All tagged Body
For most of us our belief in God is based primarily on faith. We have never seen God, but we have felt Him; not so much by His outward physical touch, but through an inward touching, and by a spiritual response to His actions and voice in our lives. For His physical touch we depend on the love we have for one another, and in the hands of man being borrowed to do the will of God. Does your faith bridge your body and spirit?
When Communion is offered in your church do you examine yourself to determine whether you are a believer before you participate? Do you look inward and find that you can take the bread, and the wine, while understanding it to be the body and blood of Christ... a reminder to you? There are those who believe that taking Communion improperly is an innocent attempt to go along with the crowd, while others view it to be sacrilege or sin, and there are even those who see it as a pretense designed to fool the Church. How do you approach Communion?
How do we worship and have faith in the Father and the Son? Do we go about doing the physical things that identify us as religious, and leave the inner, spiritual, things of faith to quietly stagnate? God made us to be both physical and spiritual beings, but didn’t He make the physical first, and then breathe the spirit into it? As we grow in faith is our body fully formed, but our spiritual self lagging behind?
Do we think of our faith in God, and Jesus Christ to be entirely spiritual? Do we continue on in the sins of the flesh even after we have presented ourselves as believers to the Lord? Resisting those things is difficult, and this is why Satan attacks us there so often by finding this weakness in our armor.. Here he finds advantage against our physical body, and breaches the walls of our spirituality.
How do we come into the presence of God? Are we clothed in all of our sin, and wearing shoes that are filthy and covered in the dust of the world? As creatures of both physical and spiritual construction we can’t travel anywhere without both sides of ourselves being present. Only at death is that separation possible. So until then, we must be careful regarding the purity of both our body and our spirit when we come before the Lord.
This morning I contemplate the body of Christ as taken at Communion. This gift that is more than a passing thought, but something which becomes part and parcel of us mentally, spiritually, and yes, physically. When at the Lord’s Table, do you realize how perfect the remembrance of Christ should be to you? This is an act in which our being is joined perfectly with His through His blessing, and by His hand.
Are you enjoying being in the temple of God today? Are the floors sparkling clean, the windows washed, and the altar shiny and bright? Are all the candles lit, and the scent of incense fresh and pleasing? Can you hear chanting, and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit there with you? Well, it sounds like I am talking about a building, but in reality I am alluding to your own body.
There is great mystery in the blood of Jesus, a newness that isn’t seen anywhere else in the Bible. The symbolism in the blood of communion is beyond rich, and gives us more than purification and forgiveness... it changes our lives completely, and cuts us off from the old life we were once living. The blood of Jesus requires that we make a choice... to continue on as we have been, or to drink of it and be called out... made other.
What will we look like in heaven? I have heard that question many times, and heard it put in many different ways. Young healthy people ask it in curiosity, and the aged or infirmed ask it in fear, or dread. Can we really know? Let’s explore some scripture regarding our redemption bodies.
What do you think of during communion? What was happening on that day of the first communion in which Jesus offered the bread of His body and the cup of His blood to the disciples? On that day they were celebrating the Passover feast, eating the Seder meal, and it has a certain order and meaning to all of its parts. Every movement, every food, each cup of wine has meaning and timing. When did Jesus offer Himself to His disciples? What did it imply?