Yesterday it was Sunday, that is, the Lord’s Day – it’s NOT the day of the Sun, but the Lord’s day! Every Lord’s day – the first day of the week – we gather together, according to the pattern of the early believers, to remember the Lord at the Lord’s Table Meeting, the Lord’s supper.
I don’t know what is your experience of this, but I can testify with all my heart that, no matter where I am in the world, I am so happy to meet with the saints in one accord and remember the Lord in oneness in the Body of Christ!
Whether in London (UK), Montreal (Canada), New York (USA), Taipei (Taiwan), Bucharest (Romania), Warsaw (Poland), Charlotte (NC, USA), Malaga (Spain), Porto (Portugal), Athens (Greece), Bratislava (Slovakia), Coventry (UK), or any other locality, we can meet on the ground of oneness and enjoy the Lord at the Lord’s table meeting with all the saints!
God Chose a Specific Place For His People to Worship Him
In the Old Testament God chose a specific city and a specific place where His people would worship Him – Jerusalem. In the New Testament also God chose a specific place where He would be worshiped – in the spirit (John 4:24), in oneness with the Body of Christ. Many Christians today gather “under many trees”, “in the place of their choice”, and in a certain other name than the Lord’s…
I am glad to be brought back, little by little, to the original intention of God – one city, one church (in oneness with all the Body of Christ). God doesn’t allow people the ground to choose the place where they meet – it’s in the local church, in the spirit!
Otherwise, just as we see in Nehemiah and Ezra, most of the Jews remained in Babylon and in the other countries, they never returned to Jerusalem – yet they are still God’s people, still meet in synagogues, still read the Torah… Today there are many more genuine Jews outside the country of Israel, but some paid the price to go and move and live in the land of Immanuel… The Jews in Israel may be much poorer than the Jews in New York, nevertheless if God wants to do something among His earthly people, the ones in Israel are on the proper ground.
As long as we are in the place God desires us to be in today to worship Him, we will have His presence, His blessing, and His up-to-date speaking.
Size Doesn’t Matter – the Oneness Does!
The size of the Lord’s Table meeting doesn’t matter – as long as we gather together on the genuine ground of the oneness in the Body of Christ. I have been in meetings of a few hundred saints, and I have been in gatherings of 20 or so believers, and in both settings there was the sweet oneness, the genuine one accord, and the Lord’s presence was with us!
What matters is to be in oneness with all the believers as the members of Christ’s Body in the locality we meet, and in oneness with all the Body of Christ by being in a regular fellowship with other local churches!
This past Lord’s Day, though we were only a few of us, we were enjoying the Lord as our Host presiding at the Table, giving us to eat and to drink (see: How Glorious is Your Table, Lord! Hymns #1112). How wonderful to be one with all the saints, in the Body of Christ, and enjoy Christ as the bread of life and as the cup of salvation!
How delightful to drink of Him as the One who was pierced for us and to eat of His Body broken for us! How satisfying to worship the Father by praising Him and offering Christ to Him through our praises and prayers! Oh, the feeling of the Father being happy in us!
Eating and Drinking Until the Lord Returns!
Our Christian life on earth is a life of eating the Lord and drinking Him until He returns – and then, He will drink and eat with us anew in His kingdom (Matt. 26:29)! To eat the Lord is to overcome, and as overcomers we will be rewarded with more eating of the tree of life (Rev. 2:7; 22:14). We are destined to just eat of the Lord as the tree of life and drink of Him as the river of water of life for eternity (see the New Jerusalem, Rev. 22:1-4).
This is what the church life is today – eating, drinking, and breathing Jesus, on the genuine ground of oneness – in the mingled spirit and in the Body of Christ! And when we meet with other believers, we continue to eat the Lord and drink Him in spirit, mutually edifying one another through speaking, singing, reading, and much fellowship!
This is what we do when we get together every first day of the week – we eat the Lord, we drink Him, and we testify to the whole universe that by eating and drinking Him in oneness we express Him in the universe as His unique Body! We stand as one in each locality for all to see (see hymn, There is one Body in this universe, Hymns #1107)!
I love the church life. I love the local churches, the procedure for God to obtain His overcomers and build up His Body on earth today! I love the Lord’s table meeting, where we enjoy the Lord, remember Him in love, eat and drink of Him, praise Him, worship Him, and express our love to the Father for His Wonderful Son!
References:
- Scriptural Meaning of the Lord’s Table Meeting.
- The Local Church meetings – the Table Meeting.
- Enjoying the Lord Jesus and partaking of Him at the Lord’s Table Meeting on the Lord’s Day!
- The genuine ground of the oneness.
Hi there brother! 🙂 you really described it in a very beautiful way. Thank you! I tried to tell it in my own way in my blog but yours described just how much you’ve been there in Him. I hope you don’t mind that I share your links in my blog as well. Thanks.