As a kid I was captivated by stories of missionaries serving God in foreign lands. Some of my closest friends have been missionaries serving God in the far reaches of the globe, in places like Asia and Indonesia. As I grew up our church never really did short term mission trips that gave people the opportunity to serve, although we did give to missions and served our local community. When I was 28 I finally had the opportunity to go on a mission trip and I have been hooked ever since. In the next four weeks I will have the opportunity to lead my 9th and 10th short term mission trips since 2008. In those first eight mission trips to Canada, Philadelphia, Vermont (twice), Wyoming, Honduras, and West Virginia (twice), I have covered a little over 16,000 miles and led 119 different people to serve God through missions. In all of those travels, adventures, and misadventures, I have gleaned just a little bit of experience and wisdom. As I reflected this morning on lessons learned and experience gained, I could not help but see how the wisdom of those lessons from the road can impact our spiritual life. So here are a few of those lessons from the road.
Lesson 1: Things will not always go as planned.
No matter how much planning you do and preparations you make, not everything on a mission trip will go as you had planned. Whether it is an extra bathroom break for the teenager who bought the jumbo sized drink at the last stop, a traffic delay because of a DEA drug check point in northern Maine, or unexpected hospital visits, things will not always go smoothly, much less according to your plans.
We often times have plans of how we hope things will work out in the future in regards to our relationship with God. We hope this time next year to be closer to Him because we're committed to reading our Bible more and praying more. But things happen and a year later we are in the same place spiritually that we were a year ago. The lesson is to not let those unplanned mishaps derail us altogether. We have to be flexible and allow the momentary problems that creep up to be exactly that, momentary. Don't allow a minor slip up to become a rut that keeps you bogged down for years on end. Get back on the spiritual road you need to be on and keep working around those problems that creep up.
Lesson 2: Traveling with friends is much more exciting.
Some of my closest friends over my years of ministry have been able to join me on short term mission trips. We've had some real adventures and witnessed many awesome sights. Whether it was an outrageous BBQ joint in Kansas City, Missouri, playing outdoor laser tag on a dairy farm in Vermont, or watching the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in Washington, I've had some great experiences and memorable times with my friends on these trips.
The spiritual journey you find yourself on as you pursue a relationship with God, is not meant to be a solitary existence. God created us to thrive in community and our spiritual lives thrive best when we are in fellowship with other believers. This is why worship and fellowship with a church family is so vitally important. As you travel down your spiritual road, there will be times where you need help to get out of the ditch. There will be other times where you are in a position to help someone else who may be stuck in the same ditch you once found yourself in. The point is we need each other. This is how God designed us and how we can best flourish in our relationship with Him.
Lesson 3: Get dirty!
There hasn't been a mission trip I've led where I, and everyone with me, did not end up dirty or sweaty at some point. In Honduras we sweated until every stitch of clothing we wore was drenched with sweat. In Canada, Vermont, & Wyoming, we dragged branches and cut trees until we were covered in sawdust and pine resin (and not necessarily in that order). All of the dirt, sweat, and grime we found ourselves covered in was to minister in some way to someone else.
Life is messy. Life is dirty. Life is hard. If Christians are to be the light of the world, that we are told we are by our Lord, then we have to get into places outside of the church pew and get dirty alongside those who we need to minister to. This doesn't mean giving in to the sins others may be struggling with, but it does mean digging in with both hands to help them as you minister to them. Think about it from this perspective, can you wear a white suit and help someone out of a muddy pit without getting a little dirty? No you can't. So as you travel down your spiritual road and develop your relationship with God, get your hands dirty as you help others on to the road they need to be traveling spiritually.
I hope a few of the lessons I've learned over the years can help you in your walk with Christ.
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Yesterday at our church, we had baptism for a lady who recently accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. We do baptism at the beginning of our services and this means I go change before joining the church for worship. When I came in to the sanctuary our church was in the middle of a song, so I took a spot on the front row and joined in the singing. After the service a parent of a 2 year old told me her daughter noticed me coming in the service. What was interesting about this is the timing of the song and what the little girl said. The lyric in the song being sung as I walked in was "Jesus." The little girl noticed the tall guy with a beard that talks from the stage and naturally assumed that I was Jesus and pointed it out to her parents. When this funny story was shared with me after the service, I couldn't help but be challenged by it.
This small child made an observation that we can find humorous. But to be completely honest with you, my first response in my mind was "No. No. No. Don't compare me to Him. I don't stack up to Him." There is a little bit of truth in my initial thoughts, but there is also much spiritual immaturity as well. I don't stack up well to Christ. Honestly, none of us do. He is perfect, holy, omnipotent, sinless, limitless, eternal, omniscient, and so much more. I don't stack up as a sinful, broken, fallible, and finite human being.
Since I carry the name of Christian, I can't be so spiritually immature as to tell someone not to compare me to Christ. When I took the label of Christian to describe my affiliation with Christ, I automatically gave people the right to compare me to Christ. The word Christian was originally used as a derogatory term that meant "little Christ." So I have to ask myself, when people look at me, what do they see? Do they see a "little Christ"? Do they see someone doing their best to live up to the example Christ set before them? Do they see a person modeling their life after the perfect and sinless Son of God? Or do they see someone who wears the label of a Christian but has no more affiliation with Christ than a person wearing a sports jersey does to that team? What do people see when they look at you? Can they more honestly and candidly than the 2 year old did yesterday, look at you and say they see Jesus when they look at you?
If they can, then keep up the good work. It is hard to live out a consistent Christian witness in the world we live in. If people see you day in and day out living a life surrendered to Christ, then you are on the right path.
If they can't look at you and say they see Jesus when they look at you, then what needs to change in your life so they can? Speech? Attitude? The way you treat people? Your commitment to worship God on Sundays? Your commitment to serve Him in His church? Whatever needs to change so people will see Jesus in you, that needs to be your top spiritual priority. Otherwise they will continue to see something other than the label you claim.
I hope today's post has challenged you. I know I was challenged spiritually by a 2 year old that mistook me for Jesus. The take away for all of is the same. When they look at you, what do people see?
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On my Hiking Bucket List is one of the most challenging (and frankly insane) hikes in the world. I don't know that I will ever be able to get to it but if I can it would be awesome! The trail is on Mount Huashan in China. The picture to the right is a picture of this famous trail with the planks attached to the side of the mountain that make up the trail. I've read about the hike and looked at pictures of others on the trail. Thousands of people travel this trail each year, with an estimated 100 falling to their deaths. With this many people traveling this trail I think I could travel the same difficult road to the top of the mountain.
This past week I had the opportunity to speak to a lady who is starting down a very difficult road. This woman recently received a difficult cancer diagnosis. The road she is beginning to travel is the same one I walked down 16 years ago. This sweet woman found out she has melanoma skin cancer and will have to have a procedure in the near future to remove it. When I was informed of her diagnosis, since I had walked that worrisome path myself, I went to minister to her. In our conversation I tried to encourage her and give her hope. Even though everyone's body is different and every one reacts differently to treatments, I wanted her to know there is hope in what the doctors could do and there is hope in her relationship with God. While we talked I mentioned to her how people don't understand, unless they've been in that situation before, how you stop listening when the doctor says you have cancer. I could see a light come on in her eyes when I made that comment. She knew she was talking to someone who knew what she was experiencing. Part of the reason she was able to be encouraged by our visit was because the more we talked, the more she realized that she was hearing from someone who truly knew how she felt. She knew that she was dealing with someone who had traveled the same difficult road she was beginning to travel.
Sometimes we look at the hardships in our life as difficult circumstances that we would rather avoid. No one enjoys physical, emotional, spiritual or any other kind of pain. We can be left battered, bruised, and scarred by the difficult roads we travel in life. Often times we look at those experiences and think "God, what good can come from this?" We see it as nothing but pain and think its only purpose was like the old adage "What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger." We can turn our experiences on those difficult roads into opportunities to care and minister to others. God uses those difficult circumstances to bring about not only our good (Romans 8:28), but also His good in other people's lives. We should look at our experiences as an opportunity to be a guide for others who start down the same road we've traveled. There is comfort in knowing that there is someone out there who has faced the same exact struggle you are facing. It is encouraging to hear them describe how they faced the same challenges you are facing.
In my years of ministry I've had the opportunity to minister to several people facing the same kind of cancer I faced. I've had other difficulties in my life that have allowed me to more effectively minister to those facing those same difficulties. But we don't have to be called by God to pastoral ministry to be used by Him to minister to those around us. The man facing the role of caregiver to his wife struggling with dementia can minister to others as no one else can. The woman abused as a child can minister to others in a way only she can. The parent who has lost a child can minister because they know the pain a parent faces in that situation. Those made a widow or widower after decades of marriage can only be consoled by those who have experienced the same life-shattering loss in their own life. Don't view the difficult roads you've traveled as something meant to destroy you. View them as something used by God in your life to bring hope, peace, and comfort to the lives of those traveling the same difficult road.
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Saturday was an interesting day on our farm. I worked with my dad to sort out some calves to be sold at a livestock market. The way things went wasn't exactly like I had planned. First the calves wouldn't voluntarily go into a holding pen to eat feed while I shut the stall door behind them. This generally works and is much easier and safer for all involved. Instead they stayed out in the large open area of our barn meaning my dad and I had to sort out a few to keep at the farm while trying to keep the ones to be sold in the barn. We got down to one last 500 pound bull calf we needed to put back in the field and we were close to getting him out of the barn. Then out of nowhere a 400 pound heifer started freaking out. If you've never been in an enclosed space with animals that size, then you don't know what exciting (or terrifying) is. When the heifer lost her mind she came charging at me with no plans of slowing down. Now I'm a big guy at 6'5" and 195 pounds, but I was not about to get ran over by a 400 pound freight train. As she made a lap inside the barn and headed at me, my only option to avoid the ER was to climb the wall of the barn and hold on to the top of the wall for dear life. If you've ever watched a rodeo where people climbed the wall to get out of the way of a bull, then you get the gist of what I looked like trying to get out of the way of this crazed heifer. Fortunately for me she ran under me and missed me when she kicked at me. After 2 more laps inside the barn and two more wall climbing adventures that would've make Spider-man proud, we finally were able to get the bull calf out of the barn. After a few minutes the heifer calmed down and followed other calves as they went in the stall.
So where is the spiritual lesson in locking yourself in an enclosed place with quarter ton animals that can run you over and send you to the hospital. Well, I'm glad you asked. The lesson is all about training yourself spiritually and developing a stronger faith. Last year when we sorted calves in the summer time to send to the market. I was 50 pounds heavier than I am now. Also I didn't exercise in anyway and wasn't taking care of my body. Since October of last year I've changed my eating habits and started exercising 5-6 days a week. Saturday it paid off because I was leaner and stronger than I was a year ago and it kept me from some serious injuries. Had a calf went crazy like that last year, it would have definitely ended differently for me.
When we become spiritual couch potatoes we aren't prepared for those difficult times that arise in our life. We are out of shape spiritually, we are weak in our faith, and we aren't living on a healthy diet of prayer and bible study. The result is we don't have the energy or strength to spiritually keep ourselves from harm. Instead if we put in the dedication, day in and day out, to care for our spiritual bodies, then we will see a different result when those difficulties in life appear. If we're spending time in prayer and bible study, then God will use those spiritual disciplines to strengthen us from the inside out. If we exercise our faith daily by strengthening our spiritual lives through other opportunities such as service, worship, fellowship, and giving, then we are regularly preparing ourselves for those days when things don't go exactly as planned. Does this mean things will be perfect for us? No it doesn't. What it does mean is that when things go from perfect to terrifying, you are better equipped to handle the situation because God has already prepared you for it.
If you've not been actively strengthening your spiritual life, then make a commitment and start today. Do what is necessary and make the needed changes so you will have a stronger faith tomorrow. Allow God to start working in your spiritual life in such a way that you will be better prepared for those difficult moments in life.
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Over the past 3 weeks my wife and I have spent nearly 2 of those weeks without our kids. First we were away on an anniversary trip for a week and then our boys went on vacation with grandparents for the better part of a week. It was weird not to have all the hustle and bustle around our house that normally accompanies two nearly-teenage boys. During the time apart, Misty and I found ourselves regularly commenting on what we thought the boys were doing, how they were getting along without us, and how we missed having them around. The two weeks we spent apart gave us a glimpse of what it will be like when we are in the "empty nest" stage of life. I'm sure that will be an exciting time in its own regard, but we aren't in any hurry to get there. Regardless of how slowly we want it to arrive that day is coming.
One thing we talked about during our sabbatical from children was what it would be like when we permanently did not have kids in the house and how our relationship would look then. We discussed how we had worked over 15 years of marriage to continue to grow together as a couple and what that would look like when the kids were not around. We also talked about how bad things could be if we had not continued to nurture our relationship, but instead we were just roommates raising kids together. The image that comes to mind when I think about the latter is an unhappy, older couple sitting silently in their living room while one watches TV and the other reads without speaking all evening. When the time comes they go to bed without hardly a word and repeat the same activities the next day.
So how do we keep from ending up as the unhappy grouches that simply live in the same house, but are too stubborn to do something about it? First off, you need to pray for your spouse and your marriage. If you aren't regularly lifting up your spouse and your marriage to God, then you aren't doing your part to help make either of them the best they can be. Secondly, find common interest and develop those interest in meaningful ways together. If it's reading and collecting books, find a way to do it together. If it is quality time relaxing, then do it together. If it is hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, shopping, working in the yard, or some other pastime, then find ways to do them together. Lastly, talk with each other. When I do premarital counseling, we do one session on communication and conflict. I strongly urge the couple sitting before me to make sure that regardless of the issues they have in marriage they must keep the lines of communication open. I also warn them that if they quit communicating, then they are putting nails in the coffin of their marriage. Talking with each other is much more than nagging, complaining, or asking "How was work today?" Small talk and complaining is not effective communication when it comes to maintaining a healthy marriage relationship over the long term. Yes your day at work is important, but what do you talk about once you retire? Talking with your spouse also doesn't include talking at your spouse. Communicating with your spouse means sharing and receiving input. If all your doing is talking at your spouse, then you might as well be talking at a fence post. Share with each other and watch how keeping the lines of communication going will help keep your marriage vibrant and growing.
I realize that every marriage situation is a unique relationship in and of itself. Each couple brings in their own individual baggage and then you have these two imperfect people attempting God's perfect plan for relationships in marriage. I wish there was a magic bullet that would allow all marriages to avoid falling into the unhappy grouchy roommate scenario but there is not one. Hopefully today's post will help you put a few things into action in your life and marriage that will keep your marriage strong and healthy, even once the kids are gone. Because that day is coming.
If you and your spouse are experiencing difficulties do not put off getting help. The longer you wait the worse things will be. Marriages are under constant attack from Satan and he is doing all he can to destroy families and marriages. Seek out a counselor, whether it is a pastor or some other form of Christian counseling, to help you address the problems in your marriage. Keep in mind it will take time and effort to fix your marital problems. You did not get in this place overnight and you will not get out of it overnight. Need help with finding a marriage counselor contact me at pastornick@northcatawbabaptist.com and I will do all I can to help you get in touch with one.
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One Sunday following church, while driving to my parent's house for lunch, my youngest son made one of those comments that just left us laughing and shaking our heads. As often as he does this you would think we would be accustomed to it by now, but he always seems to amaze us. My wife made a comment about stopping by the grocery store to pick up something for supper for the upcoming week. Only hearing part of the conversation, our son said "Don't buy hamburger at the store. It's disgusting! We need some 'homemade' Black Angus beef." Raising beef cattle does have it's advantages when it comes to knowing where your meat comes from and having a regular supply of "homemade" meat as he put it. As for his comment, I have a feeling that if we fixed store bought hamburger he would never know the difference.
How are you when it comes to biblical teachings? Can you tell the difference between the good stuff and the imitations? Do you take a smiley televangelist at his word or can you discern when someone isn't teaching the truths of God's Word? The only way to know whether what you're being taught is wrong or not is to have a firm grounding in what is right. It's a matter of growing in your faith and developing your faith outside of the corporate worship setting at church.
Here's an example of how this works. If I were to stand before my congregation and quote that the bible says "God helps those who help themselves" or teach that "Cleanliness is next to godliness" then I am sure some would assume that I had pulled it out of the Bible. Why not? He's the pastor. He has to be teaching from the Bible, right? Not exactly. Those two phrases are often quoted lines, but they aren't in the Bible. One is from a 17th century discourse on government and the other is a Babylonian proverb, respectfully.
The problem is biblical illiteracy forces us to accept false teachings as the truth. The Apostle Paul regularly warned his churches to watch out for those that taught anything other than the truth. He even went so far as to call some who taught a false gospel dogs and mutilators of the flesh (Philippians 3). The point is that if we don't have a good working knowledge of what the truth is, then we will easily be sold a false truth that isn't what we want or need. My encouragement to you is to grow in your own walk with Christ so that when you hear something or read something that isn't quite kosher, you can easily pick it out.
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One night I was called out around 8:30 PM to go make a hospital visit at the ER. As I walked into the living room to tell Misty goodbye, I turned toward the TV to see what she was watching. I mainly looked because the name of the show was said and it really caught my attention. The title of the show is "How (not) to kill your husband." After I looked at the TV, I then looked at Misty and she had a mischievous grin on her face. She reassured me it was just a commercial for the show and not the actual show. She then said that she may need to watch it though! This TV show is similar to others where they basically show you what a person did in their attempt to murder their spouse and why they were caught. I guess you could consider it a how not to get caught guide, which is pretty unnerving!
Marriage is a fickle thing. There are some marriages that are so bad they actually do want to kill their spouse (and in some cases actually attempt it). There are some marriages that last for 70 years and we are amazed at how they have done it. Regardless of how great a marriage seems to be or how badly it seems to be going, marriage is a struggle. See, marriage is God's perfect union being attempted by two imperfect people. And because we are imperfect people we bring our own baggage, our own selfish desires and our own issues into a relationship made for more than just us. When you add two people with their own baggage, selfish desires and issues, then mix in kids, finances, jobs and family issues, we have the ingredients for a very explosive bomb. This bomb has the potential to leave collateral damage for years to come. So how do some couples diffuse the bomb and others can't seem to put the burning fuse out before its too late?
My answer is this, I don't know. I do know this, marriage takes the work of two people not just one to make it work. I also know that marriage is work, it's not easy to make marriage work. The hardest job in the world is raising kids. The second hardest is marriage. Misty and I have had our rough patches in marriage like all couples, but we've been committed to doing what was necessary to make our marriage work. If both spouses aren't committed to making the marriage work, then the fuse will continue to burn until it sets the bomb off.
To make a marriage work you also have to change your perspective. Just like when a child is born, a parent's perspective changes from a self-centered perspective to a perspective that focuses on someone else's needs. When we get married, our perspective has to change. Our marriage isn't about what it does for us. Our marriage is about glorifying God and what we can do to make our spouse the greatest man or woman they can be. It's about putting their needs above our own and constantly working to show our love to them. Can any of us do it perfectly? No we can't. Should we strive every day to do all we can to edify and build up our spouse? Yes. Otherwise we are simply watching the fuse burn towards the bomb.
I'll end with this. A few years ago I stood in the ER with a man who had just lost his wife of 71 years. They had a great marriage. Was it perfect? No. Did they both work hard to make their marriage work, especially when he served in WWII? Yes they did. That night I saw the picture of what a great marriage is all about. I saw a man who had loved his wife completely tell her that he should have loved her more, that he should have done more for her. He understood what it meant to set aside his self-centered desires and put the wants and desires of his wife ahead of his own. That's how you diffuse the bomb. That's how you make a marriage not just good, but great.
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Albert Einstein has been credited with giving the world its most memorable definition of insanity. Although Einstein probably didn't come up with the definition, the definition is no less memorable. The over-used cliche is that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I can definitely relate to this and consider my self to be certifiable at this point. Last week was hay making time for many in our area due to the warm and dry weather. While baling hay for the first time this season, I worked in our largest field first. As I finished bale after bale I noticed I wasn't getting bales to be tied tightly like they should be. Now our baler is older than I am, which means you have to manually move an arm on the baler to wrap the string around the bale while it is in the baler. All this means is that there are less mechanical issues when wrapping a bale and problems are more likely to be a user problem. As you can guess the user, yours truly, was the problem with the bales being loose. I went through the same process time after time trying to figure out what I was doing wrong with no luck. Finally towards the end of the day I figured out that I wasn't lowering the throttle enough to wrap the bale tightly. After a few hours of being the definition of insanity, I finally figured out what was wrong.
When it comes to our spiritual life, we can easily find ourselves being the definition of insanity. We do things the same way, over and over and over again, while expecting completely different results. Think about some of these scenarios. We go weeks, months or even years without putting time into our relationship with God and then expect Him to speak to us at a moments notice or in a time of distress. We neglect our time reading the Bible, picking it up only to carry it to church, and then wonder why God's Word hasn't changed us and why we don't live more like Christ. We don't think a thing about God Monday through Saturday, and expect God to "Wow" us in worship on Sunday morning. These are just a few examples of how, in our spiritual life, we do the same thing over and over again, week after week, year after year, and expect God to do something different. Unless we're willing to change the way we approach our spiritual life and our relationship with God, we shouldn't expect different results. We shouldn't expect God to do something in our lives unless we're willing to step away from the old way of doing things that never resulted in a closeness to Him in the first place.
Take a deep look at your spiritual life and examine those areas of your life that need to change so you can get a different result. If that means getting serious about your Bible reading or prayer time, then get serious about it. If it means using Sunday worship as a pep rally for the week ahead or an after party time of celebration for the week behind you, then do so. Don't be satisfied with the status quo when the status quo didn't accomplish anything to begin with. Make the changes necessary to keep yourself from being the definition of insanity.
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There is a phrase we use from time to time that has it's origins in housebreaking dogs. The practice is that of rubbing a dog's nose in whatever type of mess it makes as it learns to do it's business outside rather than inside the house. The phrase is "rubbing your nose in it." We frequently use the term in a shortened version when we tell someone "don't rub it in." We tell people this phrase when we've messed up and they continue to remind us of our failure. Why do we ask them to stop? Because no one likes to be reminded of their failures. It can be depressing and discouraging to be reminded of those failures that brought us pain and embarrassment. But what about if the one "rubbing it in" is the Creator of the Universe? What then?
About 7 months ago, I really felt like God was speaking to me about something in my life and I told God I would pray about it for about 6 months and see where He was leading. For a few weeks I prayed, somewhat consistently, about it. But since it wasn't something I was particularly excited about, I put it on the back burner of my prayer life and revisited it very rarely. I mean almost never. Fast forward to a month ago. To just about the time I should have finished praying over this prayer concern. I had put this item so far back on the back burner that the house would've already been burnt down because I seemed to have forgotten it. For the next few weeks God made me absolutely miserable. Anything pertaining to things around this prayer concern made me miserable. I couldn't figure out what was going on or why I was so miserable. I sat down to talk with a pastor friend I go to for advice and as we talked I figured out why I was so miserable. I was miserable because I had avoided praying for something God had clearly showed me I needed to pray about. After talking with my friend I had a new perspective on this prayer concern and a fresh commitment to pray about this concern. After I received this new perspective and commitment to pray, it seemed like God started to rub my nose in my decision not to pray months ago about something He wanted me to pray about. Every time I turned around it seemed like God was saying, "See here's another example of why you should've been serious about praying months ago!" I even told my wife that God didn't need to rub it in anymore because I understood that I had messed up.
So what do we do when we find the Creator of the Universe rubbing our nose in something? We take it like a big boy or big girl and learn from it. When God reminds us of a failure that could've been avoided if we would have followed His counsel, then we ought to see it not as punishment but discipline. One definition of discipline is "training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character." This is what God is doing when He reminds us of those things we should have followed His lead on. Proverbs 3:11-12 (NIV) says, "My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." As a loving Heavenly Father, God is not punishing us by reminding us of a failure, but instead using it to discipline us so we won't make the same mistake again. He is simply correcting and molding us so we will better follow His lead the next time.
Coming from a guy who learned this valuable lesson the hard way, I encourage you to take my advice. Listen to what God tells you to do or what you agree to do for God! It is much better to do what you should than to have God rubbing it in when you realize you should've done it in the first place!
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Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with an adult that attends our church. While he was helping with our worship service a 12 year old kid sitting beside him made an interesting observation. The kid took notice of the communion table and how it was prepared for our church to celebrate communion. The elements (juice and bread) were on the table and covered by a white cloth. The kid candidly mentioned how the communion table looked like it had a body on it with a sheet laid over it. I'm sure this kid has watched plenty of television shows where they've seen something similar and there was a body under the sheet. When this adult shared this comical story with me, I couldn't help but think about how accurate this kid's perception was. Although there is not an actual dead body under the sheet on a communion table, there is still a body on the table.
When Christians celebrate communion, or the Lord's Supper as it is also known, they are celebrating the most pivotal moment in human history. They are celebrating the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for them when He died on a Roman cross for the sins of the world. They are celebrating and remembering the sacrifice Christ made so we could have forgiveness of our sins, a right relationship with God, and eternal life in heaven when this life is over. We are told in the Gospels and 1 Corinthians 11 about when communion was instituted in the church. Paul puts it best in 1 Corinthians 11:23 when he writes, "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed..." The night before Jesus died on the cross He enjoyed His last meal with His disciples as they celebrated Passover (the Jewish festival commemorating their deliverance from slavery in Egypt). During the meal Jesus took the unleavened bread and told His disciples that the bread represented His body which would be broken for them. He then shared the bread with them. He also took one of the Passover cups of wine and shared with them how the wine represented His blood that would be shed for the forgiveness of humanity's sins. He then shared the cup with them. On that night, Jesus started a tradition of remembering His sacrifice that is still practiced by Christians nearly 2,000 years later.
Communion is a serious time of reflection and self examination. Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 11 not to take communion in an "unworthy manner." He means we should not take communion with unconfessed sin in our hearts and with disunity between us and another member of the body of Christ. To prevent taking communion in an "unworthy manner," Paul tells us to examine ourselves so we don't bring judgment on ourselves by sinning against the body and blood of Christ. The wonderful thing about communion is that it is about more than remembering the sacrifice Christ made for us all those years ago. Communion causes us to look forward to the future as much as we look to the past. Communion is done in anticipation of Christ's return when He will rule and reign in eternity and believers are able to celebrate Christ's eternal kingdom by enjoying communion with Him.Communion with Christ and the entire body of Christ (the church) will be a great celebration of Christ's victory over Satan, sin, death, and the grave.
Today I would encourage you to look differently at the body on the table next time you have an opportunity to celebrate communion with your church. Examine yourself, remember the sacrifice, and look forward to a heavenly celebration with Christ.
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