I love the Bible.
In a moment a passage can come to life and God's mind becomes real and vivid. God's amazing grace... the way He thinks is not the way we think but His thoughts from above are available to us. If we let ourselves be available to Him through His word.
This passage really bowled me over this morning. Like a wave crashing over a person on the beach and causing them to lose their footing and be carried in the tumble. Eternity meets time and space and like a wave it shakes what is not firmly anchored down as it saturates the Earth.
"For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.'
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged (discerned) ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another - if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home - so that when you come together it will not be for judgment." - 1 Corinthians 11:23-34a ESV
Putting aside the power of things. It is not the bread or the wine that has the power... but communion is powerful. Real communion when a person fellowships with God and God reveals Himself to that person in mingling intimacy. God giving his Son so that men and women might have mental, emotional and spiritual nourishment.
I think back to a principle we spoke about before involving knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Knowledge being an awareness of structure, understanding one of function and wisdom is discerning value. Do we discern the bread and the cup? Do we discern the value of people and the love God has for them? Do we discern grace?
God makes it clear... He wants us to remember Him... to commune with Him... but there is a wrong way to do it that brings harm. It can be dangerous if it is mishandled. If it is only moral. If it is impersonal. It is not about bread and wine. It is about grace and mercy! Oh yes it is.
This whole thing is about God's love for people! He sees what people go through as they suffer in a fallen world. He is holding out His hands on the threshold of the human experience. He comes as close as He possibly can without compromising His holiness or our right to choose and he calls and yearns and wants people to come so that He can fill, wash, heal and sustain them. Life is very hard. In the end God will fix all of it but living in time there are tremendous needs.
We can go through the motions of a spiritual life but lack the communion that comes from fellowship with the God of all grace. We can miss the value and be very unwise in life. It is possible... very possible... but in a moment that all goes behind us... the crisis is past when our eyes are fixed on Him... remembering Him... discerning who He is and what He has done... in Heaven sitting on a throne at the right hand of the Father, in an individual standing or sitting right beside us and manifested in a group of people.
Stop, take a minute to discern the situation and be wise. Stop and receive grace and love. Wait a moment and 'wait for one another' in the dignity of spiritual understanding.
Wisdom from above stirs up compassion in our hearts that moves us to function in faith. Let us be worshipers today as we discern the value of the one who loves us and loves the people all around us.
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