peace . love . joy

And now, with the confidence of children of God, let us pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory,
forever and ever.

Amen.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
that we may be for the world the body of Christ,
redeemed by his blood.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
one with each other,
and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory,
and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit in your holy church,
all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father,
now and for ever.

Amen

Holy are You, and blessed is Your Son Jesus Christ.
By the baptism of His suffering, death and resurrection
You gave birth to Your church,
delievered us from slavery to sin and death,
and made with us a new covenant
by water and the Spirit.

On the night in which He gave Himself up for us
He took bread, gave thanks to You, broke the bread,
gave it to His disciples, and said:
"Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over, He took the cup,
gave thanks to You, gave it to His disciples, and said:
"Drink from this, all of you;
this is My blood of the new covenant,
poured out for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me."

And so, in remembrance of these Your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice,
in union with Christ's offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again.

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give thanks to You,
Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

And so,
with your people on earth and all the company of heaven
we praise Your Name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of Your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Merciful God,
we confess that we have not loved You with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done Your will,
we have broken Your law,
we have rebelled against Your love,
we have not loved our neighbours,
and we have not heard the cry of the needy.

Forgive us, we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Hear the good news:
Christ died for us while we were yet sinners;
that proves God's love toward us.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

In the Name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

Glory to God.

Amen.

I've been wanting to post what is said during the Methodist Communion Service for some time now. Why? Because when we listen to the Pastor read the words, when we mumble what we're told to utter, when we listen to other people join their voices with ours, I feel there lacks a very important ingredient - comprehension.

I don't understand how we can go on like this, saying things we don't mean, saying things or doing them because that's what everyone else's doing, because that's what we're told to do. All performed without understanding the significance, the meaning. The meaning is what lifts a ritual and habit from the lower levels. It is what makes an act(s) mysterious and special and worthwhile.

Please don't think that I'd rather you not say or sing or do if you don't "get it". On the contrary, I'm urging you to think about the words coming out of your mouth as you say them. I'm urging you to think about why you're doing what you are doing.

And so I will post from today, through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, until Easter the words that are being verbalised before and during and after Holy Communion. All this so that you may have the opportunity and the chance to read through and understand.

I don't know what comes to your mind when someone mentions Jesus' earnest prayer in the Garden of Gethsamane, Jesus being interrogated and whipped, the long road up to Golgotha, the death of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection. I don't know what comes to your mind when you read the following words & posts over the next six days. My prayer is that whatever comes to your mind will be special to you; holding a special significance for you. My prayer is that God will bless you with renewed understanding of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, just as He is blessing me with.

Directions for singing:
VII. Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing Him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when He cometh in the clouds of heaven.
~ From John Wesley's Select Hymns, 1761 ("The United Methodist Hymnal", p. vii)

Read & digest, lovers of God.

Christ our Lord invites to His table all who love Him,
who earnestly repent of their sin
and seek to live in peace with one another.
Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another.

Timmy didnt understand what i meant by that last post, so here goes:

"Amen" is essentially a serious word. It isn't one of those words that you can just holler 'because you feel like it'. It isn't one of those words whose meaning shifts, or more meanings are added, like a chameleon through time and age depending on the whim and fancy of society(s).

Said at the end of a prayer, or sentence, it is like an expression. You are saying, 'yes! I understand completely what has just been said, and I endorse it!' or, 'I believe in what has been taught. I believe it to be true.' "Amen" has some serious entailments.

So before you sound off the "amen" perched at the tip of your tongue, think carefully about what you are "amen-ing" to.

The thing that strikes me most is that "amen" is one of God's names.

My God is the God of the "amen". My God's name is "amen". My God is "amen".

"Amen" means truth. No, Truth. It means the absence of lies, the absence of half-truths. In other words, everything in the Bible, being God-breathed, God-inspired, is the Truth. You can bet all your money that it is entirely true. In other words, you can rest easy at night, in the day, in times of trouble, in times of struggle, in times of peace that everything you read in the Bible is correct. You can claim its promises. You can trust that it is an accurate and reliable coffee table at which you can sit and get to know more about God. You can rely on the Word. If you really think about it, Truth is like a promise.

"Amen" means faithful. You can say with absolute certainty that everything written in the Bible happened and will come to pass. You can hold God to His promises and you know He won't disappoint. You can sing when you're joyful, cry out when you need help, sob when you feel miserable, sit with when you feel peace, and you know God is listening. Great is God's faithfulness.

God's name is "amen". The name gives you a glimpse of who God is; His character. God is Truth embodied. He cannot lie. He cannot but remain true to who He is. God is faithful. He will see through what He has promised you, us.

I want you to look into your own life and see if God is the God of the "amen".
I want you to see with your own eyes and experience with all your senses and more that God is "amen".
I want you to know God ever so intimately and personally; I don't want you to just read this and understand, or read the Bible and say 'yea, God is faithful, God is Truth.'. I want you to be able to produce evidence when people ask you 'so you say your God is faithful, your God is Truth, but can you prove that?'.
I want you to be able to tell special and unique examples such that you yourself know God to be faithful to you, to know what is meant when it is said that God is the God of Truth.

That is what I meant.

Any questions?

I think most of us, if not all, have wondered at some point what "amen" means. We say it so often as an end to our prayer, every so often an "amen" is called out when the pastor preaches. So what does it mean, really?

"Amen" is actually one of the few in Scripture that remains in its original Hebrew form across translations. As one site puts it, "it is practically a universal word, having been adopted directly from the Hebrew into Greek, Latin, English, Spanish, and many other languages". This probably indicates that its meaning is not accurately translatable across languages. And this probably also implies that the meaning is too important for any inaccurate or inadequate translation. So if no one term in the English language (that which I am most comfortable with) correctly embodies the meaning of "amen", let us look then to the meaningS we can infer from its use in the Bible.

In essence, we can deduce "amen" to mean "to be firm, faithful, sure". But looking at that bare abstract definition alone subtracts all richness of its meaning. Let us look now into the Bible. Let us look now at how it is, was used by the people whose lives were recorded in the Bible.
(I will give a few examples, not all. Else this will be one really long post.)

"Amen" may be said in response to a prayer, or sermon.
Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, From everlasting and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen
~ Psalm 41:13
Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say "Amen" to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?
~ 1 Cor 14:16
Here, though, it would be good to note that "amen" is not to be said in a flippant manner. It takes one to be utterly serious when uttering "amen". It takes one to comprehend, not just know, what one is responding to. It is heart-felt.

"Amen" may be used as an expression of complete comprehension.
There entails possibly a clause: “whoever pronounces the Amen to them [the laws] acknowledges awareness of the sentence for the pertinent activities. Thus the speaker judges his/her own guilt in the event such a crime is committed” (Wineberger in "Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament").
The earliest (at least as far as I know) record of the use of "amen" is here:
'...May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.' And the woman shall say, 'Amen, Amen.'
~ Numbers 5:22
Here, the Lord is speaking to Moses. This was the test for adultery.

"Amen" may be said as a confirmation of Truth.
There is another dimension, shall we say, to "amen". It is that the speaker understands and believes that what was said is True. Truth, with the capital "T". The Truth that is perfect and the total Truth. This is bordering, if not already, implying that that Truth is like a promise. One may believe in it and hold fast to it in all earnestness. It is a display of confidence and faith.
" 'Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'
~ Deuteronomy 27:21

"Amen" was said by Jesus.
In John, "amen" was always recorded twice; "verily, verily". Which means "truly, truly". This may serve as an emphasis of the authority of the Christ. As an expression of "thus sayeth the Lord" with absolute confidence in every word.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
~ John 8:51

"Amen" as one of the Names of God Almighty
"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation..."
~ Revelations 3:14
He who invokes a blessing on himself in the land shall do so by the God whose name is Amen...
~ Isaiah 65:16

What really fascinates me is just that - my God is the God of the Amen. My God is Amen.

Do you not realise what that means?
"Amen" means Truth. "Amen" means faithfulness.
My God is Truth embodied. All I believe in and about Him is True. And that I can say with complete confidence.
My God is faithful. All that He promises will and must come to pass.

You think I say this with the faith of a young child? Why this strikes me is precisely because I am a growing child! A child who has a thing for looking into the past. My God has blessed me with sufficient insight into the past and the future. Enough for me to know that He is moving. Enough for me to know His Plan at some junctures. Enough for me to say that He is True. He is faithful.

Look into your own past. See the Hand of the All Mighty move!
See and know for sure that He is faithful.
See and know for sure that what you believe in, who you believe in is True!

My God is the God of the "Amen".

Who is your God?

Weber's notion of Sociology is that it is a "science concerning itself with the interpretive understanding of social action and thus with a causal explanation of its course and consequences". It requires the sociologist to subjectively “understand” the perceived “meaning” behind an “action”, and by doing so, “interpret” and “explain” the observation. And because "meaning" is vital to understanding action, and thus social phenomena, it is important to understand what Weber means by "meaning".

There are two types of "meaning" according to Weber. Firstly, "meaning" can be such as ascribed by the person in question ("internal"), and secondly, "meaning" can also be such as ascribed by others ("external"). Never is "meaning" objectively "correct" or "true". It is forever subjective. So where is the line drawn between "meaningful action" and "purely reactive behavior"? Weber says it is close to impossible to distinguish between the two. He, however, does note that in the quest of understanding, there are some actions, we shall call them, that need not be performed in order to comprehend. But there are other actions that need to be performed, or the experience "re-created", by the investigator to bring about thorough appreciation.

To better understand the “subjectively intended meaning”, one must go a step further beyond simply “descriptive understanding” (simply describing an observation; answering the “what”) to “explanatory understanding” (to include in the interpretation possible motives; answering the “why”).

All this of course is written and expanded upon the assumption that man is above all a being that seeks meaning. One that seeks to understand the world around him as he subjectively perceives it.

I subscribe to that idea. I'd like to think that man is indeed inherently a being that seeks meaning; the meaningful man. I'd like to think that I am a creature that continually seeks meaning. I know, for a fact, that I'd also like others to understand me and what I am going through. Man is built for community. None of the 3 "Founding Fathers of Sociology" dare dispute that. Community is built on shared understanding. And understanding is built on shared meaning(s).

Recently, I've come to realize, yes, I admit I am rather "slow" to come to realizations, that it is difficult for me to explain myself to other people. And I know too that I am not alone in that respect. What I mean is I find it frustratingly challenging to give an account of what I feel and why I act the way I do (or did). I am talking about my experiences as a Christian.

Christianity is indeed a way of life. Truths that one learns in the Bible will remain truths spelt out in black and white squiggles man call alphabets until one receives insight from God in the form, most commonly I'd say, of experiences. It is only through experiences that a Christian will begin to truly make sense and appreciate the wonders and mysteries and awesomeness of God Almighty.

Passages in the Bible, exhortations by late Saints as recorded in the New Testament in the beginning made not much sense to me. They were simply guidelines to follow, warnings to pay heed to. But as I grew and am still growing in maturity and in Spirit, I see, hear, taste, touch and smell every day I wake up alive in my bed. I experience things I read in the Bible. I begin to understand. I will not pretend that I fully comprehend what I come across in the Word, but I will say that I am beginning to truly see what God will have me see at this particular time in this particular setting in this particular way.

There are experiences that the Christian man find it tough to make known to the unbeliever. Truths and promises that one can only dream of understanding if only they were experienced, better yet, first-hand.

Even so, there are experiences that the Christian finds himself at a loss for words when trying to give an account to fellow believers in the faith. Just a few days ago, I witnessed a sister who tried to tell others what the voice of God sounded like. She heard it. But how could she make others see as she does unless they too have heard? I was encouraged, however, by her sharing. Because that makes three of us that I know who have heard the voice of God. It is always good to know you are not alone. And it is even better to find people who understand exactly what you mean and how you feel so you have a small community with which you can be united in prayer and thanksgiving to God for that honour. Where does one find people with like-experiences with\from God? In church.

I am biased for reflections. It is through reflections, I believe, that one sees the hand of God moving, perhaps not just in one's own life, but also in others. Reflections and assessments drive home to the mind the real state of one's soul. They bring about humility, peace and gratitude in the Spirit. They serve as reminders of who we really are, who we are called to be, and to whom we pledge daily our allegiance. They serve as sources of encouragement. Who finds it discouraging to read through one's own journal of experiences with\from God, and see His presence so clearly in one's life? It is good to remember. After all, our salvation rests on the fact that God remembers us each by name, face and character. Something I still find amazing.

It is through individuals, through community, through shared beliefs, understanding and meaning that one gains acceptance, encouragement and affirmation. All from God.

Do not be discouraged, you who are young in the faith. God remembers you and so do your friends in church. Keep coming back to your family in Christ, keep spending quality time with the God of the amen, keep your feet facing forward but your eyes glancing once in a while behind in grateful reflection. You will grow and you will experience the One who gave His life for you but still lives. Be encouraged.

Perhaps Weber was not so far off the mark after all.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

~ Hebrews 10:24-25