The Deep Purpose of Communion

“Years ago when the western U.S. was being settled, roads were often just wagon tracks. These rough trails posed serious problems for those who journeyed on them. On one of these winding paths was posted a sign which read: ‘Avoid this rut or you'll be in it for the next 25 miles!’”(Frank Clark, Register and Tribune Syndicate)


The thing about habits is that we do many of them without thinking and most of them last for years or perhaps even a lifetime.  Habits can be good or harmful, but even good habits can change from healthy to monotonous, where they become routine. And before you know it we’ve been doing the same thing for 25 years without much thought or effort.  Perhaps what was started for a very good reason has now become dull and repetitive.


Communion can become such a habit for anyone within the church.  It can become a natural routine or tradition that takes place, in our case every other month, but there is a deep richness in the purpose and meaning of communion for us as the Church.  The words of Christ at the last supper with his disciples are a testament and covenant to us as his Church.  Communion is less an individual act as it is a communal, corporate act encouraging and portraying the unity of the body of Christ.

May the Words of God this week in 1 Corinthians 11 speak to us as his Church as we dig deeply into the meaning and purpose of communion.  Be prayerfully prepared as the Spirit speaks to each of us through his Truth.

The Effects of Preaching Christ

I have spent the last thirty years of my life as a believer of Jesus Christ as Savior of my soul.  Yet, in that time I have met few fellow believers who do not experience some level of fear or anxiety in preaching the truth of the gospel message to friends, family, and loved ones.  I once sat down with a young man who had recently returned from a months-long mission trip where he participated in street evangelism.  He would go up to perfect strangers on the street and preach the truth of the gospel message.  When asked how he was able to do such a bold thing he simply responded, “You just do it.  And the more you do it the easier it becomes.”  It was a moment of conviction in my own life and heart.Behind closed doors (whether the doors be of the church building or our own homes) we as believers tend to be bold, speaking the truth of the gospel message and its affects upon our hearts.  But when it is time for us to “go out” into the world we tend to hold back.  We explain our timidity as a lack of training, lack of methods in how to speak, or not seeing any opportunity to speak.  This is not an uncommon scenario, as many times I find myself making the same excuses for my own lack of initiative.

Paul has no such lack, as we have seen throughout the book of Acts.  This final section in Acts 28 is no different.  But we must not put Paul on such a pedestal that we forget his humanness.  There must have been times where he struggled in his own heart in how to share his faith.  His example for us is profound.  For we continually see his deep desire to preach the gospel no matter the consequences to himself.  In Acts 28, Luke (the author of Acts) gives us some basic methods for preaching the gospel message, but he also reveals to us what will happen when we speak the truth.  And the truth may not be something we are willing to face.


May God prepare us this week as we look into this final section of the book of Acts.  Be prayerfully prepared to move and change if God should, through revealing to us our own hearts, ask us to move and change.  And may we be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make disciples for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.

Pushing Us to Our Source

“The first American Thanksgiving didn't occur in 1621 when a group of Pilgrims shared a feast with a group of friendly Indians. The first recorded thanksgiving took place in Virginia more than 11 years earlier, and it wasn't a feast. The winter of 1610 at Jamestown had reduced a group of 409 settlers to 60. The survivors prayed for help, without knowing when or how it might come. When help arrived, in the form of a ship filled with food and supplies from England, a prayer meeting was held to give thanks to God.” (Today in the Word, July, 1990, p. 22.)

It seems strange to talk of Thanksgiving in the middle of a South Dakota winter, but for disciples of Christ our thanks is not given only one day a year.  As with that first group of settlers so long ago, trials push us to give thanks to our God.  Though it may be difficult to find the little joys in the midst or after a trial in life, joys do exist.  Sometimes they are obvious, as with the settlers in the story above, and sometimes they are difficult to find.  But joys do exist and when found they should bring great thanksgiving to the one who provides them.  God!


Over the past several weeks our focus has been on trials, troubles, and tribulations that come upon us in life.  We have seen how the Apostle Paul has responded to trials and what God’s Word has to tell us about why those trials come.  This week will be different.  The passage this week, Acts 28:11-16, teaches us where the trials and troubles of life should push us: to our Source.


May God prepare us this week as we hear the truth of His Word and may that Word mold and shape us.  May we be prayerfully prepared to meet the Spirit of Truth as we gather as His church.

Trouble

Over the past number of weeks we have studied the trials and tribulations which Paul has had to face.  And yet through it all he never wavered from his calling from God nor from trusting in God’s promises.  His response to trials is a wonderful example of faith and trust for the disciple of Christ.  We all understand that trials, tribulations, and troubles will come our way, but the harder question to answer is why these troubles happen.  After all, being disciples of Christ should mean an easy life, right?

I recently picked up a book titled Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand.  It is a very short account of his life as a believer in Communist Soviet Union and from which an excerpt is below.

“I worked in both an official and underground manner until February 29, 1948.  On that beautiful Sunday, on my way to church, I was kidnapped from the street by the secret police.

“Many at a time were kidnapped like this.  A van of the secret police stopped in front of me, two men jumped out and pushed me into the vehicle.  I was taken to a prison where I was kept secretly for over eight years.  During that time, no one knew whether I was alive or dead.  My wife was visited by the secret police who posed as released fellow-prisoners.  They told her that they had attended my burial.  She was heartbroken.

“Thousands of believers from churches of all denominations were sent to prison at that time.  Not only were clergymen put in jail, but also simple peasants, young boys and girls who witnessed for their faith.  The prisons were full, and in Romania, as in all Communist countries, to be in prison means to be tortured.

“The tortures were sometimes horrible.  I prefer not to speak too much about those through which I have passed; it is too painful.  When I do, I cannot sleep at night.”

From the seemingly annoying troubles of life to the deadly, God’s people over the past thousands of years have come face-to-face with the reality of this fallen world and that world’s hatred of God and His people.  What is the purpose behind such atrocities? 

This week we will study Acts 28:1-10 and read about not only the trouble in which Paul once again finds himself but also the joys which come about through that trouble.  And how that joy comes from trouble may surprise us.  May God prepare our hearts this week as we dig deeply into His Word and Truth.