Includes...
Here is today's communion meditation.
This morning I was reading in John chapters 19 and 20 and a few things stood out to me. When Jesus knew everything was completed so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled he asked for a drink of the wine vinegar. He had promised his disciples he would not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes, but when he had received the drink he said...It is finished.
After he died the soldiers were breaking the bones of the others on the cross, but in order to fulfill prophecies already written not one of the bones of Jesus was broken. Instead the soldiers pierced his side, and John 19:34 says it brought a sudden flow of blood and water. Isaiah 53:5 says that Jesus was pierced for our transgressions. Another word for transgressions is rebellion. He was pierced for all the ways we have been rebellious, but when we look on him, it is the piercing that reminds us that God can bring a sudden flow of...
As we enter into the summer this a time when things can start to get hot, meaning there may be an increase in pressure. When you are walking by faith and following God's lead there may be the temptation to look into the future and wonder if your journey is going to be successful. It is important to remember that God is already working ahead of you to prepare the way. In Genesis 24, Abraham sends his servant to get a wife for his son Isaac. Abraham's servant then asks...What do I do if the woman is unwilling to come back with me?
And Abraham responded with, " the Lord, who brought me out of my father's house and promised me on oath will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son." Abraham new that because of his covenant with God, that God was helping him in everything he did. We also have a covenant with God, and he is working ahead of us.
In their journey to the promised land God told his people that he would send his angel ahead of...
Here is today's communion meditation.
In John 12:35-36 Jesus says, " You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light."
God is light, so to trust in the light is to trust in God. To trust God means that we trust his intentions and plans for us, we trust he will do what he promised, and we trust his timing because he is never early or late. When we truly trust in him it changes our words and actions. When we doubt or are skeptical we jump in and try to do God's job before we give him a chance, which leads to stress and toil in our soul because we have to make it happen ourselves. When we trust in God, we can rest in our soul because when we truly trust in him, it means we turn over the care of things to him. An amazing thing happens when...
New Tool for Planning Your Day
As part of the communion meditations here is a new tool to plan your day. It's a page on the website that you can fill out before taking communion. Once the form is filled out a copy of your daily plan will be emailed to you. This is new so let me know if you have any feedback.
Click Here to Create Your Daily Plan and Have it Emailed to You.
Today's Communion Meditation
Lately my morning routine has been to wake up and do my Bible reading, make breakfast for my family, and then start recording the daily communion message. But, yesterday I didn't record a video in the morning because Tuesday night I recorded the communion time we did live on Zoom. As I was going through the day yesterday I noticed that my emotions were different. Little things were bothering me more than normal. I began to realize just how powerful communion is for our emotions. We are a 3 part being...Spirit, soul, and body and communion unites them all...
Here is today's communion meditation.
Hebrews 11:1 says Now faith is. A big part of learning to walk by faith is practicing staying in the present moment. It is faith that pleases God and also faith that makes our prayers effective but often we get pulled into the past or into the future, when faith is now.
Something I learned in my years at the gym is that growing stronger or faster in the short bursts always carries over into increases in endurance but the reverse does not work. Here is an example. Let's say someone wanted to run a mile in under 8 minutes.
To run an 8 minute mile means you must be able to run a quarter mile in under 2 minutes easily. To break this down even further a quarter mile is 400 meters. So in order to be able to run a quarter mile in 2 minutes you would need to be able to run 100 meters easily under 30 seconds.
If you can't run 100 meters easily under 30 seconds you have zero chance at running an 8 minute mile...
The other day I was reading the story of the last supper in Luke 22. In this gospel there is a slightly different sequence that Jesus takes when he implements communion. Jesus takes the wine, then the bread, then the wine again at the end. First he takes the cup and says, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." In the Old Testament there were laws written about taking a Nazirite oath to God. This was a special time of separation and during this time it was not allowed to have anything from the vine.
When Jesus first went onto the cross the soldiers tried to offer him a drink of wine vinegar but he would not drink it because of his vow. Then in John 19:28-30 it says, "Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled Jesus said. "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the...
Lately I have been thinking about the idea of breaking inertia. When I looked up the word inertia it means resistance to change. We all want to see progress and change in our lives, but we must overcome our own inertia, the part of us that is resistant to change. Often we know the direction God wants us to move and the hardest part is breaking the inertia and getting started. The first step is one of the hardest. It is easy to procrastinate because there will always be reasons not to start (Not good enough, not smart enough, not enough time, not enough money, never did that before, not the right time, or whatever reason.) Once we get moving it is much easier to keep the momentum going.
As we break the bread in communion today, let it be symbolic that from this point on we are going to break the inertia in our lives. Here are two ways we can do this...
In Luke 12 Jesus tells the disciples not to worry about what they will eat or wear because God takes care of the birds and we are more valuable than birds. Then Jesus says something interesting...Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you can't do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest.
Later in this chapter Jesus says not to be afraid because God has been pleased to give us the kingdom and we are to seek his kingdom first and trust that everything we need will be added to us. We see two things in this passage
Jesus is contrasting 2 ways of living. The first is a life apart from God that stresses and strives about taking care of yourself. The second is a life that is one with God and trusts him as the source of everything. On our own we can't do much but with...
In Luke 10 is the story of Mary and Martha. Martha invited Jesus into her house and since she was the one who invited Jesus I think she felt the pressure on her to get everything perfect. So she started working away but the whole time she was DISTRACTED and fuming inside because her sister was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to him. She finally burst out and told Jesus to have Mary help her. But, Jesus said that Martha was worried and stressed out about many things while Mary chose what was best and would not be taken away from her.
For a lot of us, we may think to ourselves, " How are we going to get anything done if we just sit at the feet of Jesus all day. There are things to do." We often get DISTRACTED. To be distracted means you have turned away and are attracted to something else. Your priorities have shifted. Each day we are supposed to be taking action and doing the things we know to do, but not the way Martha took action. Every step is...
As we close out another week it is a good time to evaluate how you did over the last week. Here are some questions to think about?
This time of year is a reminder to play defense and protect the seeds you have sown. In Matthew 13 Jesus tells the parable of the sower. In this parable Jesus says a sower went out to sow seed and he said the seed is the message of the kingdom. What is the message of the kingdom? That we have already been transferred into God's kingdom(Colossians 1:13) and God is with us helping us in everything we do. Our job is to repent which means to turn away from our old ways and rely on a new way of living with God and his kingdom...
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