Yesterday was a significant day for Hills Bible Church.
In our worship service we read, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1
And we held our first communion service. The Lord’s Supper is important because it helps to ground us.
- It reminds us that it was God through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus, who reached out to us and called us into His family. Ephesians1:11
- It reminds us that our relationship with God is entirely His doing. Titus 3
- It reminds us that, being a just God, it is He alone who can atone for our sins. 1 Corinthians 15: 3 & 4
- It reminds us that, being a loving God, He saved us even though we were His enemies. Romans 5:10; 1 John 4:8 & 16
O God, help us to always remember that it is You alone.
3 Comments
Stuart
It never ceases to blow me away how gracious and unbelievably generous God is! I was reading through Romans 2:1-5 earlier today and was reminded of the kindness and mercy God shows us every day. He would be competely just if He didn’t save any of us as we are all sinful and deserve death (Rom 6:23). Yet in His love and mercy, God chooses to save us through our faith in Jesus’ atoning death for us. To know it’s a work done by God is so reassuring as I don’t have to rely on myself to gain salvation, but know I have attained the righteousness I need to be with Him forever through the work that God alone has done (Rom 1:16-17).
Romans 3:21-26 “Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – the righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put orward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. this was to show God’s righteousness, becuase in His divine forbearence He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
What peace and joy one has to know that through faith in Jesus alone, we are clothed with God’s righteousness and therefore are justified before our holy God. We don’t have to fear His just wrath and eternal judgement for our sin, as we appear righteous to Him through Jesus’ sacrfice for us. May He receive all the praise! May our lives reflect our gratitude to the huge sacrifice God made for us by striving to obey and follow Him always.
David
One of the things I appreciated at last Sundays Communion Service, was the more complete reading of the instruction concerning the Lord’s Supper taken from from I Cor. 11: 23 – 32; rather than the usual truncated quotation taken from verses 23 to 26. It reminded me not only of what Christ has done for us but what condition my heart is to be in when I celebrate his sacrifice. It illustrated the balance between the privileges we enjoy as Christians along with accompanying responsibilities.
Hills Bible Church
Thanks Stuart and David.
It has often been said, and I believe rightfully so, that Christianity is not simply a way of life, but a life to be lived, the life of the risen Christ Himself who dwells in the heart and life of every believer.
Christianity is a supernatural way of life, but such supernatural life never happens naturally or automatically. It is always and only the product of intimate fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
It is in this intimacy of fellowship that the believer must learn to walk in conscious dependence on the principles and promises of God’s Holy Word as it reveals the person and life of Christ in all His sufficiency.