"THE TRUTH IS..." The Joy Of Holy Communion
The Table of Holy Communion is a banquet of celebration. We are advised to be clothed in His righteousness when we attend it. Remember that the Celebrant lives within you and you are therefore bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. When you partake of your shared Covenant He partakes also. When He releases His love, you will be compelled to release your love as well. If your heart is opened wide to His and if your spirits are in one accord, you will delight in a Holy Communion that is both joyous and intimate. Holy Communion is not just a symbolic eating and drinking in remembrance of Him. We acknowledged His sacrifice when we accepted Him as Lord and Savior and we acknowledged the sealing of our redemption when we experienced first hand the power and cleansing of that sacrifice. There is no other blood, shed, taken or given, and there is no other name by which man can be saved but the name of Jesus the Christ. Rather, it is a meshing of spirits, His and ours, and a meshing of sacrifices - His sacrifice of love, and ours of honor. In the Holy Scriptures, husbands are encouraged to love their wives as Christ loves the Church, and wives are encouraged to honor their husbands. This is what happens when we come to the Table. It is a Table of dual blessings, a table of two guests. You are His and He is yours. You come to the Table together, each receiving the other with love and honor. Your coming to the Table in faith blesses Him. Partaking of Him blesses you. Joining with Him, wearing His betrothal gift of righteousness with an honoring heart, you become one with the gift and the giver, a spiritual oneness that humbles the stoutest of hearts. Holy Communion is a portrait of love, of giving and receiving, of loving and being loved. As we receive the Holy Communion that IS our Lord and Savior, our bridegroom, we must come together, each one inviting Him to join us as we honor Him in our betrothal to Him and His betrothal gift to us. We must renew our own committment to love, honor and obey as we partake of the Bread of His Presence and the marriage cup. Mouthing the words of a ritual prayer will not suffice. Remember, you are extending a personal invitation to your King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and this invitation must be engraved with anticipation upon your heart. Afterwards we want to obey Him with the observance of the second stage of that betrothal. We will wash the saints' feet, and we will be washed, and we will join Him in this also. As He said, if we know these things, and do them, happy we will be. When we wash the feet of a saint we are also washing the feet of Jesus who dwells within that saint. And the Jesus that lives within the one doing the washing is still washing the saint's feet as the lowly servant. That realization alone should humble the proudest of Peters... Our Bridegroom is always ready to join us in our Happy Hour. So partake of the table, the Bread that satisfies, and be healed. Pick up the betrothal cup, drink of its wine and rejoice, for we are our Beloved's and His desire is toward us (Song of Solomon). Then join in the washing of the saints' feet and the feet of Jesus as He faithfully acknowledges our obedience by accepting our invitation. In Leviticus Chapters 23 and 24 they used both unleavened and leavened bread in their feasts as commanded by God. Today, leavened bread symbolizes a "rising up" as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ who abolished the power of sin. And because He will one day stand on its hills again, "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, Oh Jerusalem" (Psalms 122.2). Joan Krempel
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