The Lord has been bestowing so much favor on us lately. I'm utterly amazed by what God has been doing in our midst. Our little house church has grown closer as a family, grown more mature in His ways, and now we're growing outwards.
The Lord keeps reminding me of the importance and beauty of the Lord's Supper. This is the very thing early believers gathered around, and we're reclaiming that in our group. Last night, we put out the bread and grape juice in next to us as we ate. At the beginning, I read from 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 "Is not the cup of
thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of
Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body
of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf." After I read the verse, I took one loaf of bread and broke it in half, giving thanks to Jesus. I gave each half to the person next to me, and they broke pieces off it and handed it to the next person. As we were doing this, we gave thanks to God for various things. We also left out the grape juice and left it open for anyone to suggest that we partake of it at any time during the meal.
It was a particularly joyous time together, as the Lord's Supper should be. Remember that this is looking to the future wedding feast of the Lamb, when we will dine at the Messiah's table. The Lord's Supper is celebrating a wedding banquet, THE wedding banquet of all time. Jesus said he would not partake of the bread and wine again until that banquet comes (Luke 22:15-18). So we dine with Him, and we say "Maranatha!" which means "Lord come!" As His bride we incite His heart to return to us.
We sang a song called "We Love You Jesus" by Shane (Barnard) & Shane (Everett). The first verse says: Opening the door to dine with Him Traveling to earth to let us in Laying down His glory crown of old Setting up the wedding feast foretold
Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the depth of the Lord's Supper. I could literally keep revisiting it and find something new, or get stirred up again in its beauty and power. I believe that this is not going to be just something we do as a house church. I am convinced that the Lord is restoring this on all His churches. The great thing about it is, I don't need to do anything in my own strength to make this happen. The Lord will beckon the hearts of His people and bring them into a place of truth and understanding.
---
I have already begun to see the Lord connect us with different house churches and different people searching for house churches. We registered on House Church Central, a website that has a database of house churches. We also started a webpage called San Francisco Bay Area House Church. The link is here:
Through House Church Central and people visiting the website, we have connected with some great people. A couple just joined us last night who moved here from Michigan. You would think that having new people, it'd be weird or awkward, but it automatically felt like family. They jumped right in and worshiped and shared their hearts. It was really neat to see that the people of God can meet for the first time and immediately be connected. I know that we'll be seeing this couple again, too.
Next week, because of House Church Central, we are meeting with a couple house churches in Santa Cruz. They are making their way up to visit us in Millbrae. I'm excited to fellowship on a little larger scale because we haven't done something like this yet. I have many questions such as, what does a large gathering look like within a house church context? I think I've resolved that the goals should be basically similar to a small house church meeting. I want to know who these people are. I want to fellowship with them to be mutually edified. I want Christ to unite us.
Again, I'm in awe of God's favor on us. We've only been meeting for maybe 5 months now and God has already done so much. Of course there will be challenges that come about, but I'm so excited to see what God has in store for us.
Post a Comment