Sharon: I saw a target in front of me just before I had Communion then in the bread of life as I ate I saw an eagle's head and then the drawing of an eagle in flight in front of me on a piece of paper. In the wine of Jesus' blood the eagle took off from the paper and started soaring into the sky! Isaiah 40:31 has always been my life scripture, like a theme to me.

Bob: as soon as I ingested the Bread of Jesus' flesh I heard "Its springtime in heaven!" and then "That is... many springs flowing, pouring out from heaven on you" then in the wine of Jesus' blood the voice of the Lord continued, "Pouring out My eternal life in you."  

Camille: As I ate the Blessed Bread I saw Jesus in the Bread and He just said, "Everlasting Life!" and then as I had he blessed wine Jesus held the wine and toasted us! (As if for all eternity it was the one thing He always looked forward to.)

Joe: I don't usually see something but right away I saw pages flying... I think it was a Bible... then with the Wine I got my super peace... (Joe just received a Bible from his wife this week... and said... maybe I'm supposed to read more Scriptures!)

Mary: In the bread I thought of Jesus welcoming the little children and then in the wine I heard John Denver singing "Fly Away" (Are you kidding!? Wow!)

Veronica: I was thinking about a prophecy someone gave me in 2010  and as we prayed, "Lord I want to do more for you!" Then when I received the Bread of Jesus' flesh The Lord said, "Now is the time! The best is yet to come! Then when I had the cup of the precious blood, the Spirit said, "Hold-On!!!!"  Note: It has begun - "Little Missions to Pray with People"

George: I couldn't stop from thinking about a show that I saw about Divine Intervention. One motorcyclist was struck by lightning and when the paramedics had given him up a lady appeared and placed a Bible on his chest and then she got up and left and the man was came back to life. There was another story about a fireman, seasoned veteran who was surrounded by fire and he knelt down knowing this was probably it for him and a lady showed up in his line of vision and she pointed toward a wall. He got up and went there and when he pushed on the wall it was a door and he fell through it to the parking lot! 

Don: I saw a flat bright laser light come through between the bottom of a door and the floor and the light digitized into a human form and it was Jesus surrounded by the light of glory. Then I saw the stone rolled away.. and in my heart I felt like shouting "Ta-Dah!" 

August 28, 2016 
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 126

Reading 1 SIRACH 3:17-18, 20, 28-29

My child, conduct your affairs with humility,
and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.
Humble yourself the more, the greater you are,
and you will find favor with God.
What is too sublime for you, seek not,
into things beyond your strength search not.
The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs,
and an attentive ear is the joy of the wise.
Water quenches a flaming fire,
and alms atone for sins.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11

R. (cf. 11b) God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.

The just rejoice and exult before God;
they are glad and rejoice.
Sing to God, chant praise to his name;
whose name is the LORD.

R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.

The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.

R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.

A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.

R. God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.


Reading 2 HEBREWS 12:18-19, 22-24A

Brothers and sisters:
You have not approached that which could be touched
and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness
and storm and a trumpet blast
and a voice speaking words such that those who heard
begged that no message be further addressed to them.
No, you have approached Mount Zion
and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
and God the judge of all,
and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.


Alleluia MATTHEW 11:29AB

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Take my yoke upon you, says the Lord,
and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel LUKE 14:1, 7-14

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.

He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor. 
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
‘Give your place to this man,’
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place. 
Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. 
For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” 
Then he said to the host who invited him,
“When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

"Fly Away"
By John Denver
​
All of her days have gone soft and cloudy, all of her dreams have gone dry.
All of her nights have gone sad and shady, She's getting ready to fly.
Fly away, fly away, fly away.

Life in the city can make you crazy for sounds of the sand and the sea.
Life in a high-rise can make you hungry for things that you can't even see.
Fly away, fly away, fly away.

In this whole world there's nobody as lonely as she,
there's nowhere to go and there's nowhere that she'd rather be.
She's looking for lovers and children playing, she's looking for signs of the spring.
She listens for laughter and sounds of dancing, she listens for any old thing.
Fly away, fly away, fly away .

In this whole world there's nobody as lonely as she,
there's nowhere to go and there's nowhere that she'd rather be.
All of her days have gone soft and cloudy, all of her dreams have gone dry.
All of her nights have gone sad and shady, She's getting ready to fly.
Fly away, fly away, fly away, fly away.

Where are my days, where are my nights? Where is the Spring? I wanna fly, I wanna fly:

While surrounded by the chaos of this world, He is busy converting us and transforming us and conforming us to the Eternal Reality of His Kingdom.

How?

Communion. The Eucharist. The Lord's Supper. The Qurbana... 
Jesus Flesh & Blood as Bread and Wine

Through the broken "veil" of His Flesh given to each one of us by Him as living manna from our bread, we forget this world for a moment and enter His reality. In His presence we get a glimpse of Him and He opens the eyes of our spirit to see what He has prepared for us. Even one quick moment continues to open up and unfold throughout the rest of our life. It is an eternal seed that continues to grow and multiply. Then there we encounter a "river of life" that flows from His heart into ours. His love flows in the form of heaven's wine coursing into your body and influencing every nerve and cell, spirit, soul and body.

His Invitation to dine at His Table and to dine on what He had prepared for us through a morsel and a sip of His Flesh and Blood as real food, is like a key that starts your spirit engine. The fuel of His meal and the spark of the Holy Spirit awakens and quickens your spirit and translates you into His eternalness! 

Here's what each person encountered or experienced on sunday under the Surfside Pier!

 ​In the 40 days between Resurrection and Pentecost, Jesus shared about the realities of His Eternal Kingdom. Clothed in His resurrected body in the face of this temporal world He appeared to the disciples and Apostles. He appeared to be like a flashlight planted in the sand, lighting the way to eternal life. 

After He ascended, He sent His Holy Spirit to all who believed.

They have been leaving their imprints in the sands of this planet one generation after another for almost 2000 years as a witness to those of us who follow. (Even under the Surfside Pier in South Carolina!) 

He is still here.

He's never left us or forsaken us.

When us eggheads believe, we are hanging in space without purpose or direction. He comes to us in the real food of bread and wine. By His loving hands it "becomes" His Flesh & Blood, if you believe. So then, Be Bold Believe! 

Then we are invited to dine with Him at His Table, for the meal He has prepared just for you. In that meal He continues to translate us into the reality of His realm, His Kingdom by sharing, surrounding us in His presence.

* Heaven surrounds us with a huge sky of bright clouds above, as eternal witnesses from heaven's grandstand; in the face of this world that surrounds us in its chaos! And in the sand below, Jesus opens our eyes to see a million footprints in the sand of those who also were led to His Table of goodness and mercy.

* When we gather at His Table (though surrounded by our enemies) the sounds of His waves of grace pounds our hearing with songs from his oceans of love as far as the eye can see to flood us with heavenly joy and peace..

* There He feeds us as He did the multitudes of 4,000 and the 5,000 in the open countryside. He does not with feed us with bread and fish or heavenly manna and gourmet quail from the sky. He feeds us with Himself. He comes to us as Heaven-infused and prepared Meal. It is a morsel of the "new eternal manna" and a sip of living water turned to wine in His glory that He calls His Flesh & Blood. 

* He surrounds us in His perfect pure presence as the light streaming of heaven and as He places His hands upon the bread and wine we bring to Him the light turns into a pulsating rainbow of His Promise encircling our hearts, minds and bodies. As it surrounds us we are translated for a moment to catch a glimpse of the King in His glory or the Shepherd in His field or the mighty Creator of time and space to become transformed to be, like Him; Full of Grace and Truth!

CommunionFire embraces us for just a moment. We get one quick glimpse and discover spiritual cognizance of the gracious power of The Holy Spirit. He reveals the Glory of Jesus Christ. It is greatest when we are in at His Table in Communion with Him just as He prescribes. This awareness is heightened even more if we are still for a moment. He opens our eyes in His presence (the CommunionFire) and and our ears to hear the Spirit is saying from the mouth of Jesus.

As we looked out into the Ocean beyond the Pier someone said, "George! Look its the boat!" As though Jesus had been looking towards us and preaching all the time! Just a glimpse of His face and we see and hear all eternity.

​Take me home Emmaus Road! : )

Listen to John Denver's Lyrics as though it is Jesus Singing to you right now! 

​24 hours later:

I forgot to finish that in the wine Don saw the egg start to spin and two hands like those of a magician on either side and as the egg began to spin, it turned into, became the earth spinning.

Newton's Laws of motion? (see below)

What might the same principle be in the realms of Jesus Christ - from the physical translation/transition/transformation into the Spirit? We are "at rest" in Christ while surrounded by chaos. While surrounded by chaos, He is busy converting us, transforming us and translating his realm into our lives, thoughts, motivations and speech - and we are hardly aware of the power of His grace constantly at work within us and in all situations around us. Our spiritual cognizance of the gracious power of His glory is perhaps greatest when we are in communion with Him as He prescribed it.

When Don shared with us what he encountered and experienced during communion in the CommunionFire, the imagery was explained by a third grader sitting with us as she explained anything can happen when "we rest in the Lord", even if an outside force tries to upset us. The law of the Lord is perfect bringing conversion to His design to restore our soul (mind, will and emotions).

"For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the Law of sin and death! Romans 8:2

And if that same Spirit that raised christ from the dead dwells in you He shall quicken you mortal body! Romans 8:10-14

While "at rest" at His Table we are being constantly transformed by feeding on His grace, love, life, mercy and goodness first as a morsel of bread and sip of wine - that when He blesses it it becomes for us a meal of His Word become Flesh and Blood that like a fire consumes what is not from Him and purifies and tempers all that is eternal from Him. In His presence through the veil of His flesh and blood we encounter and experience all that He prepares personally for us each moment we dine at His Table.

FYI

The Physics Classroom » Physics Tutorial » Newton's Laws » Newton's First Law

Newton's Laws - Lesson 1 - Newton's First Law of Motion

(Though known as one of the great minds of science in all of history he was also, and perhaps an even greater, Christian Theologian!

By the way, Sir Isaac Newton

Newton's First Law

• Newton's First Law
• Inertia and Mass
• State of Motion
• Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

In a previous chapter of study, the variety of ways by which motion can be described (words, graphs, diagrams, numbers, etc.) was discussed. In this unit (Newton's Laws of Motion), the ways in which motion can be explained will be discussed. Isaac Newton (a 17th century scientist) put forth a variety of laws that explain why objects move (or don't move) as they do. These three laws have become known as Newton's three laws of motion. The focus of Lesson 1 is Newton's first law of motion - sometimes referred to as the law of inertia.

Newton's first law of motion is often stated as: An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Partakers of His Divine Nature!

It is interesting that when we did the Lilly of the Valley exercise and the word was "Jesus" 3  people said they saw shafts of light breaking through a dark, overcast sky. Sunrays or "Son Rays" breaking through like a shaft of light or shafts. One saw the face of Jesus, another saw the sideview face of Jesus and I saw Jesus sitting on a stone surrounded by children. (Bridget was too shy at that moment to share) The other person saw and felt "LOVE" at just the name of Jesus. We are His children and the sheep of His pasture.

CommunionFire translates or communicates from heaven because of our utter and total dependence on Jesus, no matter our condition.  

Jesus shares His love and life and when He does we are being made whole. He is busy transforming us by the sheer power of the life and love He feeds us by pulling back the veil of this life to share His presence with us right now. It is but that single, simple "taste" that enables us to "see"

O taste and see that the Lord is good. It is the goodness of God that brings us into the realm of His ability to transform us and make us whole. 

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me

Okay - so then there is the ray of light or shafts of light breaking in overhead down upon us. Jesus is the light that lights upon every person that comes into the world. He is the light that continually shines in the darkness and that the darkness cannot, will not and refuses to comprehend. But no matter, Jesus says in John 6,  "If anyone believes, they have eternal life" and that "He will raise them up on the last day" and "when He appears we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is."   1 John 3:2

The Testimony of Jesus 
(How Jesus Communicates His Life to Us in Communion with Him) 

The 1st Hand Witness of His Testimony in CommunionFire
(How He Weaves us into the Fabric of His Story Personally)

Overcomers of Death and Darkness in Him and we are transformed by Him to Become More Than Conquerors Through Him. 

Revelation 12:9-12 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Revelation 19:9-13  9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God..."
 

This is how the Lord hurls down the dragon who is constantly day and night making accusations against individuals the Church: By the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Their story is a day to day story of an eternal relationship and union with Jesus Christ through his Flesh and Blood. He shares His story with us personally and applies His life and love to ours and the result is that we become 1st hand witnesses of His grace, mercy, love and goodness. when we witness or share with other s the light of Christ in our lives, it splits their darkness and hurls the dragon out of the picture and the light of Jesus rules and reigns at least for that brief, shining, eternal moment and it is enough light of his glory within us and glory revealed in His presence that we are bathed in His glory and we feed on his glory and are thereby transformed by His glory from one degree of glory to another. Jesus wants His testimony to become our story. As His witnesses in CommunionFire our relationship with Him increases in every communion. that is why the Revelator, prophet St. John, the Apostle declares for the Lord in Revelation 19:10 that,

​"The Testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

After 2 1/2 years the Lord has been directing us into a new format. We opened with some sharing. Charles spoke about Screwtape Letters and Veronica shared about her "defining moment". After we enjoyed some good worship we came to the Lord's Table. We asked the Lord's blessing on the bread to be His body and the wine to be His blood Then as led by the Spirit, we shared our encounters and experiences.  After a 5 minute break we looked at The continuing ministry of Jesus in Acts 10. We finished the evening with prayer, praise and thanksgiving. The following is a quick review of this evening's sharing from the CommunionFire. (Acts 10 is available at the top menu - just click ACTS)

I shared first: in the bread of life I saw the almost sheer veil again pulled back at the center by a gentle wind of the Spirit and heard "Hail through the veil". it is through Communion of the flesh and blood of Jesus that we enter His presence. then in the wine of His blood I heard myself saying, "Wow! That's strong stuff!" Hebrews 10:20

Veronica: "In the glory of the CommunionFire I saw butterflies, a rainbow and gladness!" The heavenly meaning: New life and transformation (butterflies), Promise of eternal life and that he will raise us up on the last day (rainbow), and His faithfulness, the hope he gives us and His love gives us gladness.'  Psalm 100:2

Joe: In the bread of Life I received my usual super peace and then in the wine of His blood I could feel heaven's heat and power filling my spirit. Ephesians 3:16

Camille: my communion led to the fire of realizing that I could do without so many things that require my force, effort and work, but I could never do without Communion. It is how Jesus shares His love and life personally - the gift of eternal life. John 6:53-58

Lori: With the Bread of the Body I saw the charcoal face of Jesus again only this time the image was clear and not shaking! With the Wine of the Covenant I was distracted and had to take two sips to finish my share. (It was suggested that sometimes the Lord gives us a double portion to combat whatever form the enemy might use.  2 Corinthians 4:6

Don: While having Communion I got only one word, "quicken". John 5:21, Romans 8:11

Jim: In the bread of life I saw the Eucharist wafer in the sky and in the wine of life I saw it become like the eye of the Lord!  Psalm 33:18, 1 Peter 3:12

Charles: 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 The Truth is Jesus - the truth is a person it is Jesus! He is the truth!

Halleluia! Thank you Jesus for coming to us as Savior and Lord and as Bread and Wine!