Potlucks are more than a way to have a grand buffet of home cooking specialties. Potlucks are extremely spiritual events, based on Biblical models and Scriptural truths.
We had a potluck in our church yesterday. Over 160 people came and it was a remarkable day in the Lord. What a time of joy and celebration it was. We honored our five members who are over 90, (wonderful women, ages 103, 96, 92, 92 and 90), and our five confirmands, all youth in their early teens. It was a special time in the church service and the potluck. We had a great feast and God taught us a great deal.
The great feast we had was a glimpse of heaven, where Christ will call us to a great feast together. Luke 13:29 says,"People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God." That is something for which we can look forward with great expectation.
Certainly, the Bible talks of feasts on occasions of domestic joy (Luke 15:23; Gen. 21:8); on birthdays (Gen. 40:20; Job 1:4; Matt. 14:6); and on the occasion of a marriage (Judg. 14:10; Gen. 29:22). And feasting was a part of the observances connected with the offering up of sacrifices (Deut. 12:6, 7; 1 Sam. 9:19; 16:3, 5),and with the annual festivals (Deut. 16:11).
It was one of the designs of the greater worship and ritual of the festivals, to feast together, which required the attendance of the people at the sacred tent, that the oneness of the nation might be maintained and cemented together, by congregating in one place, and with a oneness in taking part in the same religious services.
They came to present themselves before him as one body, because God is the author of community and the inventor of church and all its predecessors in the life of the Hebrews, and in the life of Christians. The great feasts were in thier own nature a binding of the people of God, in fellowship with God, and with each other, and a tangible reminder of the people's covenant with God. The feasts helped to keep the people's consciousness alive to God's love and faithfulness, to revive, strengthen, and perpetuate their allegiance to God, and to each other.
Likewise, a big church potluck does this for a church. We get a glimpse of heaven and we get an opportunity to serve God by loving our church family, which is important to God> So the next time you hear the word potluck, know it is much, much more than just and opportunity to eat good food. It is a new change to love and be loved, to be blessed and to be a blessing!
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