Reversing The Curse Through The Holy Communion

By just one act of eating from the wrong tree, man fell into sin, which brought forth disease and death. But did you know that by the same act of eating, we can reverse the effects of sin? Join Joseph Prince as he expounds on the power of the Holy Communion to give us health and wholeness. Learn how you can partake of the tree of life—Jesus—through the eating of the bread and drinking of the wine in the Communion. Begin to take this meal with newfound revelation and faith and see every symptom of the curse reversed in your life!

Pastor Joseph Prince

Sermon note from Tycm's Blog by Terence Yeo: 2012-08-26 Reversing The Curse Through The Holy Communion

Bread & Cup

Lord Jesus, this BREAD that we hold in our hands is Your Body.

This Body was broken for us.

Anything that is not good to us, against us, not to our advantage,

Had all been absorbed by this broken Body.

By Your stripes we are healed,

Through Your punishment at the cross we have peace,

And though You were rich yet for our sake You became poor,

So that through Your poverty, we might become rich.

Thank you Lord for this divine exchange,

we partake Your broken Body in one heart,

in remembrance of You and Your finished work at the cross.

Thank you Lord.

Lord Jesus, This CUP that we hold in our hands is Your blood.

This is the blood that You shed for the New Covenant.

This is the blood that You shed for the forgiveness of sins.

We were made righteous by Your blood.

We are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

We are now highly favored, greatly blessed and deeply loved by You.

Thank you Lord for this divine exchange.

We partake Your blood in one heart, 

in remembrance of You and Your finished work at the cross.

We will do these often until You come again.

Thank you Lord.

Fresh Insight On Holy Communion

Deuteronomy 11:14 ~ then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil.

Grain, Wine and Oil are the significance of abundant life in the Old Testament. Find out what is Grain, Wine and Oil in the New Testament and be blessed with a fresh insight on Holy Communion!

Fill Your Waterpot With The Word Of Christ!

John

2:5  His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

2:6  Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

2:7  Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.

2:8  Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so,

Fill your waterpot with the Word of Christ up to the brim. When the unnamed Servant - the Holy Spirit draws out the water, immediately it turns into intoxicating wine!

Man Shall Live By Every Word of Christ!

The following link is my preaching at the Sunday Service in SIB Grace on 19th June 2011.

Man Shall Live By Every Word of Christ! mp3

 "I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. Grain, Wine and Oil are the significance of abundant life in the Old Testament."


Find out what is Grain, Wine and Oil in the New Testament and be blessed with  this fresh insight on Holy Communion.

 The Significance Of An Abundant Life In Old Testament

Grain

Word Made Flesh

 The Lamb Who Takes Away The Sins Of This World

From Word Of God To The Word Of Christ

Wine

Word Of Christ, The Living Water 

 Water Turns Into Wine

 Our Water-pot Is Meant To be Filled With The Word Of Christ!

 Preaching His Finished Work Is A Communism! 

The Holy Spirit Witness To The Truth

 He Will Raise Up Those Who Preach His Finished Work!

 His Teaching Of Righteousness Bring Forth Blessings! 

Our Work Is To Believe In Him Whom He Sent!

An Evening Stroll with Prophet Daniel

I had a privilege to be led by the Spirit to have an evening stroll with Prophet Daniel. After I have walked through the first chapter of the Book of Daniel, I began to understand why Prophet Daniel was able to see the end time events though he was from the dispensation that was before the cross. As I walk again through this spiritual memory lane, let me show you the insight that I have been blessed with…

Daniel

1:1 ~ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

1:2 ~ And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god. And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.

This Jerusalem can represent our church or even every individual because we are all the temple of the Holy Spirit. This Jerusalem is a place where the Lord gathers us together corporately and imparts us with His gospel of grace. As we all have been enlightened by the Lord and have been set apart by the message of grace, we are in this world and yet, not of this world. 

Though we are in this world and yet not of this world, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is here all the time to besiege our Jerusalem. The meaning of this word “besiege” is to surround a place with arm forces in order to capture it or force it to surrender.  As such, king Nebu is here, constantly throwing us with the Babylonian teaching which is the teaching of the mixture of grace and law. As he has some of the vessels of the house of God, this king Nebu is able to mix the teaching that is from the Lord with the teaching from the world. He will also besiege our Jerusalem with the teaching based on worldly value, humanistic value and the teaching from the Tree of the knowledge of the Good and Evil.  This is a coalition party that appears in the first part of the verse from John 10:10… The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. 

Daniel

1:3 ~ And the king spoke to Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs that he should bring some of the sons of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the rulers;

As I walked on this verse, I discovered that those who help king Nebu to dispense Babylonian teaching, teaching with a mixture of grace and law, teaching that is full of human sentiment, worldly value and from the Tree of  the knowledge of Good and Evil, king Nebu gave them a very beautiful title call the “master of his eunuchs”. Hmmm … What a title! I would never want to be a eunuch! Praise the Lord, as I look at the ministry that my Lord has given me - ministry of dispensing pure grace, my King of kings, Lord or lords, crowned me with a title called royal priesthood. What a contrast between these two kingdom!

Daniel

1:5 ~ And the king gave them the portion of a day in its day from the king's food, and the wine which he drank, even to rear them three years, so that at their end they might stand before the king.

This was a dark avenue... as I stepped onto verse 5, we can see that the initial motive of teaching Daniel and gang with the language of the Chaldeans had turned into a spiritual conspiracy. King Nebu had instructed the master of his eunuchs to serve them with king’s food and wine…Hmmm… what a spiritual conspiracy.

In our Lord’s Table, He serves us with bread and wine. Our Lord serves us with the food that is from His finished work at the Cross – His own broken body and His blood. His finished work was the end of the old and beginning of the new. Our Lord’s Table ushers us into the New Covenant where the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Our Lord’s Table ushers us into His righteousness which is through the path of faith not by work because everything had been finished by Him at the Cross. He leads people into rest.

As king Nebu did not know the mystery of the cross that had defeated him completely, for if he would have known, he would not have sent our Lord to die on that Cross.  As such, he can only serves the food and wine that is before the cross full of rituals and religion ceremonies.  His table is full of condemnation that is based on do and don’t, right or wrong which misleads people to end up working for their faith. Therefore, King Nebu’s table ushers people into the path of righteous by work with performance orientated doctrine.

Daniel

1:8 ~ But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king's food, nor with the wine which he drank. So he asked permission of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

As I was in this avenue, although there were four young men among them, I overheard only Daniel resolved not to defile himself with king Nebu’s food and wine. At this instant, I was prompted to realize that as we have all been enlightened by the Lord with the pure gospel of grace, we too, need to make a decision not to be defiled by king Nebu’s food and wine. Making such a decision is a very personal thing as when we came to our Lord while we were still sinner, we too, have to make a personal decision to accept Him as our Saviour. The Spirit also enlightened me to realize that towards the end of this book, we could find only Daniel was able to prophecy the end time events but not his friends. In a few avenues down this verse,  we will be able to see clearly why Prophet Daniel was able to see the end time events under his desperation. 

Daniel

1:9 ~ Now God had caused the official to show favour and mercy to Daniel.

In this verse, I witnessed the Lord granting Prophet Daniel favour and mercy in respond to his resolution. We all know very well that favour is grace. As for mercy, the Spirit prompted me to understand that the word mercy is written here because Daniel was under the dispensation of law whereby Christ had not been glorified yet. If this is in our dispensation, this mercy would be replaced by righteousness because of the Cross. This insight immediately reminded me of my favourite verse from Romans 5:17… Wow...!

Daniel

1:12 ~ I beg you, try your servants ten days. And let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.

With the favour (abundant provision of grace) and mercy (gift of righteousness) from God, Daniel asked for vegetable to eat and water to drink instead of king’s food and wine. Wow… this is the most beautiful avenue of all…

In the original Greek, vegetable means seed, while water symbolized the Holy Spirit. Seed by itself is the final stage of a plant life and a seed is a finished product. A picture like this immediately reflects a seed as to the finished work of Christ. If we do not plant this seed, a seed remains a seed. If we plant it, it will grow into a tree and bears multitude of fruits. Likewise, if we do not depend on the Finished Work of Christ, our spiritual life can never grow and not to mention bearing fruits of the Spirit stated in the Book of Galatians.

This is the reason why this avenue is so beautiful… The Spirit began to show me the parable of a sower in this avenue. We could never sow a seed on the stones (law), because when it came up it became dry and dead because it had no water (Holy Spirit is not a witness of law). We could not sow the seed by the path and a path is a picture of mixture of soil (grace) and stone (law) which means Babylonian teaching. The seed was crushed under foot, and was taken by the birds of the air and ate it up. We could not sow the seed among the thorns (worldly and humanistic teaching) because when the thorns came up with it and it had no room for growth. 

A seed is to be sowed into good soil (grace), with a lot of moisture (witness by the Holy Spirit) and with no stone (law) but full of "organic" fertilizer called dung. This dung is our self-righteousness as defined by Apostle Paul in the Book of Philippians.  Likewise, this revelation reflects the finished work of Christ can only work well in the environment of pure grace, with the anointing of the Holy Spirit where believers have already counted their self-righteousness as dung.

With the above insight, I was amazed to realize that during Prophet Daniel’s dispensation, he was actually feeding on the Finished Work of Christ with the anointing from the Holy Spirit and under the favor and mercy of God. No wonder He was a great prophet who could see the end time events! I began to realize that as for our dispensation of grace, when we look back and fix our eyes on the Finished Work of Christ, we too can understand the mystery that was hidden before the foundation of the world!

It was a wonderful spiritual stroll... I have discovered the key to unveil the mystery that was hidden before the foundation of the world. This key is the finished work of Christ… and only His Finished Work works because even in the Old Covenant, the Finished Work of Christ applied to father Abraham's insight when he offered up Issac at Mount Moriah and now through Prophet Danial's resolution.

We who are under this grace dispensation, have to resolve to partake nothing but His Finished Work!

The Firstborn Blessing

Their Eyes Were Opened...

Pastor Joseph Prince

On the Road to Emmaus

Luke 24:30 ~ Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 

Luke 24:31 ~ Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. 

Luke 24:32 ~ And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" 

@ the Garden of Eden

Genesis 3:6 ~ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 

Genesis 3:7 ~ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. 

God's Abundant Provision of Grace and the Gift of Righteousness

Last Sunday during the English Service, I was holding the Bread on my left hand and the Cup on my right during the communion time … In the flick of a second; I saw in my spirit the abundant provision of Grace on my left hand and the gift of Righteousness on my right. At that moment, I was quicken and started to receive a fresh insight from the Lord in respect of His Body and Blood.

Romans 5:17 ~ For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 

The verse from Romans 5:17 is a very special verse in my grace walk with the Lord. Many months ago, I first received a revelation that before the cross, Jesus reminded the Jewish people to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all that they required will be added to them. As for us believer, the Kingdom of God is already in our heart and we are now not in the position of seeking but  receiving. So with this verse, receiving God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness became alive in my walk with the Lord. It is an encouraging verse that when we receive this abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness, we will reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ and we can never exhaust these divine provisions in His grace!

As I looked at the Bread, I remembered what the Lord said. He said: "Take eat, this is My Body broken for you.” Oh hallelujah, He is God and whatever He spoke of came to pass. But at this moment, He briefly said: “Take eat, this is My Body broken for you.” He did not mention anything in particular like headache or poverty, because if He spoke specifically,  only what He had spoken would come to pass. Look at His heart for us, He does not what to restrict us when come to receiving His blessing.

In this instance, I  began to see His ABUNDANT PROVISON OF GRACE… In whatever areas that we are in need of, just say it out… because this is His body, broken for us! WHATEVER, WHENEVER and HOWEVER...!

i) Our well being: Through His punishment at the Cross, we have Shalom peace!

ii) Our health: By His strips, we are healed!

iii) Our wealth: Though He was rich, yet for our sake He became poor that through His poverty, we might become rich!

As for His blood, He is very specific by saying: "This cup is the NEW COVENANT in my blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins…. " His blood is for the New Covenant and for the forgiveness of all our sins! We are made righteous by His blood not our good deeds. What a gift of righteousness from the holy blood of our Lord Jesus Christ! Wow… we have wonderful and awesome God! Indeed it is because of Him that we are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 

He has placed these divine provision in our hands, the abundant provision of grace on our left hand while the gift of righteousness on our right! We are blessed... and irreversibly blessed! 

Praise Jesus for He is our wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption!

Which Table Are You Partaking From?

In my previous post entitled "Confusion", King Nebuchadnezzar has been exposed of his conspiracy to confuse the redeemed. From his table, he lavishes his royal food and wine! Be discerning enough not to feast from his table. His table is called the table of confusion. The royal foods and wine is the teaching with the  mixture of law and grace which in one hand disarms the purposes of the law was given for and on the other hand neutralized the resurrection power of God’s grace.

Before us in the presence of our enemies, our Redeemer prepared the Table before our enemies.  We are partaking His Body and His Blood from His Table. This table is victorious, full of undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor of God. We come to our Lord's Table to enjoy and celebrate His victory and all that He had done for us! 

Before we continue, may I ask whether which table is your "Jerusalem" partaking from?  What is the difference between these two tables? Well, This king Nebu prepares his table before of our own weakness. When we come to king Nebu’s table, we need to legalistically confess all our sins and this is an insult to our Redeemer's finished work! This king Nebu is trying to copy the way our Redeemer prepared the Table but he leads us to eat and drink in an unworthy manner and as a result, many are weak and sick, and many sleep.   But when we come to our Lord’s Table, we partake with thanksgiving and acknowledgement of our Lord’s finished work in remembrance of Him. Because of  His grace, His body had open up a new and living way. The more we come, the more we live! Our Lord’s Table is full of solid truth which is His broken Body and His Blood!

Daniel the Prophet is the picture of the redeemed. He had the wisdom to resolve not to defile himself with the royal food and wine and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. He asked the official to give them vegetable and water instead and test them for 10 days.

Have you resolve not to eat from king Nebu’s table?

The root word for vegetable here is seed. Jesus mentioned about the Word of God as seed in Matthew 13. He also said in one of the parables that He is seed and unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Now with this compilation of the New Covenant truth on seed, we can see that Daniel by then had already been feeding himself with the New Covenant truth, for the Word was with God and the Word was God. This is not ordinary Word but the resurrected Jesus Himself. As for water, we can easily connect water with the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, He only comes to glorify Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, Who is the Only Truth. That is why Apostle Paul preached in the Book of Romans that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ. The Christ here is the resurrected Jesus. Apostle Paul himself received revelation from the resurrected Christ and  with his revelation, he was able to write two third of the New Covenant. 

By the way, as I was writing this post, I was fascinated by the statement that my wife wrote on her Facebook wall. She wrote: No man understands the Scriptures, unless he is acquainted with the cross! What about that?

Well, after ten days of testing, Daniel and his gang looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. This is the consequence of the right nutrition for the spirit man… After sitting under a ministry that preaches only the grace of God for eight years, I noticed that those who are in the Grace ministry are healthier in their physical and spiritual life. They are better nourished as the Bible says they are eating meat, not drinking milk because they understand the teaching on righteousness. The newly converted in our midst know more fundamental truth than those “old” Christians who sit under a ministry that preach the mixture of law and grace. 

I am now convinced that Daniel who was in his dispensation already had the wisdom to prophesize on the coming of the Messiah and the end time events because of his  resolution to partake only vegetable and water. What about us, the redeemed who had resolved not to defile ourselves with the royal food and wine from the table of king Nebu, the king of confusion?  We have the vegetable (seed, the Word of Christ) and the water is in us (the Holy Spirit in us)… Wow!

Which table are you partaking from? Is it king Nebu’s table or our Lord’s Table?

Jesus, Our Valentine!

In the Jewish marriage custom, before a man can marry the woman he loves, he needs to demonstrate the extent of his love and commitment to his bride-to-be. He would have to come to the woman’s house with his father who then would negotiate the price of this marriage. Very often, the bride parents would ask for a high price for she is precious to her family. Ha-ha... verily I say onto you, this Jewish custom is quite similar to our Chinese custom. The bride parents would demand a high price which at least would cause the bridegroom some "pain". (Remember because of us, Jesus had paid a heavenly price and died a painful and shameful death at the cross).

When the agreement is made, the man would then take a cup of wine with him and approach the bride-to-be personally. This wine is a symbol of his love and commitment to the woman. The presentation of wine in a cup is a gesture of saying to his bride-to-be: “I am pouring out my life for you just as this wine is being poured out. I love you so much that this cup is a covenant that I will give my life to you.” Smiling and deeply persuaded, the bride would accept the cup and drink from it as if she is saying, “I accept your love and I am willing to enter into this covenant with you for the rest of my life.”

Is this similar to what we are doing every Sunday during service? He ordained holy communion so that we can do this often in remembrance of Him. 

Custom be it of the Jewish or Chinese origin, are pointers to a more glorious and profound love demonstrated by the Trinity God. During Jesus’ ministry and being a Jew Himself, He lived among Jewish community and offered the same wine of love to His disciples… There were at least three occasions that He celebrated the festival of the Passover with His disciples. But on the night before he died on the cross, He took a cup of wine, offered it to each and every one of them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” 

Wow… being a gang of law abiding Jews at that time, how could this gesture escaped the minds of these disciples that what their Master offered them was something which could only be done by a groom to his future bride!

Jesus is indeed our Valentine. This same Jesus is offering the same love to us today. To demonstrate His love and commitment towards us, He had gone to the extent of hanging Himself on that cross at Calvary and set us freed from all our nonsense that lead us to our empty and meaningless life. He Himself demonstrated this love not only by offering us the cup but also through the breaking of bread, before inviting us to enter into His everlasting romantic covenant. 

To respond to His glorious love, we just simply need to be persuaded, smile and partake of  the cup in remembrance of His love and what He has done for us. Anything apart from the response like a bride is religion, not relationship. Therefore, confession of our sins before communion is indeed religious and self righteous!

Grain, Wine and Oil

In the 23rd Psalm in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the writer describes God as Protector and Provider. The text, beloved by Jews and Christians alike, has often been set into music. For Christians, the image of God as a shepherd evokes connections not only with David but with Jesus, described as "the Good Shepherd" in the Gospel of John.

Recently I discovered the power pack from God in the 5th verse of this beautiful Psalm. This verse mentions of the Lord’s Table is Holy Communion and the oil that the Lord uses to anoint us is olive oil. These elements of the Holy Communion and the anointing oil can freely be found in the Old Testament as grain, wine and oil. However, these elements carry significant symbolic values of the sufferings of Jesus and these are the pointers that carry biblical value in pointing the believers to the Finished Work of Christ at the cross.

Psalm 23:5 ~ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

What a powerful verse this is. A resurrected life of abundant life is what the Lord had promised in John 10:10b. Psalm 23 is therefore the secret to divine granted abundant life in a Shepherd and sheep relationship.

Holy Communion and anointing oil are like medicine. These elements help us to believe the finished work of Christ progressively. We have this divine provision from our Lord, and we can eat and drink towards our health and prosperity that He had restored for us. We are to take good pleasure to look first to Communion and anointing oil before any other conventional provisions.

Grain – The Lord is our Bread and He offered His broken body to us as bread from heaven. In our nature world, the way we get bread from grain is to process it by sifting it, punching the dough and baking it at high temperature in an oven. These gestures are symbolic of the punishment Jesus Christ took on our behalf. During the process of making bread, the punching of dough has to be complete in term of force and time and Jesus, the way He sustained the sufferings were complete. He had totally absorbed all our punishments on His body.

Wine – The ways we get wine is to crush the grape fruit, trodden it and leave the fruit juice to be fermented. The crushing and troddening of these grape fruit also point to the suffering of Jesus and the colour of the wine has a symbolic value of Jesus’ precious blood.

Oil - The way we get oil is by crushing the olives. Jesus was crushed so that we can be healed. Crushing the olive fruit removes the bitterness and produces the oil. In the circular world, there are 3 pressings in the extraction of olive oil:-

The oil from the ‘first’ press is used for lighting the Holy Place. In substantial to Paul’s revelation, this first press serves to light us, as our body is the temple of God! In Gethsemane, it was the darkest era of darkness and distress, and Jesus was pressed until His sweat was mixed with blood, so that we may have light to see His truth spiritually.

The oil from the ’second’ press is used for medicine. Jesus was pressed the second time when He was scourged 39 times by the Romans soldiers so that by His stripes, we are healed!

The oil from the ‘third’ press is used for making soap. When Jesus was nailed at the Cross, His shed blood washed our sins away eternally!

All traditions in Christianity feature this Psalm prominently in funeral services. Hey, do we really need abundant life when we have passed on to be with Jesus? I think we need this Psalm more while we are still in the sheep pen (graceyard) instead of in the graveyard!

Wow... I want my cup to overflow in this graceyard! What do you say?

Fourth Drink... The Cup Of Praise!

Continue from my previous post on Third Drink… The Cup of Redemption, I continue to see Jesus' perfect execution of His Father's will in everything He had done... From the fourth drink point of view, this drink is supposed to be the Cup of Praise and it is drank while joining in responsive praise for various ways in which GOD has blessed the Jewish people and GOD had Himself their God and Jewish people His own people. The Passover meal is to be ended in praise with this drink until the next year's celebration.

From the account of the Gospel of Mark chapter 14 verse 26, it suggests that our Lord Jesus' special Seder that night did not include the fourth drink, the Cup of Praise. But for the previous two Passover meals with His disciples during His ministry on earth, He observed their custom by ending the Passover Seder with the Cup of Praise. In the Last Supper, as the name suggested, He adjourned straight to Gethsemane with Peter, James and John where He wrestled in prayer about the cup of suffering He was about to drink.

Mark 14: 26 ~ When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

He skipped the Cup of Praise and chose to drink the cup of suffering so that we can drink the Cup of Praise. He chose to drink the cup of suffering so that we Gentile can also become His people and He becomes our God. With this drink, we Gentile can also drink in responsive praise for the ways our Lord Jesus has bless us... He had made everything possible... and with that, He continued on with His Father's will to obsolete the old and bring forth the new...

Hebrews 8:6 ~ But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Hebrews 8:7 ~ For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
Hebrews 8:8 ~ Because finding fault with them, He says: "BEHOLD, THE DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH—
Hebrews 8:9 ~ NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT THAT I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS IN THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; BECAUSE THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DISREGARDED THEM, SAYS THE LORD.
Hebrews 8:10 ~ FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS IN THEIR MIND AND WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.
Hebrews 8:11 ~ NONE OF THEM SHALL TEACH HIS NEIGHBOR, AND NONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, 'KNOW THE LORD,' FOR ALL SHALL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST OF THEM TO THE GREATEST OF THEM.
Hebrews 8:12 ~ FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."
Hebrews 8:13 ~ In that He says, "A NEW COVENANT," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

He drank the cup of suffering so that we can drink the Cup of Praise!

Third Drink... The Cup of Redemption!

The first Passover in the land of Egypt was celebrated by people who were enslaved. They were instructed to eat in haste, ready to leave position. After the exodus, the Jewish people were allowed to recline and enjoy at leisure. Many Jewish families will recline to the left in their chairs while eating, or the four cups may be drunk while leaning the left elbow on the table.

There are four drinks in the whole course of the Passover meal. The first cup is before meal after the mother in the family Seder, covers her head, lights the candles (usually two) and says the blessing "Blessed art thou o Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who has set us apart by his word, and in whose name we light these festival lights." This bring forth the remembrance of GOD'S four promises to Moses in the Book of Exodus.

Exodus 6:6-7 ~ "Therefore, say to the Israelite: 'I am the LORD, and I will BRING you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will FREE you from being slaves to them, and I will REDEEM you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will TAKE you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.'

The first cup of drink is being blessed which is called “The Cup of Sanctification” The head of the family or other readers will then tell the story of Passover. When the story comes to the plagues, second drink is filled. The second cup is called "The Cup of Rejoicing". As each plague is recounted, they dip a finger in and allow a drop to fall, which in turn, reducing the fullness of their cup of joy. This cup is not drunk at this stage. The third cup is “the Cup of Redemption” and it is drunk warm to signify the blood of the Passover lamb.

Luke 22:20 ~ In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you…

This is the cup known as “The Cup of Redemption”. It was the cup after supper that Jesus gave to His disciples. He said to His disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” This cup was supposed to signify the blood of the Passover Lamb but Jesus said, “This is My Blood…” Wow…!

After this third cup, the Hallel is sung. Hallel means "Praise" and is Psalm 113 to 118 or Psalm 136 and is written in the Gospel of Mark chapter 14 verse 26 as, "When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."

The fourth cup is the Cup of Praise. It is drank while joining in responsive praise for various ways in which GOD has blessed them, for God had Him their God and them His own people.

From the account of the Gospel of Mark chapter 14 verse 26, it suggests that our Lord Jesus' special Seder that night did not include the fourth cup. He adjourned to Gethsemane with Peter, James and John where He wrestled in prayer about the cup of suffering He was about to drink.

Friends, He drank the cup of suffering so that we can drink the cup of praise. He was very considerate and because of His love for us, He had done it all… That is why He cried out loud at the Cross, “It is finished!”

This Is My Body...!

Imagine if you are a Jew and you have been observing the Passover meal years after years; and you happened to be in the midst of the twelve disciples partaking the Last Supper together with the Lord. What would be your feeling when the Lord stood up, took the bread, gave thanks and said, “This is My Body!”?

I have been reading many times on the verse where the Lord took the bread and said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” and this verse does not have much impact on me until I was led to take a closer look at how the Jewish people celebrate their Passover meal.

Well, Passover is a festival to be celebrated at home involving every members of the family using the meal as visual aids and taste experiences. The first Passover was celebrated by people who were enslaved. They were then instructed to eat in haste, ready to leave position. After the exodus, they recline and enjoy the Passover meal at leisure.

Three pieces of Matzo bread are wrapped for Passover. The leader of the family will take the middle Matzo and break it into half. One half is wrapped in white linen cloth (Jesus was wrapped in burial cloths). This half is called Afikomen (the coming One). The head of the family will then tell the children to hide their eyes and he in turn, hides the Afikomen. The Afikomen will then return to the table at the end of the Passover Seder and to be eaten as dessert.

After the meal, the head of the family will then speak blessing over the Matzo, "Blessed art thou o Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth." The Matzo is then shared among the family members. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 22 verse 19, Jesus broke this bread, gave thanks, and He added, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

Every little gestures of this celebration are pointing the coming of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus and His mighty work. Now, with the understanding of the Jewish culture, this verse suddenly becomes alive to me! How cool is it when Jesus held this bread (the Afikomen, the coming One) and claimed, “This is My Body! Wow...! For 1,500 years (the number of years under the dispensation of Law), the Jewish people had been observing and celebrating this festival year after year and suddenly, a Man, stood up, took this Afikomen, which signified the coming of the Messiah and claimed, “This is My Body!” Wow, cool...!

Jesus declared the Afikomen as His Body in front of His twelve disciples. The twelve disciples were significantly representing the twelve tribes of Israel as well as the twelve Elders of the Church; as twelve being the number of government. Hey, our Lord was declaring this powerful truth to His people, i.e. the Nation of Israel as well as His Church...! From then on, Passover meal became the Holy Communion and we, as His holy nation, the Christ generation, are blessed with instant access to this powerful providence that the remembrance of His mighty Finished Work at the Cross is possible at any time and in anywhere. Because of His Finished Work, we do not have to wait for the coming one by observing any festival ever again…


"Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheynu, Melech ha Olam, hamotzi lechem min ha aretz" which means “Blessed art thou o Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth!"

Do Not Eat The Meat Raw!

During the time of the Old Testament, lambs for the Passover meal were being slain and not a bone was to be broken in these sacrificial lambs. Passover pronounces redemption and to the Jewish people, the Passover feast has a special meaning. Though we are not slaves, like the Jewish people, we were slaves to our sin, our own wants and desires. Sin was our master until Jesus, the Passover Lamb, delivered us from our "Egypt". The lamb slain during Passover is a foreshadow of the redemption we find in Jesus, our Saviour, our Passover Lamb. The principle of redemption is the concept of bondage to the slavery of sin and freedom from its domination. To be "redeemed" means to be purchased from slavery and Jesus Christ purchased our freedom with His blood as the payment for the redemption. The Good News is; we are redeemed!

Before the Passover lamb was taken to the Temple, the High Priest would tied it for public view so that it could be inspected for blemish. In the same way, Jesus sat and taught in the Temple courtyard for four days. He was inspected and questioned as the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the teachers of the law sought to trip him up in His words and entrap Him. They could not, because He was perfect and without blemish.

Jesus had equal status with God but did not think so much of Himself that He had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, He set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He did not claim special privileges. Instead, He lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

Like the Matzo bread, Jesus was pierced in His brow by the crown of thorns as well as in His hands and feet by the nails. He was also pierced in His side by a soldier’s spear. He was pierced for our transgressions… He was also scourged on His back until His flesh was all torn and bloody, and His bones were exposed. By His stripes, we are healed…

Like the brunt of the Matzo bread, the full fire of God’s wrath fell on Jesus, burning up our sins into ashes, and at the same time, bring out the fragrance of the offering of Jesus. After the Finished Work at the Cross, our sins and lawless deeds are but ashes and our Daddy in Heaven remembers our sins and lawless deeds no more! If anyone come to you with this ashes in their hands, just sneeze and these ashes will vanish in the thin air...

Exodus 12:8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts.

Jesus indeed was the true Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. At the Cross, He had accomplished the Father's will...

I am concern for those who come to the Lord’s Table with confession of their sin. Although they are sincere, they ignorantly sin against the body and the blood of the Lord the moment they confess their sin. No wonder Prophet Hosea said in the Book of Hosea: “My people are destroyed from the lack of knowledge.” If we confess of our sin before we partake the communion, we are saying the Lamb has not being judged, the Lamb has not been burnt and our sin is still with us. In this manner, we are eating the meat raw. When we are eating the meat raw, we still hold on tight to our sin and therefore, we eat and drinking judgment on ourselves! The Lord says this is an unworthy manner because this manner does not glorify the Father but brings humiliation to His Name! The truth of the matter is, God is Holy and He had lawfully judged and legally punished our entire sins of our life on our Substitute at the Cross. The same sin cannot be punished twice!

If we believe that all our sin had been forgiven, the way we approach the Table is not by the confession of our sins but the confession of our righteousness we already have in Christ. In this manner, we are eating the meat burnt with fire. If we come to the Table with confession of our sin, we are saying the Lamb has not been burnt and judgment for our sin has not been executed. To come to the Lord’s Table with sin consciousness is unworthy. This sort of manner contradicts to the truth and we are eating the meat raw!

Come to the Table seeing our sickness had been judged on Jesus’ body, our sins had been punished and exhausted on Jesus’ body; our poverty had been taken away as He died poor and naked on the Cross and our curse had been removed as He was hung on the tree on our behalf. He had been burnt…

The Lord’s Table is not a place to plead for forgiveness of sin or to claim God's blessing and healing but a place to remember Jesus and celebrate His death for through His death on the Cross, He conquered for all our victories. The Bible says in the Book of Romans that we, as the redeemed one are more than a conqueror. Is this not grace...?

Therefore, renew your mind and do not eat the meat raw!

Justified

The feast of Passover is called Pesach in Hebrew, which means passing over or protection, and is derived from the instructions given to Moses by God. This festival was instituted to remind the Israelite of the exodus from the land of Egypt, from slavery to freedom…

Jesus, the Passover Lamb, was betrayed on the night of Passover. He personally instituted the breaking of bread and partaking of the cup in the midst of this festive celebration also known as the Last Supper. Hence, the breaking of bread and partaking of the cup superseded the feast of Passover as the new era arrived through His death on the Cross. The feast of the Passover was the shadow of the real event to come and Jesus, the Real Passover Lamb was then, about to accomplish all that the prophets had spoken in the Old Testament.

On the resurrection Sunday, Jesus again appeared to His disciples and personally illustrating how a church is to conduct the Sunday Service with the breaking of bread and partaking of the cup.

Luke 24:30-31 ~ When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight.

From the light of this passage, the breaking of bread certainly opens our spiritual eyes and releases our spirit to recognize the resurrected Jesus and leads us to our understanding on the truth of His Finished Work. I want to stress again, it is recognizing the resurrected Jesus! But you may say, “Brother, I know Jesus, He died for me on the cross and He is my Saviour!” Yes, what you say is true but do you recognize Him as the Resurrected One?

If you can recognize Him as the Resurrected One, the nail pierced marks on His hands are telling you that all your sins have been forgiven…, past, present and future! If you believe that all your sin has been forgiven, then the way you approach the Table is not by the confession of your sin but the confession of your righteousness you already have in Christ. He prepares the Table in front of your enemies to celebrate victory instead of mourning for your sin and shortcoming. When we break bread and partake of the cup, we proclaim His death until He comes again. Every time a ram horn is blown in the Old Testament, His death was proclaimed, victory followed. In the New Covenant, every time we break bread and partake of the cup, we proclaim His death, and it is a reminder to the kingdom of darkness that victory belongs to us.

How do you recognize Jesus? Do you recognize the life when He was ministering on this earth? Or when He was at the Cross? If we fail to recognize His resurrection, we are only embracing half of the Gospel. The full gospel completed with His resurrection and indeed, the Lord wants us to recognize Him in His resurrection. His death on the Cross took away all our sin, sickness, curses and bondage while His resurrection justifies that we are righteous! Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

The breaking of bread is powerful providence to enable believers to walk on this earth because as we come together to break bread, we remember once again what the Lord had done and we are also be reminded of our righteous status and a righteous man has no sin but righteousness, no sickness but divine health, no curses in their life but abundant blessing, no bondage but freedom with abundant life. But is it so in the body of Christ? It was not so at the church in Corinthian during Paul’s time and the situation in our time is no any better either. Let see what Paul had to say about communion…

1 Corinthian 11: 28-30 ~ that a man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

What did Paul meant by examine himself? The examine himself here means examine the man or the manner he partake the bread and cup? The illustration in Verse 29 says the manner of how man partake not the man who partake. It is our manner of how we recognize His body. Do we believe that His Finished Work at the Cross had already given us the righteousness or we believe that He did not do a good job at the Cross and our present and future sin are not forgiven yet and need us to bring out one by one? It is a wrong manner to come to the Lord’s Table recognizing our own sin for he said, “It is finished!” When we come with a wrong manner, we eat and drink judgment on ourselves. The consequence is weakness, sickness in our midst and many fallen asleep.

When we believe the wrong thing, we are not walking in the truth and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, is unable to witness and manifest His power in our life for He only bears witness with the truth. Believer who has fallen asleep is passive and is not threatening to the kingdom of darkness.

So the good news is, if we can understand what Paul was saying and come to the Lord’s Table recognizing the Lord’s body and not our sin, we shall be strong, healthy and is not sleeping!

Romans 4:25 ~ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

By His grace we are justified... My heart is burning within me now and with this burning heart, I wish you a blessed Easter Holiday and may your holiday be happened with His happening!

The Matzo Bread

Take a closer look at the Matzo bread that we partake during our Holy Communion. This Matzo bread, which is unleavened, is pierced with rows of little holes forming strips. It is also slightly burnt. This bread we hold in our hands when we partake of the Lord’s Supper speaks of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ when He bore our sins and sickness on the Cross.

Like the Matzo bread, He was pierced in His brow by the crown of thorns as well as in His hands and feet by the nails. He was also pierced in His side by a soldier’s spear. He was pierced for our transgressions… He was also scourged on His back until His flesh was all torn and bloody, and His bones were exposed. By His stripes, we are healed…

Like the burnt of the bread, the full fire of God’s wrath fell on Jesus, burning up our sins into ashes, and at the same time, bring out the fragrance of the offering of Jesus. After the Cross, our sins and lawless deeds are but ashes and our Daddy in Heaven remembers our sins and lawless deeds no more…!

When we partake of this Matzo bread during the Holy Communion, know that Jesus was pierced for our sins and scourged for our healing. He bore God’s fiery judgment so that we will never be judged for our sins! He also bore our diseases and carried our pains so that we can walk in divine health all the days of our life!

When we discern these precious truths about our Lord’s body, we are partaking of the Holy Communion in a worthy manner; and we will not be weak and sickly, or die before our time, but we will be strong, healthy and live long for His glory!

Homemade Spicy Beef Noodle

We have our yummy Spicy Beef Noodle prepared by Penny during our Care Group meeting last night. What a coincidence that whenever we have beef noodle, Owen is unable to attend... and we missed him to clear the table!

The old covenant Saints had to be reminded of the coming of the Savior by looking at the process of the killing of the animals. What a privilege to be a new covenant believer; we can just look to Jesus' Finished Works at the Cross and say grace before we have our meal.

Yummy spicy beef noodle

Beef Seasoned with:
Lee Kum Kee Chili Bean Sauce (Toban Djan)
Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Garlic Sauce
Premium Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Chinese Cooking Wine

Handmade Noodle :
Eggs
Flour

Decorated with:
Green Bean Sprout
Beef
Celery
Chinese Salted Vegetable
Fresh Chili

Do This In Remembrance Of Me

In the Chinese Calendar today, the Chinese people are celebrating the Mid Autumn or Moon Festival. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright Mid-Autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes together.

This festival is to remember their legends Chang’e in Chinese mythology involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi, the Archer; Chang'e, the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality; an emperor, either benevolent or malevolent; an elixir of life; and the Moon. Basically, this is what the Chinese people think; and they are doing this every year at this time to remember their “heroes”.

This is just a version of what this festival is about. There are various versions because a mythology is not the truth; so I won’t expound on that and as for me, the truth has set me free.

Now, Our Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread, 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 after supper he took the cup, say, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

The word remembrance in our generation has been watered down to mere remembering in our mind. But in the Jewish culture, they actually go through the process in action to remember the festival or occasion. Just like the Chinese people, they are eating moon cake, admiring the bright Mid Autumn moon in remembrance of their legendary heroes.

In the body of Christ today, we have been led to perversion on the way we remember the Lord’s Body. Instead of coming to the Table in celebration, we come in consciousness of our sin and with fear of condemnation and judgment.

Jesus has gone through all the sufferings and died for us on the Cross; and He is our real Hero totally different from those legendary heroes. What the people of the world have are mythologies while we are having the truth. Can we just shift our focus off ourselves for a while and give Jesus the due respect by REMEMBER HIM when we come to the Lord’s Table?

The people in the world celebrate their festival and freely commune to remember their “heroes” with the right attitude, but of no value. While we have been eternally made righteous by the blood of Jesus, we have the truth in us but come with a wrong attitude. This wrong attitude makes void this powerful provision of God and put us back in same position with the people of the world. Hey..., this is a conspiracy from the evil one!

1 Corinthians 11:27 – Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

What the Lord meant is the manner of how we come before the Table not who! The MANNER, not the MAN…!!! Yes, we were once full of sin; but when we are born again, we have been made righteous forever not by the bloods of bull and goat but the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ! When our Lord is resurrected on the third day, we are justified.

However, our heavenly Daddy is always mercy and full of grace. He never gets angry with us but forever faithful in leading us to His truth with lovingkindness.

Come to the Lord’s Table and celebrate His death and remember Him. For whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim His death until He comes. It is His death on the Cross that set us free. Rejoice before the Lord’s Table and give Him the due respect and praise Him. The beneficiary of this remembrance is us not Him.

This is grace….