We who call upon the name of our Lord share a rich heritage. Throughout the history of the Church, our heritage, replete with reformations and newisms, has often served to fracture and divide the Body of Christ and, while this may serve to create orders and societies that cater to individual systems of dogmatic doctrinal belief, it has also chipped and whittled away at the community and unity that characterized, equipped, and emboldened the Church in those early centuries as the Church grew in their longing to fulfill Christ's commission to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Jesus Christ came into the world that He might destroy the power of the devil, and in its place establish the kingdom of God; hence at His Ascension He left His Church, small but complete, that, like a grain of mustard seed, it might grow until it had filled the whole world.
In the midst of a world that is experiencing many exploitive changes, our calling as believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ has not changed. Ours is a two-fold mission. One, to grow in our knowledge of Christ and His grace. Two, to communicate to a spiritually hungry world that knowledge and grace. The first concerns our own personal communion with the Lord. The second concerns our personal communication of the Lord. Neither of these two, if one is seriously minded to follow in the way of a disciple, comes without a great deal of challenge and opposition.
New Age philosophy and modern theologies, which are little more than revived and renewed pagan and apostate heretical religions and concepts, bid for the attention and find the embrace of an enlarging body of adherents in our world today. All of us are unavoidably touched by these as we make our way from here to heaven and, because of their growing popularity, it's particularly easy to find ourselves duped, deluded, and deceived by things accursed.
The New Bread And Water does not exist to promote new theologies. It does exist to assist in personally surrendered spiritual growth and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in an atmosphere that recognizes and respects the diversity of traditions represented within the Body of Christ.
Saint Francis once said, "We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way." If The New Bread And Water accomplishes any of these, then we will have, at least in part, fulfilled part of our purpose.
Your brother in the faith,
Reverend David Kralik
matthewfivesix@hotmail.com |
