COMMUNION MEDITATION
As we take hold of a piece of bread and a cup of juice, we must never forget that they symbolize a real body that was broken and red blood that was truly spilled.
Christianity is not a religion of religious symbols in hope of a real salvation. It is a real salvation with symbols which embody our hope.
As John Updike said in his Seven Stanzas for Easter:
Make no mistake: if …
All week long, I’ve been helping my son memorize Psalm 23:1 – “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” We’ve been reminding him that God is his shepherd, and God knows all of his sheep. He knows their needs, their fears, their sicknesses and their sufferings.
Verse 5 of Psalm 23 says, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” For us in the church, that table is this …
COMMUNION
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”
To be in Christ means something. First, it means that you belong to Jesus. His grace has sought you out and won your heart. He has taken ownership of you as your Lord. To be in Christ also means that you submit to him as Lord. Because he is your master and you are his servant, you behave under the sphere of his …
Throughout the Old Covenant the children of Israel were instructed to keep, or maintain, the regular feasts and festivals of the Lord.
And when we turn the page to the New Covenant, the Lord requires us to keep, or maintain a feast as well. The early church referred to the Lord’s Table as a Love Feast, and Paul commands us in 1 Corinthians 5:8, “Let us therefore observe the festival.”
But to our surprise, the …
In Luke’s account of the Last Supper, he tells us that:
And when the hour came, [Jesus] reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And [Jesus] said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
As much as he didn’t want to suffer, he still looked forward with eager expectation to have this meal with his disciples. And I have to tell you that I have earnestly …
We do quite a bit of standing and sitting in our service. And I want you to know that we do it all for a reason.
Earlier in the service we all stood to hear an assurance of pardon. Think about what’s happening at that moment of the service. We’ve just confessed sin. We’ve come, as it were, into the courtroom of the cosmic judge and we’ve pleaded guilty to all the charges of breaking …
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
Sin divides man from God, and man from man. But, when Christ died for sin, he broke down the walls that divide us from God and one another. From …
After he was raised from the dead, Jesus appeared to his disciples who were startled because they thought he was a spirit.
And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? … And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before …
