From Psalm 34

Not only from my enemies
But from my fears
       Deliver me, my God who hears

With tongues on fire
And eyes that could
       I taste and see the Lord is good

Fear of God
is right to learn
       It is good Life to which I turn

Useful Teaching

"To teach men how to live and how to die, is the aim of all useful religious instruction." - C.H. Spurgeon

Thanksgiving and Trials at the Supper

When Jesus instituted the Supper, Luke records that He said, “with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”  This was a meal of life, a meal that answers everything, that solves everything, and Christ longed to give it to the world.  That same night, however, He would pray in great agony, sweating drops of blood and asking the Father, if it was possible, to take away the cup He was about to drink, the death He was about to die.

But, for the joy set before Him, the next day, Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame, and soon thereafter sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So – do you have great thanksgiving and rejoicing to give?  Then you must come to the Table of Thanksgiving – the Eucharist – and eat the celebration.  Do you have great sorrows and heaviness of heart? Then you must come to the Table of Suffering and drink the cup of consolation.  Christian, come in your faith, come with your doubts, come with your sorrows, come in your joy.  Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

The Completed Work

At this Table we are memorializing a work which has been completed and a work which is being completed in us.  Whether it has to do with your own life, your marriage, the fellowship of the church, the leavening of the world by the kingdom of God – in all of this – the particular and definitive work of Jesus Christ on the cross – His death, burial and resurrection, is being remembered.
 
It worked.  That’s the story.  He won.  Death lost.  The devil was put down.  The reconciliation of the world is found here, in a meal, in a gospel, in a Word made flesh.  Come quietly – Kiss the Son while there is time – that is what is being declared.  Be Still and Know that I am God – no matter your situation, church or family or individual, nation or state or city – Be still and know – Jesus Christ has done it all.  It is finished, He said.  Come and welcome to Jesus Christ

Thanksgiving Upon Us

Thanksgiving is upon us and not only should our tables be groaning under the weight of the offering.  As Christians, we first have our salvation to be thankful for – and the further you look at what the love of Jesus Christ in your life means, the more and more overwhelmed with gratitude you have to be.  And the further you are filled with gratitude for that deliverance and victory and hope, the more and more grateful you will find yourself for every blessing you have received under the sun.

Today, most of what we call an American Thanksgiving has become a pathetic event.  It is pathetic because we refuse to give thanks to the Giver of all that we have received.  We refuse to acknowledge His existence, His presence, and the generosity of His giving.  We shake our fists at a God we do not even believe in.  How can you thank God, we say, when you look at the devastation of a Hurricane Sandy, the ongoing wars, the terrible economy, disease and want that is spread over the globe. 

Instead, our Thanksgiving, our giving of thanks, must be changed from the inside out. We need a reformation and revival of Thanksgiving – not simply the day – but a whole mindset, a new way of living.  When you are in Christ, you have everything and there is nothing kept from you from the Father without His kind, perfect, eternal, and personal reasons for you.  How do you know this?  Look to the cross.  In the only event that could ever be truly called unfair, unjust, uncalled for – the crucifixion of a perfect, holy, good, and loving man – God said “no” because He had a greater “yes” for His Son and for the world.

Death brought forth life for those who died with Christ.  The grave broke open, the stone rolled away, and a resurrection declared a new humanity, a new way, a new covenant, a new world.  It is upon these truths that we base our Thanksgiving.  In our sovereign and good God.  It was upon those truths that pilgrims who had suffered tremendously would still set aside three days and feast together before God in a declaration of His grace and kindness.  Count your blessings and come and worship your God.  Count your blessings and enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.

Reconciled to God through Christ

When we come to the Table, we are partaking and proclaiming.  We are partaking of the new life, the new creation, the new humanity, and we are proclaiming the new life, the new creation, and the new humanity.  We are celebrating what has been done for us, what is being done for us, and what will be done for us – through Christ, in Christ, and for Christ.

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  And we have been summoned to come and eat and drink of this Word.  We do so by faith, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and willingly, because from the inside out, He has and is making you new in Christ.  Come and welcome to Jesus.

Blessing Your Enemy Just Like Jesus

When Jesus broke this bread on the night He was betrayed, He was declaring just the kind of love He is commanding in the passage we looked at in Luke 6.  Jesus’ body was just about to be broken for those He loved and it was just about to be broken by those He loved.  Jesus’ blood was just about to be poured out for those for whom He died and it was just about to be poured out by those for whom He died.  Jesus was blessing His bride who was, at that moment, His enemy.

Jesus gives what He commands and then commands what He gives.  He gives life, He gives refreshment, He gives nourishment, He gives truth, He gives love.  And then He says, now go give these things as well.  Do you believe?  Do you embrace Christ here at this Table?  Will you have all of His gifts, all of His mercy, all of His kindness – here?  You only can by faith, you only can by the work of His Spirit – and this is the only way you will be able to give it away as well.  Come to Jesus – and Welcome