's Supper with them. The leaders of the church knew these whites were "weak" in knowledge, but quoted 1 Corinthians 8:13, and ordered the dark-skinned man to stay away.
The essential issue here was not discomfort during communion, but the exclusion of a person "for whom Christ died." Paul would never agree with what they did.
Sermon in 1 Corinthians series. Chap 11, the Lord's Supper and communion.
1. Original practice of Lord's Supper.
a. Passover meal.
b. Love feasts.
c. Corinthian abuse.
2. Key elements in Communion.
3. Eating unworthily.
4. Genuine communion.
a. More than individualistic.
b. Be sensitive to those around you.
The latest snack fad in Quebec, Canada: bags of communion wafers. “My son can eat a whole bag while he's watching TV,” said one man. “He's had more of them outside of church than he ever did inside one.”
Not everyone likes the trend, of course. “They're not distinguishing between the body of Christ and something you nibble on at home,” complained a former Catholic missionary. “We don't respect anything. Nothing is sacred.” But sales are still growing. “They melt in your mouth, and they're not fattening,” said one woman. “I'm Catholic. This reminds us of mass.”
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Toronto Globe and Mail
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[Original illustration at this number was deleted for being obsolete]
About eighteen months ago, I was in Macdonald's restaurant, having a coffee before Sunday School. At one of the tables, a woman was sitting alone, who looked unkempt, unwashed and untidy. She was having an imaginary conversation with someone who wasn't there, but every now and then she looked over to my wife and I, smiled sweetly and then continued talking to herself.
Five minutes later, one of the servers came over to sit down for her breakfast break. At first, I thought she was going to ask the lady to leave. Instead, she sat down beside her and carefully halved her sausage biscuit with the woman. It was a beautiful and sacred moment. A Holy Communion was taking place before my very eyes.
What made this even more special was the fact that I knew the server was having severe financial problems of her own at the time. But here she was, sharing half of everything she possessed on that morning, with someone whose need was greater than her own.
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Source: Illustrator, http://www.answers2prayer.org
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[Original illustration at this number was deleted for being obsolete]
The Reformers differed as to when the church may be said to be truly present. A sentimental evangelical will be satisfied with the verse, “Where two or three are gathered, there am I in the midst.” Where Jesus is, the church is. But the context makes it clear a great deal more is involved than a devotional meeting. A prayer meeting and ecclesia are not the same thing.
For some Reformers like Beza and Alsted the preaching of the pure doctrine of the Word constitute the one exclusive mark of the true church. Yet the truth can be preached ever so powerfully while sin goes rampant and unchecked in the congregation.
For Calvin and others the preaching of the Word was not enough. There had also to be the right administration of the sacraments. These were not to be divorced from the Word or even from its visible preaching. There was no magic in the sacraments. They represented simple obedience to Scripture.
But for other Reformers a third element was essential. Acknowledged to be something wholesome, it was for Christians of the Anabaptist tradition an element without which the church did not exist: godly exercise of discipline among its members. In this, at times, they seem to have gone beyond even the Roman Catholic position.
[ancient source?]
On Sunday, the Lord’s own day, come together, break bread and carry out the eucharist, first confessing your sins so that your offering may be pure. Let no one who has a quarrel with his friend join the meeting until they have been reconciled, so that your offering is not polluted. For this is the offering spoken of by the Lord: “Everywhere and at all times offer me a pure sacrifice. For my kingdom is great, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations.”
Appoint for yourselves therefore bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord; men who are meek and not money-lovers, true and approved, for they also perform for you the ministry of prophets and teachers. So do not despise them; they are the honourable men among you, together with the prophets and teachers.
Sermon for Communion. John 6:48-58
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SPIRITUAL CANNIBALISM
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I. Transferred life.
II. Fast food, versus real food.
A. Materialistic outlook. 6:26
B. Jesus points to a more substantial food - his own body. 6:60
III. Applications to communion.
A. Many churches teach that this passages focuses on communion.
B. Transubstantiationism. Roman Catholic
C. Consubstantiationism. Lutheran
D. Spiritual presence/memorial meal. Presbyterian/Baptist
IV. Salvation is what is really in view.
A. No salvation apart from closest relationship with Jesus.
B. A very graphic way of saying that people must accept Christ.
V. Feeding on Jesus.
A. Faith must be personal. 6:58
B. Faith is not a hobby, but full-time devotion. 6:57
C. Those who eat Jesus "remain" in him. 6:56
Communion, because it focuses on death, can be disturbing for us. We focus more on obeying God (and the sermon) than on experiencing the sacrifice of Jesus. A. W. Tozer said, "When we draw back the curtain to the Holy of Holies, we no longer expect to really encounter the living God." We must realize that we are so lost, Jesus HAD to die for us. Not guilt but grace should be the emotion we feel.
Usually we accept God's offer of blessing and love on one hand while tightly holding onto our independence with the other, just like Jacob (Gen 21:10-22). We teach the truth but try to live it under our own power, and so we are spiritually anemic.
Richard Wurmbrand was a man who knew he had nothing. The Romanian prisoner of conscience had an indelible experience with nothing in a solitary cell deep in the cement bowels of a Communist prison in Bucharest.
Over the weary months of his fourteen year captivity, he and several other Christians worked out a system of communication through tapping on a sewer pipe that connected their dark, tiny cells.
As the weeks went by, the men longed to share a Communion service together. But they had nothing. No church building. No music. No bread. No wine. How do you have Communion with nothing?
“But wait,” one of his fellow prisoners tapped to Wurmbrand. “Nothing has to be something or -- you wouldn’t have it. And consider ... God hung the world on nothing! It has to be the strongest substance in the world. Stronger than steel. Stronger than diamonds. And my brothers -- we possess it!”
So with nothing in their hands, they broke bread. With nothing on their lips, they sipped from the cup. With reverent taps on a rusty sewer pipe, they worshipped the Giver of everything.
In his later years, Wurmbrand would remember many communions. But none sweeter, none richer, than the one with nothing at all.
How deeply was the Lord moved by this man’s admission of utter emptiness? Consider this postscript. On a recent trip to Bucharest, I spoke with a Romanian television producer who had just interviewed the famous pastor, now in his late eighties.
Christians in post revolution Bucharest were proudly giving Wurmbrand and his wife a tour of a new Christian book store in the heart of the city -- the first in living memory. The Wurmbrands were then conducted to an underground warehouse room, stuffed with Bibles and Christian books.
As he peered into the little room, a look of puzzlement came over the old man’s face. Then shock. Then boundless joy. The “warehouse” was his former cell. And the very place where he had once shared Communion with no wine and no bread was now overflowing with God’s Word, God’s comfort, and God’s exhortation. Though nearly crippled in his feet from years of torture, the old man began to dance for joy.
If Wurmbrand needed God’s exclamation point, he received it. When a man or woman finally brings nothing to God, He takes it very seriously indeed.
The Lord's Supper is a spiritual celebration of a family meal, the renewal of an anniversary, and the memories of an old family album.
How to make Communion more meaningful:
1. Form a worship team to plan the Communion service.
2. Devote more time to the Lord's Supper.
3. Talk and study with church leaders about it.
4. Emphasize different aspects of remembrance, fellowship or celebration.
5. Allow the congregation to respond personally in worship.
6. Use real bread.
DEATH CAN BE A COMFORTER
Death can be a consoling thought for those who face particularly difficult losses or trials. The lost loved one that we miss so much is waiting for us on the other side of time. Our broken-down body will not greet us in heaven. Instead, we will rejoice to meet a "new and improved" version without the aches and pains and propensity to sin.
And even more important, death ushers us face to face into the presence of the one our heart cries out for, the one, true God, and this is our greatest consolation. Any sincere Christian experiences at least a certain degree of loneliness, for we long for a more intimate walk with our God -- a walk that will be realized beyond our dreams once we pass the threshold of eternity.
It is normal and healthy to experience the pain of death -- Jesus, after all, cried at the death of Lazarus -- but death can also bring hope, not for what it is, but for what God promises us on the other side. The Christian life does not make complete sense without the consoling thought of eternal life. Paul himself said we should be pitied above all if the Christian faith is only for this temporal world (1 Cor. 15:19).
Because of Christ, because of the Resurrection, because of the goodness and mercy of God, death, our enemy, can be a consoling thought. There will be an end to our struggle for righteousness; a limit has been placed on our pain; our loneliness will not go on forever. Another world is coming.
KEEPING DEATH ALIVE
On Wednesdays I occasionally attend a Communion service at Falls Church Episcopal Church, which dates back to the eighteenth century. As is not uncommon with older churches, the building is surrounded by a graveyard. Every Wednesday I must walk through the grave markers on my way in, and past them on my way out.
That short walk does almost as much for me as the service. I am reminded as I face the second half of the week that one day, my body, my bones, will be lying in the ground. My work on earth will be done. What will matter then? What should matter now in light of then?
I am fond of old graveyards - not out of morbid preoccupation, but because they inspire me as few other things can. I want to use death the way Thomas a Kempis used death: "Happy is he that always hath the hour of his death before his eyes, and daily prepareth himself to die .... When it is morning, think thou mayest die before night; and when evening comes, dare not to promise thyself the next morning. Be thou therefore always in a readiness, and so lead thy life that death may never take thee unprepared."
Another way that I keep death alive is by living in the communion of saints. I will post a picture or a quotation here or there of someone whose faith and life has encouraged me, as a reminder that work has an end. If the world can get by without a Dietrich Bonhoeffer or a Blaise Pascal, it can get by without me, and one day it will. I have a limited time to use that may be much shorter than I realize -- neither Bonhoeffer nor Pascal made it into his forties.
When a contemporary saint dies, I live with their death for weeks. The passings of both Regent College professor Klaus Bockmuechl and New Testament scholar F. F. Bruce, just to name two relatively recent examples, gave me great pause and live with me today. I admire them for what they have done, and I thank the God who conquered their rebellion and blessed them with the call to become his sons and servants. Wise shoppers clip coupons. Wise Christians clip obituaries.
But the supreme way for a Christian to keep the thought of death alive is to remember the crucifixion of our Lord. Every time we take Communion we should do so with the awareness that just as Christ's work on earth had a beginning and an end (as he ministered in a human body), so the mission he has given us has a beginning and an end. "Death is the destiny of every man," said the writer of Ecclesiastes, "the living should take this to heart" (7:2, NIV).
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Copyright (c) 1994 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY magazine
The Lord’s Supper should be a time of joy and acceptance of forgiveness. Protestants tend to be too gloomy about it. One critical part of Communion should be the announcement of forgiveness following our confession of sins. Confession is the first step in establishing a new beginning in our fellowship with God. The Lord’s Supper is serious business and the original one was rather gloomy, but we now have the Resurrection to take into account.
Communion should end on a note of joy, not gloom. We can announce forgiveness not on the basis of our own authority, but the authority of the Bible. Nehemiah 8:1-12 is particularly instructive. When the people cried at the reading of the Law, knowing they had failed God, Ezra told them it was a holy day and crying wasn’t appropriate. Feasting and partying are in order.
Christ did not die to make us sad, but to heal us and forgive us.
Early in my ministry I preached an informational sermon during a Lord’s Supper service. The sermon was a rational, three-point message explaining the meaning of the Supper. Although theologically correct, it lacked passion and impact. After the service people shook my hand and politely said, “Nice service, Pastor.”
Three months later we again observed the Lord’s Supper. My sermon and its effect were dramatically different. A few weeks earlier, I had read a Lord’s Supper sermon by John Claypool in which he told the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and read one of his letters.
Bonhoeffer was a brilliant young pastor and seminary teacher who opposed Adolph Hitler’s policies in the 1930s. On April 5, 1943, the Germans arrested Bonhoeffer and put him in prison. Two years later the Nazis executed him, hanging him on the gallows just days before the Allies swept in to liberate Germany.
About ten weeks after his arrest, Bonhoeffer ended a letter (his correspondence during captivity has been published in “Letters and Papers from Prison”) to his parents with these words:
“It is Monday, and I was just sitting down to a dinner of turnips and potatoes when a parcel you sent me by Ruth arrived. Such things give me greater joy than I can say. Although I am utterly convinced that nothing can break the bonds between us, I seem to need some outward token or sign to reassure me. In this way, material things become the vehicles of spiritual realities. I suppose it is rather like the felt need in our religion for sacraments.”
Bonhoeffer knew his parents loved him. Yet he still hungered for that love to be reaffirmed. He needed to be reminded of their love in a tangible way. His package from home served that purpose, and Bonhoeffer saw the Lord’s Supper doing the same.
I decided to use Bonhoeffer’s analogy, along with some of John Claypool’s insights, in my Lord’s Supper sermon. I did not preach an informational, three-point message on the meaning of the Supper. Instead I told stories.
I began by recounting how much I enjoyed receiving packages from home during my college years -- especially if they included a check! I told my congregation that the contents of the package -- cookies, socks, money, whatever -- served as powerful reminders that my parents loved and were thinking of me.
I then told the story about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his package from home. With the help of some biblical passages, I drove home the point that the Lord’s Supper is a package from our heavenly home, a tangible expression of God’s love for us.
I concluded the sermon by walking to the Communion table and saying, “Come, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us partake. A package from home has arrived. Let us eat and drink and be reminded of God’s awesome love for his children.”
After the service people didn’t say, “Nice service, Pastor.” Several commented, “That was the most moving Lord’s Supper service I have ever experienced.”
[see #3965 for originating article on preaching with stories.]
A father sat in the morning worship service of the local church with his wife and three-year-old son. His wife took communion as it was passed down the pew while her husband, who was not a Christian, let the emblems pass without partaking. As the trays were passed to the end of the pew, the three-year-old yelled out at the top of his voice, "My dad didn't get any of the refreshments!"
The very next Sunday the father made a personal commitment to the Lord and was baptized, bearing out the statement in Isaiah 11:6, "...a little child shall lead them."
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Lanis E. Kineman from Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul, Copyright 2000 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
Picture a dinner table where a family of five is sitting down for a meal. There's a missing place. FATHER: "Seems like someone is missing here, the numbers don't appear to be very high today. BROTHER: "Yeah, it sure does seem like someone is missing! SISTER: "Yes, that's Johnny's place and he's not here!" MOTHER: "Yes, that's right, in fact he's not been here for three weeks" .... "Perhaps he's been out of town;" "Maybe's he's sick--there's a bug going around;" "Perhaps he's having company;" "Really, it's probably none of our business where he's at!"
Henri J. M. Nouwen writes in the March 1994 New Oxford Review: "A few years ago Bob, the husband of a friend of mine, died suddenly of a heart attack. My friend decided to keep her two young children away from the funeral. She thought it would be too hard for them to see their father put in the ground. For years after Bob's death the cemetery remained a fearful and a dangerous place for them.
"Then, one day, my friend asked me to visit the grave with her, and invited the children to come along. The elder one was too afraid to go, but the younger one decided to come with us. When we came to the place
where Bob was buried, the three of us sat down on the grass around the stone engraved with the words, 'A kind and gentle man.' As we sat, we reminisced about Bob.
"I said: 'Maybe one day we should have a picnic here. This is not only a place to think about death, but also a place to rejoice in our life. I think Bob will be most honored when we find new strength, here, to live.' At first it seemed a strange idea: having a meal on top of a tombstone. But isn't that similar to what Jesus told his disciples to do when he asked them to share bread and wine in his memory?
"A few days later my friend took her elder child to the grave, the younger one having convinced his sister that there was nothing to fear. Now they often go to the cemetery and tell each other stories about Bob."
I enjoy eating -- too much, I guess.
I enjoy stopping by the supermarket on a Saturday afternoon, just in time for samples in white pleated cups or on a tray bristling with colored toothpicks, displayed in all their finery by an aproned hostess at the end of a grocery aisle.
“They're on sale today. Wouldn't they taste good for dinner?” she suggests, hoping I'll put some in my cart. Yes, the tasty sample does make me hungry for a feast tonight.
Sometimes, though, I get samples from a feast that's already over. My wife comes home with leftovers from a women's club potluck lunch. “It was really good,” she says. “I thought you'd like some.” I do! I do! And for a moment as I snack, I can almost imagine the full meal as it must have been, dish after dish, spread out buffet-style.
Sunday morning during the Lord's Supper, as I partake of the bread and drink from the cup, I think about this as a small portion from the Feast. I savor the aftertaste of the bread on my tongue and the sweetness of the grapes on my lips, and I imagine.
I imagine partaking of the Passover feast, the Last Supper, along with the disciples. While I wasn't there to be served personally, it's like they saved some for me so I could have a taste and feel a part of the great fellowship of Jesus' Table that now circles the world.
Or are the bread and cup a foretaste of a feast to come -- our fellowship at Christ's Table in heaven? The Bible speaks of drinking the cup with Jesus in the Kingdom of God; of sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; of participating in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The tiny portion I taste on Sunday morning whets my appetite and reminds me of my personal invitation to this Feast.
It's not much to eat, I suppose -- a wafer, a fragment of bread and a sip, just a sip. But it's enough to recall who I am. To realize how privileged I am to belong to the band of Jesus' followers who are asked to eat of His body and drink of His blood. How privileged I am to know that my name appears on the guest list for the Great Feast to come.
“As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,” the Apostle tells us, “you proclaim the death of Jesus until he comes.” Yes, it's a pretty tiny portion of the Feast, but it's enough for now. Quite enough.
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5246
Do you remember the movie "Places in the Heart." Sally Field plays a woman whose husband, the local sheriff, is shot and killed by a drunken teenager. She must struggle to harvest and sell the cotton crop if she is to keep her farm. She is helped by a black field hand (Danny Glover) and a blind boarder (John Malkovich).
It is the ending of that movie that is particularly stunning. The final scene takes place in a rural church building (actually shot in an old Texas Church of Christ bldg.!) during a Sunday AM worship service. Communion is being served.
The black field hand (Glover) takes the tray, takes a communion cup, drinks it and passes it on to the blind boarder (Malkovich) saying, "Peace of God." He takes a cup and passes it to the young Widow (Field), who takes a cup and passes it to ... her husband? (Remember he was killed in the first 15 minutes of the movie!) The husband takes a cup and passes the tray, saying "Peace of God" to ... the very teenager who had killed him (he too had been killed by an angry mob) WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
That story illustrates what is at the heart of the Lord's Supper-Reconciliation-Our reconciliation with God ... and with each other-the true "Peace of God."
The cross changes everything! And the Lord's Supper is a weekly reminder of that.
WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE?
Roger McCown
If you've ever sneaked into the kitchen to pinch a bit of turkey an hour before Thanksgiving dinner was served, you know something about the joy of anticipation. If you've ever run your finger around the back edge of an iced chocolate cake, you understand something of what you're about to read.
Have you ever wondered what it will be like to find yourself gathered to the Messianic Banquet Table of the Lord when this world is over and glory has laid its claim on you? Jesus has ordered the life of his church in such a way as to give us a preview of that glorious time. Knowing how we love to anticipate wonderful things, he has made it possible for us to begin to enjoy now some of the things that will occupy us for an eternity when time has served its purpose.
When we come to the Table of the Lord, we anticipate that heavenly feast. When we take up the bread which is the body of our Lord and the cup which is His blood of the New Covenant, we are as near to heaven as we can be without actually being there. It is Jesus who meets us at His table, welcoming us through anticipation into the glories of the world to come. By this Table, and what it represents, the Way has been opened before us. May we come to the Table with this thought in mind.
--THE BRENTWOOD OAKS NOTES, Austin, TX
William Barclay, a famous Christian scholar, wrote:
We must be clear about one thing. The phrase which forbids a man to eat and drink unworthily does not shut out the man who is a sinner and knows it.
An old highland [i.e., Scottish] minister saw an old woman hesitate to receive the cup of communion. He stretched it out to her and said, "Take it, woman. It's for sinners, it's for you."
If the table of Christ were only for perfect people, no one might ever approach it. The way is never closed to the repentant sinner. To the person who loves God and other people the way is always open, and their sins, though they be as scarlet, shall be white like snow.
=========================
Holwick - This version replaces one by Fredericksburg Illustrations which had an old man hesitating to receive communion; it was submitted by Donald Strobe. I believe Barclay is the original source.
In 1869 a Methodist dentist, Dr. Thomas Welch, objected to his church's use of fermented wine in the communion service at his church in Vineland, New Jersey, where he was the communion steward. Experimenting at night in his kitchen he came up with a nonalcoholic grape beverage, which he named “Dr. Welch's Unfermented Wine”. He approached church officials to persuade them to substitute his beverage for the traditional wine. The elders regarded his suggestion as being an unacceptable innovation.
A son, Charles, who was also a dentist, changed the name to Welch's Grape Juice. He set up a production facility in a barn behind the family home. Response was so overwhelming that he gave up dentistry and devoted full time to making and distributing grape juice.
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http://www.inareaumc.org/2004/july-august-04/thomas_and_charles_welch_and_the.htm
"Changing wine into grape juice" by Daniel Benedict
Most United Methodists are aware that one of our practices is the use of unfermented juice of the grape for Holy Communion. While some other Protestant bodies share this practice, the possibility of the practice goes back to the late 19th century and a Methodist dentist named Thomas Bramwell Welch.
Apparently Welch had scruples about the use of wine and had heard of Louis Pasteur's process of pasteurization of milk. Welch was successful in applying the process to grape juice, and he began to use it in his church, where he was a Communion steward.
His son, Charles Welch, was an enterprising Methodist layman (a dentist, like his father) from southern New Jersey. He marketed the pasteurized grape juice to temperance-minded evangelical Protestants as authentic biblical “wine.” As word spread and as the temperance movement grew among evangelical Protestant churches, Welch left dentistry and produced Welch's Grape Juice commercially.
The impact of the temperance movement and the availability of the “unfermented juice of the grape” can be traced in The United Methodist Book of Discipline and actions of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Church of the United Brethren.
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One night the widowed mother of William p. Mackey spent the night in prayer for her son. He was a medical student in the University of Edinburgh, and the president of an atheistic group called the “Hell Club” That very night he was assisting in a mock celebration of the Lord's Supper. He took a glass of wine, held it up, and jeeringly said, “The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” But something came over him. He turned pale and began to tremble, took his hat, and fled the place. The wine had seemed to him to turn to literal blood. He walked aimlessly the rest of the night. At dawn he went to his room and started praying. His mother heard him and joined him, and soon he found pardon in Christ. He went to his classes, and asked permission to tell his experience to the students. One day at a meeting he was called on to lead in prayer and began with these striking words, the outflow of his newly saved heart: “We praise thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love; for Jesus, who died and is now gone above.” Thus was given to us one of our hymns that will never die.
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“Choice Illustrations,” W.W. Clay, pg. 29-30
1. Thou my everlasting portion,
More than friend or life to me;
All along my pilgrim journey,
Saviour let me walk with Thee.
Close to Thee, close to Thee,
Close to Thee, close to Thee;
All along my pilgrim journey,
Saviour let me walk with Thee.
2. Not for ease or worldly pleasure,
Nor for fame my pray’r shall be;
Gladly will I toil and suffer,
Only let me walk with Thee.
Close to Thee, close to Thee,
Close to Thee, close to Thee;
Gladly will I toil and suffer,
Only let me walk with Thee.
3. Lead me through the vale of shadows,
Bear me o’er life’s fitful sea;
Then the gate of life eternal
May I enter, Lord, with Thee.
Close to Thee, close to Thee,
Close to Thee, close to Thee;
Then the gate of life eternal
May I enter, Lord, with Thee.
*
Pope John Paul II issued a stern reminder Thursday that only priests can celebrate Mass and divorced Catholics who remarry cannot take communion, expressing alarm over what he called unacceptable practices in his flock.
John Paul also warned Catholics against receiving communion in non-Catholic churches, an admonition that is likely to stir up protests in the United States and other countries where interfaith services are a fundamental part of efforts to bring Christians closer together.
Some Protestant officials immediately criticized the warnings as a step backward in efforts to achieve Christian unity.
The pope's denunciations of practices clashing with Vatican teaching were contained in an encyclical issued on Holy Thursday, a commemoration of Jesus' Last Supper with his apostles.
Encyclicals are a special kind of letter dealing with matters of extreme importance to the Church.
The 78-page document is aimed at combating abuses related to the Eucharist, commonly called communion, a sacrament central to the life of the Church.
“It is my hope that the present encyclical letter will effectively help to banish the dark clouds of unacceptable doctrine and practice,” the pope wrote.
“In various parts of the Church abuses have occurred, leading to confusion with regard to sound faith and Catholic doctrine concerning this wonderful sacrament.”
In parts of Western Europe, as well as in the United States, many divorced Catholics who have remarried have been clamoring for the Church to allow them to receive communion.
But John Paul cited centuries-old teaching that all faithful must confess grave sins before taking communion.
“The judgment of one's state of grace obviously belongs only to the person involved, since it is a question of examining one's conscience,” the pope said.
“However, in cases of outward conduct, which is seriously, clearly and steadfastly contrary to the moral norm, the Church, in her pastoral concern for the good order of the community and out of respect for the sacrament, cannot fail to feel directly involved,” wrote John Paul.
He reiterated Church law that those who “obstinately persist in manifest grave sin” be denied communion.
The Vatican does not permit divorce and teaches that those who remarry after divorce are living in sin unless couples refrain from sex.
While the pope didn't name any sins, his reference to divorce was unmistakable since the Church considers remarried Catholics living in a state of continued sin, and experts said his intent was clear.
“That is what the Vatican is saying for years about the non-admission of public sinners to the Eucharist whether they be divorced or Mafia or people who are notorious criminals,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of America, a Jesuit magazine.
The pontiff is “articulating a general principle of not admitting public sinners to the Eucharist, while not necessarily getting into the details of each person's life,” said Reese, based in New York.
John Paul also expressed concern about parishes which are without priests. But while he said it was “praiseworthy” that nuns or laity in these communities lead the other faithful in prayer, only priests can celebrate Mass.
The pope also warned against loose interpretations by those hoping to foster closer relations among various Christian denominations.
Specifically, he ruled out as “unthinkable” the practice of substituting obligatory Sunday Mass with celebrations of prayer with Christians from other faiths “or even participation in their own liturgical services.”
John Paul expressed dismay that sometimes the Eucharist “is celebrated as if it were simply a fraternal banquet.”
He also wrote that Catholics “while respecting the religious convictions of these separated brethren, must refrain from receiving the communion distributed in their celebrations.”
Roman Catholics maintain that they receive the blood and body of Christ in communion, but many other Christians view communion as a symbolic re-creation of the Last Supper.
Many Protestants believe that sharing in communion can help bring about unity.
But the pope wrote that “it is not possible to celebrate together the same Eucharist liturgy until those bonds are fully re-established.”
John Paul said, however, that under special circumstances, communion can be given to Christians outside the Catholic church to meet “a grave spiritual need for the eternal salvation of an individual believer,” and that in similar special circumstances, Catholics could ask that communion, confession or final rites be given by ministers from other faiths which also have “valid” sacraments.
The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said he welcomed “the pope's reaffirmation of his 'burning desire' for common Eucharistic celebration. This is an area of work which continues to be important for relations between Anglicans and Roman Catholics and we continue to work theologically on this.”
But in Italy, where Protestants are a tiny minority, Domenico Tomassetto, a member of the ecumenical relations commission of the Baptist, Waldensian and Methodist churches in Italy, attacked the encyclical as making “a definite cut to the entire ecumenical process.”
*
[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #16222]
1. There is a place of quiet rest,
Near to the heart of God,
A place where sin cannot molest,
Near to the heart of God.
Chorus
O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us who wait before Thee
Near to the heart of God.
2. There is a place of comfort sweet,
Near to the heart of God,
A place where we our Saviour meet,
Near to the heart of God.
3. There is a place of full release,
Near to the heart of God,
A place where all is joy and peace,
Near to the heart of God.
[Tune “McAfee”]
*
1. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
2. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me.
3. I need thy presence every passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
4. I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears not bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.
5. Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
[Tune “Eventide”]
*
O Lord, You're beautiful,
Your face is all I seek.
For when Your eyes are on this child,
Your grace abounds to me.
*
1. The greatest thing in all my life is knowing You.
The greatest thing in all my life is knowing You.
I want to know You more.
I want to know You more.
The greatest thing in all my life is knowing You.
2. The greatest thing in all my life is loving You.
The greatest thing in all my life is loving You.
I want to love You more.
I want to love You more.
The greatest thing in all my life is loving You.
3. The greatest thing in all my life is serving You.
The greatest thing in all my life is serving You.
I want to serve You more.
I want to serve You more.
The greatest thing in all my life is serving You.
*
1. Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know:
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so!
Oh this full and perfect peace,
Oh this transport all divine –
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His and He is mine;
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His and He is mine.
2. Heav'n above is softer blue,
Earth around a sweeter green:
Something lives in ev'ry hue
Christless eyes have never seen!
Birds with gladder songs o'erflow,
Flow'rs with deeper beauties shine
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His and He is mine;
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His and He is mine.
3. Things that once were wild alarms
Cannot now disturb my rest:
Closed in everlasting arms,
Pillowed on the loving breast!
Oh to lie forever here,
Doubt and care and self resign,
While He whispers in my ear –
I am His and He is mine;
While He whispers in my ear –
I am His and He is mine.
4. His forever, only His –
Who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss
Christ can fill the loving heart!
Heav'n and earth may fade and flee,
Firstborn light in gloom decline,
But while God and I shall be,
I am His and He is mine;
But while God and I shall be,
I am His and He is mine.
[Tune “Everlasting Love”]
*
1. Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far Thy face to see
And in Thy presence rest.
2. Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,
Nor can the mem'ry find
A sweeter sound than Thy blest name,
O Saviour of mankind.
3. O hope of ev'ry contrite heart,
O joy of all the meek,
To those who fall how kind Thou art!
How good to those who seek!
4. But what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor tongue nor pen can show —
The love of Jesus, what it is,
None but His loved ones know.
5. Jesus, our only joy be Thou,
As Thou our prize wilt be;
Jesus, be Thou our glory now
And through eternity.
[Tune “St Agnes”]
1. Another year is dawning
Dear Father, let it be,
In working or in waiting,
Another year with Thee;
Another year of progress,
Another year of praise,
Another year of proving
Thy presence all the days;
2. Another year of mercies,
Of faithfulness and grace;
Another year of gladness
In the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning
Upon They loving breast;
Another year of trusting,
Of quiet, happy rest;
3. Another year of service,
Of witness for Thy love;
Another year of training
For holier work above.
Another year is dawning;
Dear Father, let it be,
On earth or else in heaven,
Another year for Thee.
[Tune “Aurelia”]
*
The most joyful Lord's Supper Sam James ever experienced was served in silence -- on a rusted table in a park.
Nearly 15 years after South Vietnam's fall to communism drove James and other missionaries out, he returned for a brief visit in 1989. He sent a message to Vietnamese Christian friends that he was coming but doubted he would see any of them. Most had suffered years of prison, "re-education" camps and persecution for following Christ.
As he emerged from his hotel in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) one morning, someone brushed by and pressed a message into his hand: "Meet us at the park at 2 o'clock."
When he arrived at the park, a man led him through a jungle of overgrown weeds to a tiny clearing. Seven of his former seminary students waited there, seated around an old wrought-iron table.
They were so gaunt and frail that he barely recognized them at first. They embraced him with tears and laughter and spoke of the trials they had faced under communism.
"One of them reached into a paper bag, pulled out an aluminum tray and set it on the table," James recalls. "Another pulled out a loaf of French bread and set it on the tray; another had a little bunch of grapes. One of them broke the bread and began to pass it around. We each took a grape. Nobody said it was the Lord's Supper, but we knew what it was."
James remembers something else about these men: Years earlier, when they first arrived at the Baptist seminary in Saigon asking to study the Bible, they were rowdy, ragged country folk -- nothing like the sophisticated students from the city. James never thought they'd pass the first class, much less endure years of suffering for Christ.
"And yet they're the ones who gathered in that little clearing 14 years later to serve the Lord's Supper to me, their teacher," he says. "It just shows how God's transforming power can take anybody -- anybody -- and make us into what he wants us to be."
James' heart remains in Vietnam, and he continues to share the gospel with Vietnamese around the world. The evacuation of missionaries in 1975 -- as North Vietnamese tanks rolled toward Saigon -- emotionally devastated James and others who experienced it. But the persecution of Christians that followed the communist takeover has purified the church, he believes, and those who endured have become "absolutely fearless" in their commitment.
The agonizing departure also taught him a priceless lesson.
As the plane carrying him and others lifted off in total darkness to avoid hostile fire, he looked down over Saigon and experienced an identity crisis: The seminary was closed. The churches would soon be closed. His status as a missionary, teacher and pastor -- all gone.
"That night I realized that I am a child of God" -- period. "Nobody can ever take that identity from me. I decided there and then never to let a position or a geographical location define my identity in Christ."
The lesson ultimately freed him to serve in numerous roles around the world -- including the mentoring of new generations of missionaries at the Mission Learning Center.
Most new missionaries who train at the center before heading overseas are either "knowers" or "learners," he contends. The "knowers" think they already have all the answers; the "learners" listen -- to God and others.
"The 'knowers' never make it" as missionaries, James says. "But if they come as 'learners,' as listeners, those are the people who are going to make it on the field. I led more people to the Lord in my last two years in Vietnam than the previous 12 because I learned to listen to people, to let them open themselves up so the Lord could come in and touch them where they were hurting. Before, I was just preaching at them."
*
In the stars His handiwork I see,
On the wind He speaks with majesty,
Though He ruleth over land and sea,
What is that to me?
I will celebrate Nativity,
For it has a place in history;
Sure, He came to set His people free –
What is that to me?
Till by faith I met Him face to face
And I felt the wonder of His grace –
Then I knew that He was more than just
a God who didn’t care
that lived away out there
And now He walks beside me day by day,
Ever watching o’er me lest I stray,
Helping me to find that narrow way –
He’s ev’rything to me.
*
1. Far dearer than all
that the world can impart
Was the message that came to my heart,
How that Jesus alone
for my sin did atone –
And Calvary covers it all.
Chorus
Calvary covers it all,
My past with its sin and shame;
My guilt and despair
Jesus took on Him there,
And Calvary covers it all.
2. The stripes that He bore
and the thorns that He wore
Told His mercy and love evermore;
And my heart bowed in shame
as I called on His name –
And Calvary covers it all.
3. How matchless the grace,
when I looked in the face
Of this Jesus, my crucified Lord;
My redemption complete
I then found at His feet –
And Calvary covers it all.
4. How blessed the thought
that my soul, by Him bought,
Shall be His in the glory on high,
Where with gladness and song
I’ll be one of the throng –
And Calvary covers it all.
*
1. Break Thou the bread of life, Dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves Beside the sea:
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;
My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word.
2. Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, To me— to me;
As Thou didst bless the bread By Galilee:
Then shall all bondage cease, All fetters fall,
And I shall find my peace, My All in All.
3. Thou art the bread of life, O Lord, to me;
Thy holy Word the truth, That saveth me:
Give me to eat and live With Thee above;
Teach me to love Thy truth, For Thou art love.
4. O send Thy Spirit, Lord, Now unto me,
That He may touch my eyes And make me see:
Show me the truth concealed Within Thy Word,
And in Thy book revealed I see Thee, Lord.
[Tune: Bread of Life]
*
Lord, we want to know You,
Live our lives to Show You,
All the love we owe you,
We’re seekers of Your heart,
Seekers of Your heart.
*
The Baptist Faith and Message speaks of baptism and the Lord's Supper as ordinances. As we consider Article 7 on the Lord's Supper, we do well to begin by asking what is an ordinance? Why do Christians celebrate and perform these -- and only these -- two ceremonies?
An ordinance is an act:
1. commanded by the Lord Jesus in the Gospels and given by him for
his followers to practice (Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26;
2. passed on as a tradition by Jesus' authorized agents, the apostles,
in the letters to the churches (1 Corinthians 10:14-22; 11:17-34);
and
3. practiced by the early church in the history of the church recorded
in Acts (2:42,46; 20:7,11).
Thus only baptism and the Lord's Supper can be considered ordinances of the Christian church.
Ordinances are symbolic acts that set forth primary facts of the Christian faith and are obligatory for all who believe in Jesus Christ. Baptism dramatically pictures our entering into covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ by faith, and the Lord's Supper portrays our continuing in this relationship.
Various designations have been used for the Lord's Supper by different churches due to the fact that the act is referred to in a variety of ways in the New Testament. These designations include:
1. breaking of bread (Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor 10:16);
2. communion (1 Cor 10:16);
3. Eucharist (from the Greek word for giving thanks, cf. Matt 26:27;
Mark 14:23; Luke 22:17, 19; 1 Cor 11:24);
4. the Lord's Supper (1 Cor 11:20); and
5. the Lord's table (1 Cor 10:20).
The accounts in the Gospels show that the Christian ceremony of the Lord's Supper has its roots in the Jewish Passover festival. This festival was a ceremony observed by the Jewish people to remind them of the Exodus -- that awesome event when the Lord rescued them from 400 years of degradation and slavery in Egypt.
Through great miracles and displays of power, Yahweh brought them out of Egypt, rescued them from the cruel oppression of Pharaoh and brought them into a beautiful land they could call their own. Although by definition the Exodus was a non-repeatable event, its significance was preserved for future generations of Israelites by the institution of the ceremony of the Feast of Passover (Exodus 12:24-27), celebrated every year at the Spring Equinox.
Just before Jesus was betrayed and handed over to the rulers to be crucified, he celebrated this "freedom meal" with his 12 disciples. As he did so, he turned the symbolism of the meal in a new direction.
He used the Passover festival to act out in symbolic drama the meaning of his coming death at the hands of the Jewish and Roman rulers. The unleavened bread and the wine were no longer symbols of deliverance from slavery in Egypt, but pictured him as the Passover Lamb sacrificed so that his people might be delivered from slavery to sin and death. As the leader of a new exodus, he instituted a new ceremony to commemorate it.
The explanation given by the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (11:17-34) helps us to understand the meaning of the Lord's Supper. His explanation of the Lord's Supper reveals six major themes.
1. SAVING SACRIFICE (This is my body):
On the night Jesus was arrested and betrayed by one of his close followers to the Jewish and Roman authorities, he broke bread. And as he was doing so, he said, "This is my body which is being given for you."
In the Jewish Passover feast, bread was eaten that was made without yeast. It had been made in haste because they were leaving Egypt in a hurry. In addition, a lamb was slaughtered to avert the angel of death.
The symbolism is now turned in a different direction. The bread represents the death of Jesus for his people. The Apostle Peter says, "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God" (1 Pet 3:18). God was justly outraged by our moral rebellion against him. We were under the sentence of death.
Christ died in our place. He was the Passover Lamb who was sacrificed to avert the messenger of death so that we might have life. This is the tradition handed down by Paul in the words, "This is my body which is for you."
2. COVENANT (This is my blood):
God had made a covenant with his people at Mount Sinai when he brought them out of Egypt. A relationship of love, loyalty and trust had been established. He would be their God, and they would be his people.
This covenant relationship, initiated by sacrifice, had been broken by the people. They had not been faithful to the agreement; they had not followed God's standards for the relationship.
The death of Jesus initiates a new covenant by a better sacrifice -- one that does not need to be repeated. The New Covenant is a better agreement because now not only God, but also his people will be able to keep the agreement.
The cup represents the fact that Jesus died to pay the penalty due unto us for our sins and that through trust in him and in his death for us, we are forgiven and completely pardoned. It speaks of a covenant relationship with God in which he says, "I will be your God, and you shall be my people."
3. COMMEMORATION (Do this in remembrance of me):
Some Christians believe that when the minister or priest pronounces the words, "This is my body" and "This is my blood," the bread actually becomes the literal body of Christ, and the wine actually becomes the literal blood of Christ. This teaching, known as transubstantiation, is a misunderstanding of the text for four reasons:
a. The words "this is my body" and "this is my blood" are to be understood figuratively. When King David says, "The Lord is my Shepherd," he is using a figure of speech, a metaphor. He does not mean that he is literally an animal or a sheep and that the Lord is a sheepherder. He means that his relationship to the Lord is like that between a sheep and the shepherd. If Jesus had meant that the wine becomes his blood, why didn't he use the word "become"? This is exactly what we have in John 2 when Jesus and his mother were at the wedding in Cana, and the text says that the water became wine.
b. Second, the Lord's Supper has its origins in the Jewish Passover. This feast was a memorial -- a reminder of the Exodus by the use of symbols.
c. Third, the festivals in the pagan religions at this time were also symbolic. It would have required a clear explanation if the Lord's Supper was to be taken literally.
d. Fourth, Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." He said this carefully. He said it twice. We eat bread and drink wine as a reminder, not as the literal or real thing.
This clearly disproves erroneous thinking. The Lord's Supper is not a new offering of Christ's sacrifice. It is a remembering of the one sacrifice for sin, done once for all.
Furthermore, there is no idea presented that by a physical participation of the bread and the wine a person receives saving grace from God. We receive saving grace by faith, by putting our trust in Jesus Christ. John wrote his gospel that we might believe, and that by believing we might have life (John 20:31).
4. PARTICIPATION (Community):
Paul says that the Lord's Supper is teaching given by Christ and handed on to you (v. 23 plural). The commands "to eat" and "to drink" are in the plural (v. 26). So, this instruction is given to a community, a community of believers, those who are the followers of Jesus.
The covenant binding us to God through the death of Jesus creates a community. By participating in the communal meal, we are bound not only to the Lord Jesus, but also to one another. We have fellowship with Christ in a deep and mysterious way (1 Cor 10:14-21).
5. EXPECTATION (Future hope):
Paul commands the Corinthians to continue this ceremony until the Lord Jesus comes. The celebration is one of hope -- certain hope. Jesus Christ will return to this earth bodily and physically.
When he returns, he will judge the earth. He will reward the righteous and punish the wicked. Wrongs will be set right. We will no longer need this reminder then.
6. PROCLAMATION (Evangelism):
Finally, Paul says that by performing this ceremony, we proclaim the death of the Lord Jesus. The Lord's Supper dramatizes in symbolic fashion the central facts of the Christian faith and announces these facts to all who observe. In a very simple way, those who do not belong to Jesus can see and understand through these simple actions that the Lord Jesus gave his life for us.
Since the Lord's Supper is an expression of continuing in the faith, it follows logically that only baptized believers should participate. By eating the bread and drinking the cup, we are identifying with Jesus Christ as Lord. We are saying that when he died, he died for my sins. When he poured out his blood, it was the sacrificial death that initiated a new covenant -- a new relationship between us and the Creator God.
We must recognize or distinguish the body of the Lord. By participating in this celebration, we enjoy deep fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Paul says that just as those who participate in pagan religious festivals are actually participating with demonic spirits, so those who belong to Jesus and who participate are actually involved in deep spiritual participation with Jesus Christ.
We must examine and judge ourselves. The ceremony is a way of saying, "I am continuing in my relationship with Jesus Christ." If our behavior is contrary to our confession, we are lying.
If we don't examine our lives, acknowledge our sins and turn from them, we will be disciplined by the Lord. But, we should not abstain from the Supper. We must examine ourselves and then participate (v. 28).
_____________________________
Full text of Article 7b: Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
_________________
Gentry is an associate professor of Old Testament interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
*
1. Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!
E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
Still all my song shall be,
Chorus
Nearer, my God, to Thee;
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
2. Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
Darkness be over me, my rest a stone;
Yet in my dreams I’d be
3. There let the way appear, steps unto heaven;
All that thou sendest me, in mercy given;
Angels to beckon me
4. Then, with my waking thoughts bright with thy praise,
Out of my stony griefs Bethel I’ll raise;
So by my woes to be
5. Or if, on joyful wing cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I fly,
Still all my song shall be,
In moments like these,
I sing out a song,
I sing out a love song to Jesus.
In moments like these,
I lift up my hands,
I lift up my hands to the Lord.
Singing I love You, Lord.
Singing I love You, Lord.
Singing I love You, Lord.
I love You.
*
I love You, Lord,
and I lift my voice
to worship You,
O my soul rejoice.
Take joy, my King,
in what You hear,
May it be a sweet,
sweet sound in Your ear.
*
1. Jesus, Thou Joy of loving hearts,
Thou Fount of life, Thou light of men,
From the best bliss that earth imparts,
We turn unfilled to Thee again.
2. Thy truth unchanged hath ever stood,
Thou savest those that on Thee call;
To them that seek Thee, Thou art good,
To them that find Thee, all in all.
3. We taste Thee, O thou living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still;
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead,
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.
4. Our restless spirit yearns for Thee,
Where’er our changeful lot is cast:
Glad when Thy gracious smile we see,
Blest when our faith can hold Thee fast.
5. O Jesus, ever with us stay,
Make all our moments calm and bright;
Chase the dark night of sin away,
Shed o’er the world Thy holy light.
[Tune “Quebec”]
*
Now the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. And when he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My lord, if now I have found favour in your sight, please do not pass your servant by. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” And they said, “So do, as you have said.” (Genesis 18:1-5 NAS)
This appears to me to be the first recorded prayer in the Bible, If we exclude the blessings given by Noah to his sons, and by Melchizedech to Abraham — they being not strictly prayers but prophetic utterances. [Maureen has pointed out to me that if we use the definition of prayer ans talking with God, do we not have prayer of Adam and Eve with God; but I find their shifting of blames hard to consider as prayer!] Now I won’t dwell on the three beings who appeared in the form of men to Abraham further than to say that two were angels (as we see later in Genesis 19:1) and the Other was the LORD Himself, being, I believe, an Old Testament appearance of the second Person of the Trinity — the Son.
But in our preparation for prayer this evening, let us note three things about Abraham’s prayer.
First note that the very basis of Abraham’s prayer is that for some reason unknown and uncertain to himself, he has found acceptance or favour with God. That Abraham recognized this One of his visitors is shown by his prostration before the One he addressed — not just the bowing of courtesy of the mid-east, but falling down in full worship. So let us come to God this evening worshipfully, recognizing His grace and mercy that permits us to do so.
Second, he prays that the Lord will stop and stay with him. To have seen the Lord was a great privilege; but having tasted of His presence and seen that it was good, his plea is that the Lord may abide with him; that His presence may not quickly depart. One reason that Abraham is called the friend of God is that he so valued his time of communion with the Lord. This evening, let us enjoy the presence of our Lord as we pray together.
Third and last, Abraham’s prays to God with a servant’s heart. Not to God does he come with a great list of “I wants” and “would you’s.” His request is rather, Lord, let me serve you. And, given the privilege of being the Lord’s servant, did he stroll away pleased that that was done? Not so; he hastened (got Sarah working!) and then ran to do his part and finally, he himself brought it to God. So tonight, too, let us approach God with the hearts of servants, ready to worship Him with our deeds as well as our words.
So let us pray, recognizing His grace, delighting in His presence, and seeking to serve.
One of the most well-known aspects of a vampire is that it must feed upon the blood of the living; Dracula must drink to survive, (akin to people drinking the blood of Christ -the blood of divine life). However, I do not believe that this act of survival should be the basis by which the myth of Dracula is labelled as horrific and evil. The following are a few examples showing the parallels between Dracula myth and Christianity.
Christ dies for the sins of humanity and rises from his own death so that humanity may achieve life after death. Dracula dies for the sin of his bride’s (Elisabeta´s) suicide and rises from his own death so that their souls may again be linked in soul-love one day. In the Catholic mass, worshippers continually feast upon the blood and body of Christ in order to maintain their mortal link with the immortal life of the divine. Dracula feasts upon the blood and body of mortal life and incarnates immorality within himself; he becomes his own god.
__________
© a.r.e.a/Dr.Vicente Forés López © Carolina Romero Dolz Universitat de Valencia Press
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Jesus keep me near the cross–
There a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain.
In the cross, in the cross
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest, beyond the river.
Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the Bright and Morning Star
Shed its beams around me.
Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadows o’er me.
Near the cross I’ll watch and wait,
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand,
Just beyond the river.
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