We woke up this morning to some wonderful rain. Except for a few quick thunderstorms (gully washers), we have had very little rain. It was great to have a long steady rain. I thank God for his provision.
We had some great services today. From Sunday School, where we are studying the wisdom writings (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon.) For the next few weeks we are studying Job. This morning we honored our graduates. The only one this year was my daughter who will be graduating from high school this Saturday. Rebecca picked the songs for worship and helped us lead worship like she does most Sundays. I had the privelege of praying over her during our prayer time. It was a special time. During the summer, I feel that God is leading me to preach from the Old Testament. I’m preaching a series titled, “Adventures in the Old Testament,” and it will feature the heros and imfamous of the Old Testament. We started today with Esther, because it is my girl’s favorite story. Esther was a girl who faced incredible odds, but she did it with God’s help. I urge you to check it out…It is a wonderful story how an ordinary girl, did extraordinary things with God’s help.
This afternoon, Pam and I attended a birthday party for one of our families. It was very busy. After that I assisted with rehearsal for our students. They are presenting a patriotic musical for Fourth of July. After that we had a meeting to decide the schedule for our summer student ministry, and finally we had our evening discipleship time.
Tonight we looked at the importance of communion as a corporate, spiritual discipline. We looked at how communion changes us. We spent a good portion of the night looking at what it means to take communion unworthily. What does that mean? That has bothered some that they wouldn’t even take communion. One of the things that we are doing in our congregation is restoring communion to its proper place. This includes offering it more often. We are up to once every two month. During Lent we had it three or four times, which is unusual in the Wesleyan Church. When we take communion, we make it an integral part of the whole service. If you look at The Discipline, there are several paragraphs that are part of the communion ritual that I make sure are part of the service.
The first is the Call to Worship:
The Lord himself instituted the holy sacrament we call the Lord’s Supper, giving it to the disciples as a means of remembering Him until He comes again, and as a seal of the new covenant between God and man. This service is therefore a time of special sacredness and we can only be properly prepared by giving our hearts and minds to reverent worship, and by being freed of all things contrary to the divine nature and purpose. Therefore let us bow in a period of silent prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and bring us into conformity with the holiness of the God we serve.
The second is the Invocation which follows a time of silent prayer:
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are opened, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love You, and worthily magnify Your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Those two paragraphs coupled with this invitation given after the sermon before communion, help us prepare our hearts properly for communion.
You who are walking in fellowship with God, and are in love and harmony with your neighbors; and you who do truly and earnestly repent of your sin and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from this time in His holy ways, draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament to your comfort; and meekly make your humble confession to Almight God.
When we prepare our hearts properly for communion, it would be tough not to take it worthily. We spent most the night just on this topic of communion. Next week, we are going to look into the subject (communion as a spiritual discipline) even more. Have a great week.
