June 2018

June 2

One of the most important Sacraments of the Church is the Holy Communion and the Bible explains the way it needs to be administered.
I. The Authenticity of the Holy Communion
Scriptures present the Savior’s practice and teaching in regards to Holy Communion. The Church in Corinth had a wrong practice of the Lord’s Communion, but the Apostle Paul receives “from the Lord”, through a personal spiritual experience, teaching about the Holy Communion, which he transmits to the Church in Corinth for correction. The fact that the Lord Jesus brought the teaching about this sacrament to His disciples and a few years later, Paul receives the same teaching from God the Father, gives us the right to have full faith in the authenticity of the Holy Communion, as an expression of the divine will for the Church.
II. The explanation of Holy Communion
Paul explains some basic principles in the teaching regarding Communion:
1. The Lord’s Communion consists of the bread and the wine (1 Corinthians 11: 24-25)
2. There must be prayer for the elements of the Communion (verse 24)
3. The bread symbolizes the Savior’s Body (verse 24)
4. The wine symbolizes the blood of the New Covenant (verse 25)
5. By partaking in Communion, believers tell of the death of Jesus until He returns (verse 26)
6. Believers who participate in Communion in “an unworthy manner” become guilty of the death of Jesus (verse 26)
7. Each believer should examine himself personally before his own conscience and then partake in Communion by faith (verse 28)
8. Due to the lack of piety, many believers are “weak and sick, and a number of [them] have fallen asleep” (verse 30)
9. Believers can avoid God’s judgement through a personal judgement, which includes the confession and abandonment of sin (verse 31)
10. Examining oneself and assuming responsibility for guilt now rescues from the final condemnation at the white throne (verse 32)
11. The brotherly fellowship during Communion needs to focus on the Communion, not on the other aspects of brotherly fellowship (verses 33-34)
12. Concentrating upon other aspects of fellowship during Communion draws divine condemnation (verses 33-34)
III. The Individuality of Holy Communion
Individuality is the totality of particularities of a person or thing (according to the dictionary). In the context of this teaching, Paul speaks about the universal character of Holy Communion as well as the personal.
1. Admission to Holy Communion is universal – “anyone” (verse 27)
2. Partaking in Communion is personal – “each one” (verse 28)
The responsibility of the believer when in front of the Holy Communion is a enormous since Communion is personal. No one can qualify or disqualify you, other than your own faith or lack thereof (verse 7b). “Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup”(verse 28).

 June 10

The assurance and inner peace that influence our state of happiness are gained on the foundation of a stable life. Our generation is the powerless witness to the painful redefinition of the foundational values about life and the world. Suddenly, God, family, the Church and the Bible have become disallowed. For many Christians, the manifestation of the spiritual life in public has adverse risks, intimidations, discouragement, and even certain forms of persecution. The chastity of the youth, the fidelity of the married, and the idea of the Biblical family are no longer appreciated. The young generation is not yet fully conscious of this slippery context, of the deception of false promises, which can lead many of them into misery for the rest of their lives.
In order to understand the problem and to identify solutions, we will look at a certain family from the Bible. In the New Testament, there is no family about which so many things are said as is about Aquila and Priscilla. Aquila (“vulture”) was a Jewish man born in Pont, while his wife Priscilla (“little old woman”) seems to have originated from Italy. Tradition says that Aquila was a Hebrew slave who served in the house of Priscilla’s parents. A sincere and pure love arose between the two of them, and Priscilla’s parents, understanding and open-minded, allowed them to get married, after they first released Aquila from slavery.
I. AQUILA AND PRISCILLA FOCUSED ON THEIR FAMILY LIFE – UNITY
Although ethnically, culturally and socially they were extremely different, Aquila and Priscilla worked together, traveled together, served in the Church together, suffered together, and were joyous together. The names Aquila and Priscilla appear six times in the book of Acts and Paul’s epistles, and they always appear together: three times Aquila is mentioned first (1 Corinthians 16:19, Acts 18:2, 18:26) and three times Priscila is the first mentioned (Acts 18:18, Romans 16:3, 2 Timothy 4:19). The name Aquila and Priscilla are never mentioned separately, evident that in the minds of their contemporaries, they formed an inseparable pair, no matter the circumstances of life.
II. AQUILA AND PRISCILLA FOCUSED ON THEIR SPIRITUAL LIVES – MINISTRY
It is sad to see how many Christians no longer serve or implicate themselves in Church life after they get married. Marriage becomes a priority for them that supersedes God’s calling for their family. Aquila and Priscilla were a missionary couple, they taught people the Gospel, they were hospitable, often opening their home for people who were traveling for the interests of God’s Kingdom. They lived in hard, troubled times, they were threatened for their faith and service, but no one stopped them from having a strong and happy family and a life forever dedicated to the Lord in service.
It is not the times we live in that determine how we live our lives, but the Word that we have in our minds and the Holy Spirit that we have in our hearts.

 June 17

God created people, male and female, implicitly husband and wife, father and mother. The mission of fatherhood is noble, beautiful, and difficult in equal measure. Father is a name, a person, a model, a symbol, a representative of God’s authority. Among all the fathers in the Bible, Abraham reached excellence and God named him “the father of the faithful”. He was a worthy man, a loyal believer, a devoted husband, a responsible father, and a great man of God.
I. ABRAHAM’S FAITH – Abraham deeply wished to be a father and he waited patiently for 25 years for this dream to become reality. He was 75 years old when he obeyed the commandment of the Creator and came out of Ur and traveled to Canaan. The Bible remarks the fact that Abraham trusted in the divine promise and the Creator deemed his faith as righteousness (Genesis 15:7)
II. ABRAHAM’S FIDELITY – Abraham had to choose between God and Isaac when God asked him to bring his son as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. The process of revelation had not yet reached the point of “do not murder” and Abraham obeyed God. While they were ascending the mountain, Isaac remarked the fact that his father did not have an animal to sacrifice as he usually did, and he asked for an explanation. “God will provide the sacrificial lamb” (Genesis 22:8). Approximately 2000 years later, on the same mountain, God sacrificed His son, to take away the sin of the world. It is interesting that God did not allow Isaac to be killed on Mount Moriah, but He allowed His own Son, Messiah, to die for the sins of the world.
III. ABRAHAM’S RESPONSIBILITY – Abraham taught his son according to the standards of the Bible and the Creator remarks and appreciates his responsible attitude, “ For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice….” (Genesis 18:19). Isaac often saw his father worshiping before the Lord, and the Bible mentions the building of an altar and Abraham’s worship five times. Then Isaac sees his father tithing to Melchizedek. Also, he surely heard of the elegant and wise ways his father used when he separated from his uncle Lot, but also of the fact that Abraham chose to live on the mountain, while Lot chose the cities of the field, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Surely his father’s hospitality also did not escape Isaac’s notice as well.
IV. ABRAHAM’S CARE – Abraham also implicated himself in the choosing of his son’s wife, conscious of the fact that through him, through his grandchildren and great-grandchildren the Messianic nation would grow, from which later on, the Savior would be incarnate. He sent Eliezer, a trustworthy man, old and wise, to choose a good wife for his son Isaac. Abraham’s wise care was manifested even in the fact that he split his wealth among his sons while he was still alive, prioritizing Isaac, the promised son from God. Abraham was a holy man, a loving husband, and a responsible father.

  June 24

                Marriage is a commandment of God, a need of man, and a divine solution for the happiness of the couple. Man’s needs, being so diverse and complex, are fulfilled fully only in the midst of family life. The priorities in the life of a man demonstrate fully what he loves most. The formula for the family is proposed by God as being the ideal partnership, as being the strongest team, the most resistant unity, and the most faithful relationship. Because human existence offers harmful alternatives, the divine formula is conditioned by certain obligatory values and priorities:

1.       Heaven is our home. God does not guarantee happiness in a family in which one or both partners does not obey Him. The divine formula for the family presumes a man and woman united in mutual, unconditional love, subordinate to God and obeying his commandments. The responses of the spouses to the adversities and pressures of life will be according to their spiritual relationship with God. Man is influenced in life either by God or the devil. Man’s good intentions are insufficient, because the power of fulfillment comes only from God through a personal relationship with Him. When the spiritual relationship with God of the partners is weak, the family’s happiness is exposed to the risk of disagreement and infidelity.

2.       The family is the second home. The partners cannot have more resources in their familial lives than they receive from their spiritual relationship with God. After their spiritual relationship with God, and before everything else, each spouse needs to take responsibility for their role as husband and wife. The family life has priority over all other passions, businesses, relationships… The family is the most important thing for a person, after their relationship with God. The family is the place where the husband loves his wife and the wife respects her husband. Everything must be done out of love and through sacrifice, because the happiness of the family is in the hands of the couple, each partner focusing on the good and happiness of the other. The Bible teaches us the fact that the person who fears God will have shame towards other people. This means that the partners who respect God will respect each other, and the faithfulness and fidelity with which they live before the Creator will be their way of life with each other.

3.       The church is the third home. People who enter a spiritual relationship with God through conversion are ideal spouses and faithful members of a church. The characteristics of a spouse and a member in the church are given by their spiritual relationship with God. He is the source of resources for the husband and wife in the family and of the believer in the church. Human nature is perverted by sin and predisposed to sin, which is why the solution to freedom from the slavery of sin is the spiritual relationship with God through repentance and faith. Rebirth is the result of repentance and faith and presumes a change in the human nature into a Godly one, where the priorities and values of a person become Godly. The partner who personally knows God, will be motivated by this spiritual relationship to behave a certain way in the family and the church. Otherwise, tortured and driven by the worldly nature, he will act without fear of God and without shame toward other people. The quality of family life and church life will be decisively marked by the authenticity of rebirth, which is the consequence of repentance and personal faith. Whoever is a true believer and strong in his relationship with God, will be a good spouse and a good member of the church.