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Weekly Reminder...
The Weekly Reminder is an informative tool to help people who read it consider what the man of God has said. This weekend’s articles are based on what was heard on April 11 & 12, 2009 in the Westbury assembly.written by Br. Samuel Philogene
It was so wonderful to be in the house of the Lord last weekend in a spirit of thanksgiving and fellowship. It is good to share our hard times together, to suffer with one another, but let us be honest it is very good to share happiness and joy together in the love of God. Last weekend our pastor Br. Antoine turned 45 years old and it was a time of celebration not only for Br. Antoine but for the whole congregation.
I do not need to tell anybody how important a man of God is among God’s people. Every man God calls, He gives him a mission, a word, not a different word from the Bible but a specific word to address the people which the man of God has to face (Ezekiel 2, Jeremiah 1, Acts 9:15). I am sure that God gave to Br. Antoine a specific word to address and help the Westbury church to overcome and to be, like Br. Antoine always says, a strong church. As a people under his ministry, let us pray that God will continue to help this dear man to achieve his mission which is like John preparing a people unto God; “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23), to present the Westbury church holy and sanctified without blemish (Ephesians 5:26-27). Let us support him, lift his hands up so the work might be easier and the burden lighter for him.
Once again on this precious day I wish God will continue to use Br. Antoine as a vessel to transform our lives so we can be conformed to the will of God. May Br. Antoine continue being the instrument that God wants him to be, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
On this occasion, Br. Emilien from the Philadelphia church came and he blessed us. He preached concerning the subject of Passover. He went over Exodus 12:1-8 where God gave to the Jews during their last days in bondage the law concerning the Passover. “On the fourteenth day of the first month the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill a lamb in the evening. The lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats.” This lamb was a figure of Jesus who came on earth and gave His life so we might live thru Him. “They shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” He said that the bitter herbs is the Word of God which sometimes we don’t like but is good for us to eat it so we can have eternal life. “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” So they had to use the blood of the Lamb as a sign to let the angel knows that this is a house of the children of Israel, today more than ever we need this sign to identify us as children of God. He went on in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 how we have a new Passover to celebrate not as before but with a pure mind washed by the Word of God.
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written by Br. Samuel Damus
Last weekend we celebrated Easter Sunday by taking Communion. We learned that this was what Christ had done with His disciples before His sacrifice upon the cross at Calvary. This was taken during the Passover feast where God’s people would partake of every first month of the year.
The Lord’s Passover was a memorial that the Lord had instructed Israel to keep every year so that Israel would remember how God was with them in their captivity. In Exodus 12:1-8 “the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, ‘This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” The Lord said, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever” (verse 14).
The taking of the Lord’s Passover typifies the sacrifice that Christ made so that we may have life. The lamb ought to be a “male of the first year without blemish”, this symbolizes Jesus the Lamb of God who was without blemish and without spot, made Himself a living sacrifice and shed His precious blood on the cross of Calvary (1 Peter 1:18-19; Isaiah 53:7). The unleavened bread and bitter herbs is the word of God. We must take the Word of God, unleavened because nothing must be added to it, it must be pure. The herbs are also the Words of God, although bitter when it is taken but its end result is healing, restoration, life. When we take the Lord’s Communion, Jesus said of the bread, “Take, eat; this is my body” and of the cup, “Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). So we do take part of this Communion on this blessed day or as often as it is done to keep in remembrance the Lord’s death until He returns (1 Corinthians 11:24-26). And when we come let us not partake of the Lord’s Supper unworthily. Let us do it with no malice or wickedness in our hearts (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). For damnation is the fate of those who do (1 Corinthians 11:28-29; Luke 22:19-22).
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