"THE BREAD AND THE CUP"
Posted by: Shalomyshua <Shalomyshua@...>
What an honor and blessing is involved in sharing in the emblems of His death! When we eat the bread and drink the cup signifying the sharing of His Blood and His Body, we close the prayer by saying in the Name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit!
What a blessing it is to pray in the name of the Trinity! The Trinity is one of the great theological mysteries! There are some groups who think that because we live in monotheism, one G-d, we cannot accept the concept of the Trinity. Y'shua is Lord of all, we all know that! Yet the Bible teaches that the G-dhead consists of three divine persons~~~Father, Son and Holy Spirit~~~ each fully G-d, each showing us the divine nature. {Luke 3:21,22}.
My
The Father is the fountainhead of the Trinity, the Creator {Elohim}, He who first created everything! He thought the "primary thought" and He is the source of all that has been and will be created. Y'shua said: " My Father has been working until now, and I have been working" {John: 5:17}.
The son is the "logos" or expression of G-d~~~the only "begotten" of the Father~~~and He Himself is G-d! Further as G-d incarnate, He reveals the Father to us in John 14:9. The Son of G-d is both the agent of creation and mankind's only Redeemer.
The Holy Spirit {Ruach ha' Kadosh}, the Third Person of the Trinity, proceeds from the Father and is worshiped and glorified together with Father and the Son. He inspired the Scriptures, empowers G-d's people and convicts the world of "sin and of righteousness, and of judgment. {16:8}.
The existence of the Trinity is a mystery that one day we may understand clearly. For now, we know that the Bible teaches it and Y'shua revealed it, and the Christian church from the beginning in the Book of Acts has confessed and safe guarded this precious truth. {1 Cor. 12-4, 2 Cor. 13-14, Eph. 4:4-6, 2 Thes. 2:13., 13.}
So, you see, we when we end our prayer after we have partaken of His Blood and His Body in the Feast of the Holy Eucharist, we pray in power! Power that cleanses us and defeats the enemy of our souls!
May I close this message with a true story that I would like to share with you?
Some years ago, Catholics did not eat or drink anything for twenty-four hours before receiving Communion. During this era Father Walter Ciszek was arrested by the Russians and falsely accused of being a "Vatican spy."
Father Ciszek spent the next twenty-three years in prisons and labor camps. After his release he wrote a book about his ordeal.
In one passage Ciszek describes how precious the Eucharist was to prisoners. They would rise early and celebrate it in secret, knowing they would be severely punished if caught.
This made it hard for many prisoners to participate. Father Ciszek writes in his book "He Leadeth Me ":
"We would consecrate extra bread and distribute Communion to the other prisoners when we could. Sometimes that meant we would only see them when we returned to the barracks at night for dinner. Yet these men would actually fast all day long and do exhausting physical labor without a bite to eat or drink since the evening before, just to be able to receive the Blood and Body of Y'shua ha' Maschiach in the Holy Eucharist."
As we focus this morning on the incredible mystery of G-d's love as expressed in the Holy Communion, let us pray for the grace of G-d to be with us as we face the daily challenges of America and Israel being the targets of terrorism.
Father, bless us with the grace
to enter into the heart of your Son,
that we might better appreciate
how the Eucharist
expressed your love for us and
why Y'shua said,
" Do this in remembrance of Me."
His bondservants, Pastor Dick & Jo-ann