Monday, December 17, 2007

Praise God for Communion

Communion, like speaking in tongues, is one of the great underused gifts given to us by God. Both build up the spirit and edify us. Like the word of God, they both are vehicles for bringing the transforming spirit of God into our earthly lives, minds, bodies, and spirits.

Taken on a daily basis, Communion brings healing. Jesus blood is drink indeed! His flesh is bread indeed!

The Bible tells us that "man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." And so we know that we live by the word of God. We trust the word, we live the word, we speak the word. In the same way, Jesus says he was the true bread that came down from heaven. He said the Holy Spirit is Living Water.

In his first letter, John tells us "Three things bear witness on earth to God's power and the salvation Jesus has given us: The water, the spirit, the blood." I John 5:8 The water of baptism is a witness, the holy spirit is a witness, and the blood of Jesus is a witness. Yes, the Word of God witnesses to God but without the water, the spirit, and the blood we don't really have the power to be true witnesses of God.

Communion is a way of declaring to our sick bodies the truth of Jesus salvation. Many people have been healed by taking communion every day and declaring that through Jesus wounds and blood they were healed. Many people have had their sick bodies transformed by eating the flesh of Jesus, which is the true bread of life and declaring that God sent His word and healed us.

God has provided a blessing to the poor. Those of us who have been A) challenged by so-called incurable diseases
B) who have not been helped by many doctors
C) who have weak faith and can only be healed slowly and gradually
D) have no minister near by to help us
NOW have the healing power of the communion -- simple bread and grape juice.

The early church took communion from house to house. Where two or three are gathered together, Christ is literally in their midst. It was only four hundred years later when the church usurped communion and really got into this idea of laity and the oh-so-special clergy that ministers pretty much behaved as if they were the only ones who should do it. (One day I'll go on a rant about what we have lost from the early church but not.) Hey, hubby and I do it almost every night. Grape juice and rice cakes. It has been healing to our marriage. How could it not be?

Praise ye the Lord

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I rarely make it to church so I rarely experience communion. BUT, when I have taken communion, each time I found it to be moving and dare I say healing.

Maybe I should step into church more often. :)

Blogger said...

Ran across your interest in both communion and speaking in tongues, so thought you might be interested in several unique approaches to both. http://donclarks.blogspot.com/2007/03/cherokees-and-eucharist.html

http://chando.blogspot.com/2007/03/sand-creek-massacre-and-eucharist.html

http://donclarks.blogspot.com/ (See Important Posts on left of page)

Carole McDonnell said...

Wow!!! Don! Thanks for this post and thanks for sending me the link. Am posting my answer here and will also post it to my own blog.

Pastor Richard Twiss of http://www.wiconi.com/

Pastor Twiss is a Native American preacher and also the author of "One Church, Many Tribes." And I just love him. He's part of the aboriginal Christian movement and a leading figure in www.wcgip.org World Christian Gathering of Indigenous People. Don't know if you've heard folks in this movement but wow! An East Indian minister talking about Jesus as the Divine Guru and the remover of the sin debt. Or Pastor Twiss talking about Native American mythos and legends that point to Christ and aboriginal Christianity. I looooooove him and his message so much.

One of the other books on the site is Eternity in their hearts. I just love that book. Between Pastor Twiss' sermons and Eternity in their hearts, my book Wind Follower was born.

This is the wiconi bookshelf. You might be interested in it.

http://wiconiresources.safeshopper.com/2/cat2.htm?335


He's absolutely amazing! Part Native American revolutionary. All preacher!

Wiconi has a great newsletter that tells about all his doings. I'd recommend signing up. I don't know him but I emailed him and asked him if I could acknowledge him in the acknowledgments of Wind Follower. And he said yes. So you'll see his name in the back of WF.

-C

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