Communion Never Ends

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Communion Never Ends

Oh! How beautiful!

“For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.”
—1 Corinthians 10:17

We are one bread.

Communion is more than eating bread and drinking wine.

When we participate in communion, we partake of the Bread of Life which is Christ (John 6:48) and we drink of the wine of His blood (John 6:55), then we BECOME communion—we become what we eat—Christ.

Our Catholic brothers and sisters are on the right track with transubstantiation, except what becomes the body of the Lord isn’t the bread or the wine, it’s us.

Hallelujah.

We are called to communion as a celebration and revelation of the oneness we have through Christ—through the consumption of His person: His body and His blood where we become one with Him so that we too are bread and wine that others can consume to be brought into communion.

What this practically looks like is us breaking bread as believers in remembrance of Him, with the expectation of union with Him and through Him.

Then we take it out, breaking bread with others: over breakfast, over lunch, over dinner, with the expectation of sharing Christ so that they may taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), with the hope to draw them into Holy Communion.

Let’s walk this out together. Let’s break bread with one another with the full expectation to share the Lord bodily.

And, let’s do as our Lord commands, let’s not fail to discern the Lord’s body by showing partiality—only inviting those from who we stand to benefit, but also invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and be blessed (Luke 14:12-14).

Communion never ends.

#communionneverends

*Art Copyright Mike Moyers. “Lenten Labyrinth”, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.

See the full sermon, “Communion Never Ends” here: https://youtu.be/btUcr_DHL3E

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #48 – Leadership Of Leroy and Shannen Williams

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #48 – Leadership Of Leroy and Shannen Williams

In Week 48 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for our Thanksgiving 2024 hosts, the newlyweds, our nephew and niece, Mr. Leroy and Mrs. Shannen Williams.

They did a wonderful job bringing our family and friends together. You could tell the amount of thoughtfulness and work that was put into it, including the recruitment and coordination of a lot of help from many wonderful people.

Even as we were cleaning up, they said, “We can do this every year!”

For years, the home of Willie and Mary Harris was the epicenter of our gatherings. When they passed, there was a concern about whether we could stick together after the glue was gone.

But as it turns out, the glue isn’t gone—they put it in us, as shown by the many family members who have stepped up over the years to create safe spaces for the family to come together. This year, it’s Leroy and Shannen.

The attitude of “We can do this every year!”, stepping up to put in the work for your family, is the spirit of Mary Harris.

Our future is in great hands.

Thank you to everyone who helped and participated, and especially to Leroy and Shannen for leading the charge this year.

Melissa and I love each and every one of you.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG #Thanksgiving

Aquila and Priscilla: Models For God Honoring Marriages

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Aquila and Priscilla: Models For God Honoring Marriages

Finish this sentence: “Aquila and…”

Many disciples can finish that phrase without a second’s thought.

“Aquila and Priscilla”, though scarcely mentioned in Scripture, are models for God-honoring marriages.

Namely, in this way: when you think of one, you think of the other because as they are depicted in the scripture, they are always together and act as one.

How is their marriage God honoring? Because, through their marriage, they live out the “great mystery” of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:22-33).

Others should not see or think of us primarily as an individual.

We are betrothed to Christ.

When people see us, they should see Christ.

When people think of us, they should immediately think of Christ, because we’re always together and act as One.

That is what our marriages and lives should reflect.
#perfectourlove

What To Do When I’m Not Feeling It

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - What To Do When I'm Not Feeling It

Anyone who has been married for any significant amount of time can tell you that there are days when you’re “not feeling it”.

It’s the whole reason faithfulness is a thing.

If I were “feeling it” all the time, there would be no need for faithfulness.

On those days that I’m not feeling it, I **feel** like doing something that makes me feel better, that satisfies my craving, that soothes my pain, that fills what I’m lacking…

But, I **choose** to be faithful: to continually advance that which I have committed to.

“Feel”
Sense
Senses:
Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing, Sight

Sight

But, the just live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

I must choose to be faithful.

#perfectourlove #thriveday

The Discipline Of Looking For Life In Others

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The Discipline Of Looking For Life In Others

It’s easy to focus on what’s wrong or where I believe a person is falling short and completely overlook the areas where they’re growing and making an effort.

To ignore or deny where a person is trying is discouraging and destructive.

I realize how I’ve been guilty of this and I repent.

Very often, we kill the grape vine we’re given because we’re looking for an apple tree (and it might not even be the season for whatever we’re looking for).

I must learn to work patiently with the Holy Spirit within His appointed seasons, to sow what I want (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31) and faithfully attend to what I get, to nurture and cultivate what is rather than railing against what isn’t.

God has placed me in a garden. I have been entrusted with many fields. The goal is that there would be life in those fields and to help them be fruitful.

I must remember that the goal is not to get what I want, but to seek what God wants -fruit: to be co-laborers with God in conforming each person, all the fields He’s given me the great privilege of working with Him in, to the glorious image of Christ.

So, a good question to ask in my frustration about what I’m not seeing is, where else are they trying, where else are they budding, what is needful for Christ to be further formed in them?

Then I can turn that budding seed toward the Son, nurture it, and lean into what God is doing -in them and me.

“[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.” –1 Corinthians 13:7-8

#perfectourlove

Our Dream

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Our Dream

Arguably, there is no institution more vital to the growth of God’s Kingdom than marriage and the family.

My wife and I have a burden for marriage and family.

One of our dreams and lifelong goals is to build a multi-tenant space like a farm with multiple cabins or cottages where we can host couples and families for rest, redemption and renewal, or to shelter people in need and help them get on their feet.

This we will do if the Lord permits. Please pray for us.

#perfectourlove #marriageranch

You First

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - You First

Husbands, if you want to see your wife submit, you first.

Show her how it’s done through your submission to Christ.

“To guide on a way especially by going in advance” is the definition of leadership.

Consider Jesus.

#marriage #leadership #submission #youfirst

“So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?

You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.

Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

John 13:12-17

Three States Of Marriage Triangle

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Three States Of Marriage Triangle
3 States Of Marriage Triangle

This is something my wife and I cover with couples in counseling in preparation for their wedding day. I’m sharing it in hopes it will be a blessing to someone else.

The Three States Of Marriage Triangle

Marriage is God making two –a husband and a wife, one in Him.

No power is capable of facilitating this union and holding it together other than God’s love.

God is love.

We cannot love without love.

Therefore, everything starts with Him and is done through Him.

“We love because He first loved us.” -1 John 4:19

Love begins with His revelation and then our acceptance of His love for us.

Thereby, we see what love is, what is good, what is true and how it’s done.

We, as a husband or a wife, participate in marriage by being loved by God, modeling ourselves after God, and ministering the love of God to each other.

In a healthy marriage, the husband and wife minister the love of God toward each other, a perpetual process of perfecting –sanctification: that reveals, cleanses and draws.

Through this process they increasingly become One until the distinction between husband and wife is nearly indiscernible except that they’re merely different expressions of the same life-giving whole.

Attending to this process should be a husband’s top priority and occupation.

As a husband, he should be diligent to know the state of his wife and their marriage, careful to cultivate, water and fertilize with the nurture of God’s Love.

A husband should also be vigilant against evil, careful to weed and prune anything hindering their growth.

If it so happens that a husband or wife becomes distant (out of fellowship with God and therefore out of fellowship with the spouse), the marriage becomes anemic.

Our tendency is to look toward our spouse and concentrate on what we’re not getting that we think we should. This only causes more harm and it’s not God’s way.

Consider Jesus. No matter what we did (or did not do that we should have), Jesus was not moved. He focused on the love between Him and the Father and ministered that love to us.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” – John 15:9

God is faithful and His love toward that drifting spouse remains constant. So, we look toward Him. We focus on His love toward us to get what we need and then minister His love toward our spouse.

Love from above. Love from below.

There is no better means or greater power to restore someone to fellowship than God’s love.

Enticements, appeasement, grand expressions, manipulation and coercion only work for a little while, if at all.

But, love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).

Receive Love.
Give Love.
Trust Love.

And, in the last state where both spouses are distant (out of fellowship with God therefore out of fellowship with each other), the marriage is broken. This condition should be avoided at all cost by personally always drawing near to the Savior, Jesus Christ.

But even in the worst case scenario, God gives a way back to fellowship. Just one needs to look up.

I began by saying marriage is God making two one. And, everything I have said applies to two believers.

Before you say “I do” to each other, make sure you’ve both said, “I do” to Jesus’s proposal.

To have a healthy marriage, it is vital to not be unequally yoked.

#perfectourlove

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Ministry Begins At Home

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Ministry Begins At Home

No matter how involved in the community I am and all the good works I appear to do, I cannot glorify God if I’m neglecting my home (1 Timothy 5:8).

My ministry must begin at home because anything else is a misrepresentation of God.

Consider how the Godhead relates:

how the Father relates to the Son (Isaiah 42:1, Matthew 3:17, Mark 9:7, John 10:17-18),

how the Son relates to the Father (John 5:30, 8:29, Hebrews 1:3),

and how the Holy Spirit facilitates it all (Genesis 1:2, John 16:13-15).

They are true to Their love and commitment to each other ABOVE ALL (Deuteronomy 6:4).

THEN, They extend this inconceivably wonderful communion to others (John 17:24).

Every relationship, including Christ’s relationship to the Church, branches from that –the love They shared at “home” (John 15:9).

Love branches properly.

Love begins at home.

It’s like fire. It cannot warm those afar off without warming those nearby.

Love seeks incessantly to prosper, purify and perfect all who come in contact with the vessel carrying it, beginning at the vessel’s home (Acts 16:31).

Without that love, all else is just posturing (1 Corinthians 13).

Actually it’s worse, it’s saying God (Love) is something that He isn’t. It’s heresy.

Everything God ordains; marriage, family, ministry, reflects Him.

This informs my responsibility to my wife, children, parents -first.

Ministry of Love begins at home.

“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” -1 Timothy 5:8

Originally posted by Paul Luckett to Facebook here.

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#perfectourlove

52 Weeks of Gratefulness #5 – A Wife

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - 52 Weeks of Gratefulness #5 – A Wife

In week 5 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks for a wife.

“This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased,” is what God says of Jesus. That leaves me in awe. To receive such an affirmation from the God of the universe, I can’t imagine it. There is nothing I’d like more than to know God is pleased with me.

He has.

Because of His pleasure in and love for His Son Jesus, who was obedient to death, God gives Him a people.

He gives me a wife.

I find that the more like His Son that He makes me, the more obedient I become, the more of her I get.

Words fail me to express all that my wife is to me.

My very being aches for her. I so adore her.

She catches me staring at times because I can scarcely believe it.

I examine her, every inch of her, the way one might examine an unbelievable treasure.

She is an indescribable gift that leaves me in awe.

“He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord.” – Proverbs 18:22

I’m thankful.

#52WoG