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The Personal Blog of Jack L. Wolfgang II
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Saturday, February 10, 2007
Communion for Fun and Profit?
A few weeks ago, Bill Hayes wrote a post entitled "Un-Holy Communion". Bill explains that Gregory Pickow is now selling a product called "The Power of Communion: Receiving the Favor of God". Pickow advertises the following:
The favor of God means that when you are at a disadvantage, God is going to give you the advantage. When you are on the brink of defeat and failure, favor means that God is going to turn it around and give you the victory…God’s favor means that He is going to give you success!
Excuse me? Belonging to a Restoration Movement church, we celebrate communion every week, and here's what God's word says about communion:
For I [Paul] received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. (I Corinthians 11:23-27, NASB)
What that passage says is that communion is a reminder for us--in the same way that the rainbow reminds us that God will never flood the whole world again, communion reminds us of the Lord's sacrifice for us. There's nothing said there about favor, it's about us remembering what Jesus did for us and proclaiming it to the world. Also, it says if we eat it in an unworthy manner, we're guilty. I would say using it as a bargaining chip is "unworthy".
To answer my question: "Communion for fun and profit?" May it only be for the profit of Jesus!
Labels: Christianity, Communion, faith
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By Anonymous, at 10 February, 2007 07:35:
Amen! And thanks for the plug!
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