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From Faith to Faith
December
2006
Our annual congregational meeting – covered dish dinner has been scheduled for Wednesday, December 13th . There will be a covered dish dinner beginning at 6:30 p.m. followed at 7:30 p.m. by a brief Prayer & Praise, then the meeting with a presentation of the 2007 budget. This is a very important meeting and all Faith members are encouraged to attend.
Door Greeter for the month of December Visitor Fellowship Meal host family (Dec. 10th) Congregational Dinner host family (Dec. 24th) Opportunities for Service for 2007 (See the sign up sheets on the bulletin board in the vestibule) First Sunday Fellowship Time: Families are needed to set up and clean up after the “Fellowship Time” following evening worship on the first Sunday of every month. Second Sunday Visitor Fellowship Meal: Families are needed to host the “Visitor Fellowship Meal” each month following morning worship on the second Sunday of the month. Fourth Sunday Congregational Dinner: Families are needed to host the “Monthly Congregational Dinner” on the fourth Sunday of each month following morning worship.
Deacon Tidbits: Contributions through October 31, 2006 are $99,616 versus our budgeted amount of $117,150. Food and drinks are not permitted in the library or sanctuary during any meal. Volunteers are needed to assist with clean up between services. See Greg Blasiman if you can help. Payment for CD’s of the sermons are to be placed in the wooden box marked CD’s on the table in the vestibule. Attention Deacons and Elders: The deacons will meet alone on December 9th at 8:00 a.m. and then join the elders for a joint deacon – session meeting at 9:00 a.m.
Ladies: The WIC officers for 2007
Please note that beginning January 1, 2007 if anyone has an item to place on the prayer chain please contact Sandra Taylor. Remember – you may only place items on the prayer chain for yourself and your family/friends. Please do not call to place prayer chain items on for someone else within the congregation.
THANK YOU Rol and Fern Richards would like to thank our church family for their prayers, cards and phone calls for Rol’s safety and healing during his recent knee replacement surgery.
Missions Update: Reformation Christian Ministries – Italy: Dr. Franco Maggiotto, who is now in remission from his leukemia, has recently performed the first Protestant baptism in the church in Alpignano. Anna is the daughter of Andrea and Piera, the first Protestant marriage in the church. There is a picture of the baptism on the Faith Presbyterian Church Missions table in the vestibule. Calvin and Geeta Taylor – India: Calvin asks for prayer that God will bring the right people and bless the Adult Sunday School class that he will be starting in the local language, primarily for new believers in their church. Also, the Children’s Home has lost its Donor Agency’s support for more than 800 children at the home, as they have decided to break their commitment, because their demands that the Home change from residential childcare to community based childcare in which the children stay with their parents. The Children’s Home as resisted this change showing that this would not be beneficial for the children due to the social position and poverty of the parents. They are considering steps that can be taken to reduce expenses and trusting God to protect and provide for the children. The immediate need is for about $20,000 a month. Calvin says, “We greatly appreciate your prayers for us during this difficult time.” Update from the Akron Pregnancy Services Walk-a-thon in May 2006: The 248 walkers who represented 76 churches turned in pledges totaling close to $79,000.00. I would like to thank the walkers that did the “Walk the Walk” and I would also like to thank the people within Faith Presbyterian Church who helped our church’s walkers raise $540.00. I am hoping that we can get more participants next year. Respectfully submitted, Andy Bogue
L.A.M.B.S.: The Ladies AM Bible Study (L.A.M.B.S.) will resume again in March 2007. Anyone interested in joining is welcome!
Prayer Chain Requests Oct. 24:Carl Childers came through his surgery well and is breathing on his own. He has been moved out of ICU Oct. 26:Rol Richards is going to have knee replacement surgery tomorrow. Oct. 27:Carl Childers is doing very well, but the cancer is in the lymph system and is stage II cancer. Oct. 28:Carl Childers was discharged from the hospital. would like to thank everyone for the prayers. Oct. 28:Rol Richards surgery went well and the doctors are pleased with his progress. Nov. 1:Andy Bogue asks for prayers.He is taking an “upgrade test” tomorrow as part of his driving training. Nov. 2:Carl Childers has returned to the hospital and is in the coronary care unit. He has had a heart attack. He will have a heart cath tomorrow. Nov. 3:Andy Bogue passed his test and now has his own truck! Praise. Nov. 3:When the doctors did the heart-cath on Carl Childers they discovered more blockage than this procedure could repair. Open heart bypass surgery is schedule for next Tuesday. Pray for strength for both him and Earleene. Nov. 7:Carl Childers quadruple bypass surgery went well. Nov. 8:Carl Childers was taken off the respirator today. He was able to talk and is aware of what is going on. Nov. 10:Scott Carrel had some dizziness and sweating during work and was taken to the hospital. He had a mild heart attack. He will undergo more tests to determine if there are other problems. Nov. 11:Scott Carrel did not have a heart attack. Nov. 11:Sue Caler had a 9-hour operation yesterday to remove her cancerous bladder. Nov. 13:A problem has occurred with Sue Caler and she has been sent to get a scan. Please continue to pray. Nov. 14:Initial readings on Sue Caler’s scan did not indicate anything. Specialists are being consulted. Nov. 16:Sue Caler has awakened from her four day sleep and is responding well. Nov. 19:Carl Childers is still in CCU but much improved.
The Ordinary Means of Grace – The Lord’s Supper by Rev. Bruce Buchanan Last month we looked at the first of the two sacraments of the Christian church, baptism. This month we move on to the second, namely the Lord’s Supper, or as it is sometimes called in our Protestant churches, Communion. This is no “ordinary meal.” Like baptism, it is a ceremony. The fact that we participate in it is vastly more significant than how it fills our bellies. Think of it this way: if you received an invitation to the White House for a State Dinner, would you attend for the prime rib and abalone soufflé, or would you go simply for the sake of the host? (Lk. 14:16ff) But let us begin again with some history regarding this sacrament. In Protestant history, there are many notable martyrs who chose to die rather than admit to the idolatry of the papal mass. What is this “mass”? The mass was the transformed rite that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper had become within the Roman church. This transformation had begun early in the Christian era, and certainly no later than the age of Augustin (354-430) had already become significantly corrupted with unauthorized elaboration. Nevertheless, at that time it still retained a degree of its simple dignity. But its thorough corruption came in the following centuries as the Scriptural understanding of the meal was replaced by philosophical and magical superstitions. The coming of the Reformation involved a reinvestigation of the biblical meaning and performance of all church ceremonies. Thus, the Reformers quickly abandoned all elaborate ritual in connection to the Lord’s Supper, including the hideous adoration or veneration of the “host”, the special consecrated wafer that was “transubstantiated” (in Romish sacramentology) into the very body of Jesus—and hence, being God, invited obligatory worship. So what did the Reformers do? They recovered a simple meal, of regular bread and wine, which was a sign and seal of the Covenant of Grace in its New Covenant administration (Mt. 26:26-28), to be received by faith by worthy participants. Both names for the meal express or emphasize some aspect of it. The “Lord’s Supper” is the most scriptural name for the sacrament, coming as it does out of 1 Corinthians 11:20. It is his meal, indicating that he is the host who has called the banquet, and spread the table. We go to heaven to eat with him. Certainly it is true that the Lord’s Supper is paralleled by the Passover Meal in the Old Covenant, the former meal of covenant remembrance. But there are some significant differences as well, including the fact that Passover was not strictly speaking a meal spread by the Lord, but involved sacrifice by the participants. In terms of a “Supper of Jehovah,” we should better turn to Exodus 24: Then he said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the LORD, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.’ Moses… took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and… took the blood and threw it on the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant….” And [the God of Israel] did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.” Next, there is the name “Communion.” I can think of three different significations of this name. 1) It signifies fellowship with God. If the name “Lord’s Supper” teaches us who and what is important about the meal, “Communion” teaches us the purpose of the meal. A State Dinner at the White House might be for the purpose of boasting, or payback, or overawing. But God in Christ wants to spend time with his people. 2) It signifies the means-of-grace nature of this sacrament. In it “Christ communicates to his church the benefits of his mediation” (WLC 154), which, as we have seen, is a giving of himself to us, as our understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of him is deepened. 3) It signifies “fellowship with each other, as members of the same mystical body” (WLC 168). We share with our fellow-believers a meal that depicts and reinforces our unity (1 Cor. 10:17). Truly, “you are what you eat,” and when you all eat the same thing, you are all getting the same nourishment. When “unworthy” or faithless partaking is involved, that person attacks the unity )of the body, beside being guilty of “attempted robbery” (Mt. 22:11-13.) What then of Jesus’ statement, “This is my body,” which we have in Scripture four times (Mt. 26:26, Mk. 14:22, Lk. 22:19, 1 Cor. 11:24)? Well, since Jesus was sitting at the table in his body at the first Supper, he certainly didn’t mean he was handing bits of his corporeal essence to his disciples—his body was destined to die on the cross the next day for those disciples. Calvin expressed it best, regarding the meal, when he said: believers partake of “bread in the mouth, and Christ in the heart.” (next installment: Prayer) |
