The Meaning & Power of Holy Communion

While partaking the Holy Communion, almost daily (Act 2:46), as a form of worship and for my own healing needs, I discovered another truth - getting ourselves ready to receive Christ(His 2nd Coming). Let me go back to what I have been taught and learned about the meaning and power of the Holy Communion.

The typical Bible references for Holy Communion are 1Cor11:23-27, Mat 26:26-28, Mar_14:22-24. There is another reference in

• 1Co 10:16-17 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

The 4 Meanings and Applications

1. WE ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST. 1 Co 10:16-17.
1. I am loved by Jesus. I love others with Jesus’ love and are loved by others.
2. We are to see ourselves as members of the same body with Jesus Christ as our head. Christ’s Body is complete when we each play our part and then we are complete too. (Our identity is defined in relation to others).
3. We are to appreciate the differences and talents that each member brings, not wanting them to be the same as us, but letting them and helping them to discover their calling and to fulfill their callings by God.
4. We are to forgive and encourage one another to good work as are led by Christ, our Head
2. HIS BODY WAS BROKEN SO THAT OUR BODY CAN BE WHOLE
1. Isa 53:5, 1 Pet 2:24 with his stripes we are healed.
2. Hence, when we partake the Holy Communion, we also receive our healing for our complete being of Spirit, Soul, and Body.
3. HIS BLOOD SEALED THE COVENANT OF OUR NEW IDENTITY
1. The Covenant between God and Man is sealed between God and Jesus representing men with the shedding of His blood. This covenant cannot be broken.
2. Because of the New Covenant, we are therefore
1. A New Creation 2 Cor 5:17. We are new reborn children of God.
2. Our sins are not just forgiven but eliminated with the Rebirth.
3. We have Jesus' righteousness, authority, inheritances, and blessings.
4. See yourself in your new Christ-like identity. 1 John 4:17, As He is so are we in this world.
4. WE PREPARE TO RECEIVE CHRIST 2ND COMING NOW
1. This is the new revelation to me. We are to be reminded daily to prepare, get ready, to receive our King Jesus Christ.
   Rev 19:7 Let us rejoice... for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
2. Eph 5:25-27 Christ is preparing His bride in splendor and without blemish. Christ is coming for a glorious church; not a church in weaknesses and sins and poverty etc...
3. This is not waiting in idle, but getting busy in preparation for the reception.
   Luke 19:13 Occupy till I come; or in some other translation, do business till I come.
4. We want to be the good steward that He may say ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Mat 25:23

Be reminded daily then, by partaking the Holy Communion, of our new identity in Christ by His blood, of wholeness provided by His once broken-body on the cross, of our oneness in Him, and get busy in reclaiming the families, the marketplace, and the nations as dowries to welcome our Bridegroom.

Update 4 Feb 2012 The Spiritual Meaning & Practice of Eating and Drinking
In partaking the Holy Communion, we do the physical eating of the bread and drinking of wine/grape juice. Jesus first mentioned it in John 6:35-58. See Bible Study John 6b Bread of Life & How to Eat it. In particular, Joh 6:56 He who eats & drink me lives in me, and I in him. The spiritual meaning of the eating and drinking is to abide in Jesus - reading, feeding and doing His Words and drawing strength from His Life in us.


Lim Liat (c) 31-7-08/4-2-12

See also:

• Preparing for Christ 2nd Coming & Preparing for Christ 2nd Coming - Part 2
• The Seven Shedding of Jesus' Blood & Our 7 Confessions 

What is the Gospel?

My understanding of the Gospel - Good News was "Salvation through Jesus Christ". The main concern was to tell people about Jesus Christ and get them saved so that they can have Eternal life and escape hell.

Then someone cited the Great Commission Mat 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,...". So, salvation is 1st step, the ultimate aim is "Disciples Making" and not just making converts.

If you read Ed Silvoso's "Transformation" book, he put the stress on nations ... it is not just about people as individuals but about transformation of nations, as groups, for Christ and under His Kingdom.

So the gospel is about Jesus Christ and His Kingdom or Rules & Demonstration of His Power. It begins with an individual, Luk 17:21, the Kingdom of God is within you. It then works out from us with other brothers & sisters like us, taking family, businesses, and nations so that Mat 6:10 His Kingdom com, His Word be done on earth.

The Gospel - Good News of His Kingdom begins with Luk 4:18-19 ....The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach

• the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me
  
• to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
  
• deliverance to the captives, and
  
• recovering of sight to the blind,
  
• to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach
  
• the acceptable year of the Lord
  

and comes into full extent in Rev 11:15 .... The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

We need to put the stress on knowing and have intimate relationship with Christ. We need also to put the stress on His Kingdom, His Lordship on us and through us on our family, the marketplace and the nations.

His Kingdom has power to heal, to deliver, and to bless. The gospel is about Jesus and His Kingdom to deliver and rule over us and the nations with His love and grace. The good news is that we can get back to living with God as God, through Jesus Christ, in a society and environment that follows God's order (His Kingdom and Righteousness).

KP#1 Kingdom Principles - Work Them

This is the first in a series on Principles of the Kingdom of Heaven", or "Kingdom Principles", for victorious earthly living, especially for business success. Many Kingdom Principles are spoken by Jesus in the form of parables which will form the foundation of this series. Jesus Himself said in Mat 13:35, he would utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world through parables. Mat 11:13, the parables contain the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Luke 9:11, Jesus gave them teaching about the Kingdom of God and made well those who were in need of it. Jesus' teaching was substantiated by miracles including healing.

We will begin our series then with the exhortation to know and to apply the Kingdom Principles for victorious living and thereby bringing glory to God. We shall call this, the 'Law of Working the Kingdom System'. This is shown in the mind-map below. BTW, the trend in the move of the Holy Spirit at our present time is about "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven"... about Heaven invading Earth... preparing for a glorious return of Jesus Christ.

Law of Working the Kingdom System

Luke 16:1-9 is the parable of the "unjust steward". This parable does not teach us to be sly and cunning. Its purpose is to encourage us to know the Kingdom Principles well and wisely apply them to achieve success and influence. It also teaches us that relationship is of greater value then material wealth. See the mind-map carefully and benefit from it.

For the discussion on this post, see Kingdom Principles Discussion 02

For the table of content, see Kingdom Laws & Principles.

For the next post, see The Golden Rule for Business Mat 6:33

Facing Tough Circumstances

Rom 8:26 has been the verse usually quoted for people who are undergoing a tough circumstances - like loss of job, loss of loved ones, betrayals and other attacks and persecutions of all forms. The mindmap belows shows the related verses to Rom 8:28 and give us some answers and solutions.


In todays strong preaching of the "Gospels of Blessings", we tend to forget about the persecutions and sufferings that are associated with trying to live righteously. Many equate 'sufferings' as something to be run away from, as punishments from God, etc. Jesus did not promise us no suffering but victory through the sufferings no matter what.

• Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

We should see that whatever happened to us involved God and other people. We sometimes suffer, even willingly, for the sake of others and for the glory of God. We go through the deserts like Joseph, Jacob, Moses, etc, that we may become more mature; that the trust we have in ourselves may be replaced with the greater trust in God; to taste and experience the fact that with God, I can do all things. Because all happenings are under the control of God, and God is with us and for us, we can boldly trust God to bring us victoriously through them. We can rejoice in them because God is in them. We can gain the peace, through bringing our requests before God, and to trust Him, showing the trust with thanks giving. Others will be puzzled by our peace and will inquire of us. Php 4:5 tell us to make know to them - the reason of our peace and confidence - God is at hand and with us and will bring us victoriously through.

May you be strengthened with this posting and let me rejoice with you in advance that your difficult circumstances are stepping stones to higher ground. You are in God's will. Learn and benefits from the current tough times.

Bible for Business Seminar#14 Competitors & Summary

We have an intensive coverage of competition and argued that in many cases, working together brings benefits to members that are competitors! e.g. Co-location create presence and attract customers; speaking as single voice to address needs of the members; getting Government support to train the people for the skills needed. The discussion is summarized in the mind-map below:

The High Performance Organization
So far, we use the Norton&Kaplan Strategy Map Driven Balanced Scorecard(BSC) as the framework for building successful corporation. It was very methods based. Knowing that Organization is about People, we look at Corporate Performance from the People's viewpoint and use Ken Blanchard's work on High Performance Organisation. Please click on the link HPO to find out more.

We show how Ken Blanchard HPO SCORES model can be mapped to Kaplan Norton's Strategy-Map and giving us additional insights to how best to run the company for performance. In a way, it also validates the use of the K&N S-Map framework.

1. Center - Triple Bottom Lines - Investment of Choice is the Financial View of S-Map.
2. Compelling Vision: Purpose and Values - Same the top Mission-Vision-Values of S-Map.
3. Relentless Focus on Customer Results - Customer perspective of S-Map.
4. Energizing Systems & Structures - This is the "Internal Process" perspective of S-Map.
5. Shared-Power & High Involvement - This belongs to the Learning-&-Growth (Organization Capital) perspective of S-Map.
6. Shared Information & Open Communication - Maps to the Learning&Growth perspective of IT & Infrastructure.
7. On-going Learning - Maps to the Learning&Growth of Human Capital, Knowledge Management, and the whole implementation of BSC - continued monitoring, learning and upgrading of the understanding of how the organization should work for higher performance.
   

The Unified Corporate Performance Model(CPM)

Combining from the literature on CPM, the following Unified CPM Model was presented.

The expanded model is:

The feedback
About 15 people got together for the Seminar. The overall rating was 90% with the higher scores went to Speaker's knowledge, Expectation Met, and the lower scores to Relevance to Job 86% and location 82%.

Like Best

• The correct approach to a good leader/organization. E.g. top of hierarchy must set goal and follow all they way down.
• Lim Liat, excellent sharing tonight! I learnt a lot. I enjoyed very much - driven vs servant leader, set/create a compelling vision+mission+human sigma.
  
• Sharing of Experience and Insights by trainer
• Competition, because it is enlightening to know we should not focus on competitions to keep us on our feet as they can be way off in reading customers' needs. We should focus on customers as they are the ones who give us our bacon.
  
• Love your enemies (competitors). Able to see the competitors differently
• More interactions between speakers and among participants
• Team & structure
• High Performance Organization
  

Like Least

• nil
  

Others

• to give us topic related to Human Sigma.