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    The Bread and the Cup: A Standing Miracle
    The Bread and the Cup: A Standing Miracle
    The Bread and the Cup: A Standing Miracle
    Ebook295 pages2 hours

    The Bread and the Cup: A Standing Miracle

    By Dr. Martin G Tharp PhD

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    About this ebook

    I have discovered for myself that there is a standing miracle awaiting for those who believe the power of The Bread and the Cup! Many have been blinded by their mundane acceptance of this universally embraced religious ritual, and have been living serenely and unconsciously at the brink of a phenomenal revelation! Join me as we unveil healing in the Holy Sacrament!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDr. Martin G Tharp PhD
    Release dateFeb 27, 2013
    ISBN9781301704217
    The Bread and the Cup: A Standing Miracle
    Author

    Dr. Martin G Tharp PhD

    Dr. Martin Tharp has been an avid student of the Bible for many years and holds a Bachelor, Master and eight Doctorates, one honorary and seven earned, including a Doctor. of Literature and two PhDs. He has been in full time ministry for over fifty-seven years and has authored forty-nine books to date, many of which are being used as curriculum in Bible colleges around the United States and abroad. He has also penned a number of gospel songs and recorded thirty-three albums as well as being actively involved in a school ministry to Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom for the past thirty-eight years, and Dr. Tharp has been honored twice by members of parliament in Ireland for their work in the Protestant and Catholic schools. He and his wife, Sharon, along with Maranda Howells, travel extensively across the USA and the whole of the British Isles holding evangelistic crusades in the churches of both countries.

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      Book preview

      The Bread and the Cup - Dr. Martin G Tharp PhD

      The Bread And The Cup

      A Standing Miracle"

      Martin G. Tharp, Ph.D.

      Copyright 2013 Martin Tharp Ph.D.

      Smashwords edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes; This ebook is licensed for your own personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.. Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, King James Version. Copyright 1984, 1991 by AMG International, INC and the Living Bible Copyright 1971, 1986 by Tyndale House Publishers INC

      Table of Contents

      1. Lets Make It Personal

      2. The Sanctity of Bread

      3. The Ban and the Plan

      4. Testing the Plan

      5. Passover; The Lamb

      6. Passover; The Blood

      7. The Cup Of Blessing

      8. The Blood of the New Covenant

      9. Eutychus; A Partaker Of The Blessing

      10. Rightly Discerning The Lord’s Body

      11. The Bread And The Cup

      12. The Children’s Bread

      13. No Swelling of the Feet and a Forty Year Wardrobe!

      14. The Shadow versus The Reality

      15. The Battle is the Lord’s

      16. What to Expect After The Manna Stops

      17. When The Shadow Ends, The Reality Appears

      18. Eighty Five and Going Strong!

      19. The Sovereignty of a Holy God

      20. Household Salvation; Could It Really Apply To Me?

      21. A Daily Dose; The Best Medicine of All!

      Study Questions

      Bibliography

      About The Author

      Introduction

      The subject which lies before us is one which is a dire necessity for the Christian world. The day and hour in which we live is fraught with elements of danger which threatens to tear us apart at the seams. The diseases which threaten us are not just those life threatening varieties, but are quite effective in disrupting the peace and tranquility of our daily devotion, placing a strangle hold on our families as well as our future as more and more families are disrupted by the defection of our children from the ranks of faith into a lifestyle which does not consider nor include the church.

      No one who has ever watched a loved one die while they stand by in utter despair, will ever forget the feelings of helplessness, anger, resentment and frustration as every effort put forth by the medical profession fails!

      I am personally at an age when friends are falling around me at an alarming rate! Some of my acquaintances which have been life-long friends have recently expired unexpectedly. Some were taken ill and slowly languished away in a hospital bed, while others suddenly fell in silence as the body simply refused to take another breath.

      I am keenly aware of the words in the Holy record which assures us that;

      "It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgement."

      I have no quarrel with that statement, and I am fully aware that it applies to me as well as anyone else! Nevertheless, I am also well aware of the words spoken by the Apostle Paul who assured the Corinthian Church that there were valid reasons for the lingering maladies which debilitated some and the premature death of others which were taken unseasonably from among them;

      "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

      Why? For not rightly discerning the Lord’s body.

      Twenty five years ago we started our missionary endeavors in the British Isles, and for years I have endured a ritual which every church in the United Kingdom habitually observes; communion. Most of the churches in the early days of our tenure insisted on every person drinking from a single cup as it was passed from the front to the back row by row. If you were unfortunate enough to get a seat in the rear of the church, the condition of the cup was enough to severely test your faith by the time it arrived! Having come through the ranks of the younger children, some eaten up with colds to those whose sanitary habits lacked the common courtesy of the use of a tooth brush, it served as the means by which colds and flu was spread at an alarming rate. Of course those who dared to suggest such a thing were severely castigated by the leadership, who I might add, always seemed to be the very first in line as partakers of the cup.

      I have discovered for myself that there is a standing miracle awaiting those who dare to believe the power of; The Bread and The Cup! Those whose eyes have been blinded by their mundane acceptance of this universally embraced religious ritual, have been living serenely and unconsciously at the very brink of a phenomenal revelation!

      My sincere desire is that your mind will be captivated by the power of this subject and your faith will soar to new heights the next opportunity you have to become a partaker of The Bread and The Cup, I urge you to receive the Standing Miracle which exists!

      Chapter One

      Let’s Make It Personal

      The communion table is the one single piece of furniture which is a standard fixture in the churches of every Christian denomination. Although each of them are in agreement on the concept that the Eucharist is indeed an ordinance of the church, that is where the similarity ends. In America, many churches serve communion in a totally random manner, when and if the urge strikes. Others serve it to their congregations bi-annually, still others adhere to the concept that since it is, after all, used as a ceremony in remembrance of Jesus , they serve it on a quarterly basis. Some hold to the tradition that the first Sunday of each month is the accepted order, and they take pride in their spiritual resolve.

      In the British Isles, the concept is far different, the vast majority of the churches of all denominations serve communion on a weekly basis, with the entire Sunday morning service planned around the participation of the congregation in this Holy ordinance. In my own case, when I served as a Pastor, the communion table held such great significance for me that I used it as a table to set the sound system on, dutifully clearing it off for the purpose of actually serving the Lord’s supper from it once or twice each year.

      My own disregard for the importance of this Standing Miracle, was not a result of my lack of understanding of this ordinance, on the contrary! I preached numerous sermons on the subject, citing Old Testament types and shadows as the basis for what Jesus instituted in the upper room with His disciples, with what He accomplished by His death on the cross, His ascension into the heavenly’s in order to present His own blood as an eternal propitiation for my sins and the sins of the world.

      From early childhood, communion has always been part of my Christian experience. My Father, who was consumed with a desire for the solace of a bottle, could never be persuaded that I had no need for church! There was a bevy of ladies who made it their business to see to it that I attended services every single week. Time and time again I stood just behind whichever of them came to seek permission from my dad to cart me off to church, and vigorously shook my head NO! An effort which always proved unsuccessful, for my dad NEVER said no! The highlight of attending that small country church was the Sundays when they partook of The Bread and the Cup. I rarely had anything to eat prior to the ladies coming for me, so when they served the communion I was told it was not for me if I was not a Christian, in order to take communion I insisted that I certainly was a Christian! I always searched the trays for the fullest cup, and the largest piece of bread. One Sunday morning when I discovered they left the unused portions sitting on the communion table, I helped myself to the remains of the morning sacrament. If anyone ever noticed, they were kind enough to leave me alone, for no-one ever bothered to stop me.

      My dad and I lived in an old run-down flea bag of a hotel, the proprietor of which was one of the ladies who insisted that I attend church each week. Looking back, I must admit that I might have been just a little dense! I always thought the grape juice that I helped myself to on several occasions in the hotel refrigerator tasted suspiciously like the stuff in the tiny glass cups at church. I was never quite smart enough to fully make that connection until on at least two occasions the lady questioned me on the disappearance of the communion juice from the refrigerator. At first I was genuinely indignant when the lady asked me if I had been drinking the communion juice! My education in the matter came rather suddenly when it fully dawned on me that I was indeed the guilty party! You can imagine my embarrassment when she walked in early one Sunday while I was emptying the last dregs of what she informed me had been intended for serving communion that morning!

      I have often wondered why some things seem to take longer than others to make an impact on our lives. As an avid student of the Bible, it seems ludicrous to me that regardless of all my years of studying, I still had very little revelation knowledge of the subject at hand until less than a year ago. My health has been a recurring problem which has severely tried my faith and my patience as well as our financial resources! I am well aware that no one relishes the idea of being plagued with sickness, yet many of us have faced that prospect every day of our lives.

      In the spring of this year (2004), I preached a series of messages at a Church in Pennsylvania on the subject matter of this book. We began on Thursday evening, and all went well and the congregation seemed to be an extremely appreciative audience until Sunday morning. That day the crowd increased dramatically as many of the congregation attended their first service in that series of meetings. One dear sister who only heard the final installment of the four messages, stopped me on the way out the back door and said; Brother! What in the world took you so many years to discover that? I could have told you all about communion years ago! I feel certain that in her mind, having only heard a portion of the climax, she was fully convinced of the veracity of her statement.

      The primary reason for relating that event is to point out the simple fact that I knew exactly where she was coming from. Had I only heard the bare minimum of facts which I presented in order to bring my subject to a final conclusion, I might have felt precisely the same way. Revelation, hinges on our ability to assimilate the facts which are available to us, gleaning every scrap of information humanly possible! Then, after we have expended the necessary energy to ascertain the facts, we must depend on the benevolence of our Heavenly Father to add the catalyst which will allow us to draw fresh manna from that unseen force.

      The power of the anointing is capable of either blinding our minds to that which He deems unnecessary and inappropriate or, opening the throne room of Heaven and pouring into us the spirit of revelation. Only God is capable of assessing the information which we have amassed, causing it to make perfect sense when possibly one single day earlier, it was like looking at a blank wall without finding a single scrap with which to feed our spiritual digestive system.

      The subject The Bread And The Cup, just less than one year ago held little value with which to add to my spiritual existence. Yet the book you now hold in your hand was written with a sense of awe at the prospect of endeavoring to cover such an essential and indispensable segment of our Christian heritage.

      The ordinance which Jesus personally instructed them to do in remembrance of Him, should not be taken lightly.

      "And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19).

      Jesus has not assembled the disciples in the upper room for the purpose of serving them The Bread and the Cup, He is observing the Passover feast with the disciples, reaffirming the original commandment which was given as an everlasting covenant to be continued forever, throughout all generations. Jesus did not do away with that covenant nor does He negate the principle which is the motor that drives it. Just like the laws which the Scribes and Pharisees were certain He came to disavow, repudiate, or disregard, He not only fulfilled, He amplified! The Passover, which was to be celebrated once each year, Jesus was careful to observe during the three years of His earthly ministry. But now, at the close of His ministry, at His final observance of the Passover after they had eaten, He amplified the covenant by saying This DO in remembrance of me! The Apostle Paul further clarified the amplification of this Holy ordinance by adding the words;

      "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come" (1 Cor. 11:26).

      Please correct me if I am wrong, but I have never read where Jesus ever said; as often as you baptize, or as often as you pray, or as often as you witness or as often as you tithe or often as you sing, or as often as you preach or as often you do anything for that matter in regard to church rituals of any fashion, Ye do show the Lord’s death till he come. Oh yes! I am well aware that Jesus said;

      "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20).

      But you must remember that in the book of Acts, the breaking of bread from house to house was the primary focus of every church service!

      My sincere desire is that the following chapters of this book will somehow open your eyes to the standing miracle which has become part and parcel to my daily Christian existence. My lips have been uttering words for years which had no foundation in the confines of my heart as I have hoped for a miracle time after time when sickness drove me to the point of desperation. You may be asking; But what is the difference? The difference is that now when the ravages of one of those unfortunate events grip my body I no longer hope, for a miracle, I fully expect a miracle!

      Allow me to cite a few examples. In November this past year, we were in full swing in our yearly efforts to bring the message of the gospel to the secular and Catholic schools of Northern Ireland. Although it was freezing cold outside, with the slightest expenditure of my energy I found myself sweating, my heart beat accelerated and my pulse in overdrive! Every day as we packed the equipment in and out of schools I continued experiencing that discomfort for slightly over a week, on Friday I called a good friend who is a practicing physician in White Abbey, a little village just North of Belfast, and asked if it would be possible for him to come over to where we were staying and examine me.

      Dr. Maginnes came promptly and listened to the beat of my heart for a few minutes, then put me in his car and drove me to the emergency ward of the nearby Antrim hospital. They examined me, then took some blood samples before subjecting me to an ECG. We had arrived at the hospital around five thirty, and at midnight I was informed that they were assigning me to a room for the night, the cardiologist wanted to see me the following morning. Since my wife was nearly beside herself worrying over my condition, and I had no means of contacting her to make her aware of my progress, I declined the room and asked Dr. Maginnes if he would take me back to our coach.

      On Saturday I was listless with no energy, and the least effort on my part sent my heart racing again and the clammy feeling to return. On Sunday we were ministering at Jordanstown Christian Center, and just prior to the morning service I spoke to the Pastor, Dr. Cecil Stewart, and requested for them to wait until the close of the service to observe the communion. I wanted to preach on the subject before we were to partake The Bread and the Cup.

      The anointing energized me as I ministered, but when I finished the sermon and sat down waiting on the men to serve The Bread and the Cup, my pulse began to rise rapidly and the clammy feeling swept over me as my heart began to beat wildly. When they had served everyone, I once again took the pulpit, encouraging the congregation to trust the covenant which the broken body of Jesus sealed as an everlasting inheritance for the child of God. When I touched the bread to my chest, my accelerated pulse rate suddenly dropped to normal, my heart quit pounding and the clamminess which I had been experiencing also disappeared, I was healed. The Standing Miracle was still in place!

      In December just prior to returning to the U.S. from The British Isles, I apparently caught a bad case of the flu. By the time we had arrived in Atlanta, I developed a raging fever and an incessantly violent cough. My coughing spells became so severe, that one night during an episode I temporarily lost consciousness. When I revived and caught my breath, something was desperately wrong in the left side of my chest. Several years earlier I had broken five ribs on my left side, and it felt suspiciously similar. It soon became extremely apparent that I had indeed broken the same five ribs again.

      We were scheduled to sing at a Christmas party on Saturday night in Bowling Green, Ohio, with Pastors Larry and Linda Damron, then minister in the church on Sunday morning and Sunday evening. Two days prior to our departure for the engagement, the pains in the left side of my rib-cage became nearly unbearable. My wife was forced to do the driving, for with every movement on the left side of my body it brought severe and excruciating pain. During the opening festivities Maranda and I sat at a table alone while Sharon visited with the Pastor and his wife. In sheer desperation for some modicum of relief, I turned to Maranda and requested for her to lay hands on me and pray.

      The pains momentarily subsided, giving me a temporary respite, but it was short lived! The moment we stood to sing, the pains returned with a vengeance! Later that evening, either Maranda or my wife Sharon suggested that I ask the Pastor if I could preach on communion Sunday morning. Suddenly the thought of my healing in Belfast inspired me, so I did as they suggested.

      Sunday morning found me ill from the constant movement of my broken ribs which refused to give me a moments reprieve from the pain. Again, during the service, the pain subsided while I preached under the anointing. Afterward, as the men served the congregation, every breath became excruciatingly painful until I stood to administer the elements of the communion. The moment I touched the bread to my ribs, I felt a sudden movement in my rib-cage and the pain instantly disappeared. I had been healed again!

      Both miracles were astounding but they pale in comparison to the miracle which took place in February this year (2004).

      We had purchased a 1979 MC9 coach, equipped with power steering and an automatic transmission which we have always wanted. The Eagle we traveled in for the past seventeen years has served us well, but when Kathleen Hoffman left us to get married, I became the sole driver for the first time in twenty eight years. In order to turn the coach into a proper motor home, I began by laying sheets of 3/4 inch tongue and groove wafer-board on the floor to smooth out the ridges which are characteristic of all these busses. Plus, the wafer-board also serves as a very effective sound barrier.

      There is a process of laying tongue and groove flooring which is called kicking it in. Instead of hammering it into place, you use the momentum of your weight as you kick with your foot to slide the grooves together. All went well until the final board. It was nearly dark and I was in a bit of a hurry to finish for the day, but the plywood simply would not cooperate! I finally managed to kick the left side into place, so I moved to the right side and decided to put an extra effort behind my weight. In the darkness, I failed to notice the sawdust which covered the top of the board.

      With a mighty effort I kicked as hard as possible, but the momentum of my weight caused my foot to slide out from under me on the sawdust and I did the splits! My right leg extended straight out in front of me with my left leg extended behind me! When I went down, something snapped in my right hip and severe pains shot through my body rendering me momentarily helpless. TRUST ME! I couldn’t do the splits when I was six years old, much less at sixty eight!

      Unfortunately, there was no one available to help me get up, even though I yelled at

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