Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please take the time to see/hear a video of the group Hillsong, singing Here I Am To Worship, declaring the need of all Christians to choose our worship of the Lord Who gave us His New Covenant of eternal life.
Highlight Passage: 1st Corinthians 11: 23-24 [NKJV} … Remembering Christ with our communion table…
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
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Highlight Context - NKJV: 1st Corinthians 11: 23-34 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … Instructions from Paul to the Church on the #1 Christian ritual …
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Reference Passage #1: Mark 14: 22-26 … GO TO THIS LINK … [NKJV] … institutes the New Covenant Supper in the Upper Room …
Reference Passage #2: Luke 22: 14-23 … GO TO THIS LINK … [NKJV] … The Lord’s Supper begins - Luke’s account …
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Julie Ackerman Link, reminded her readers [that’s me] of the importance of certain family rituals which become important to remember the loving relationships we have in our family.
And the author’s illustration reminded me of one loving ritual which two of our grandchildren have EVERY TIME they come to visit their Oma and PawPaw. Yes, every time the girls enter our home, they literally run to us - their old grandparents - and give us a hug. They are now 13 and 10 years old respectfully; and they’ve been going through this little greeting ritual for as long as they could come to visit us. And this little ritual is so loving, with a certain degree of respectfulness, to acknowledge the love we have for them with a simple hug. I pray they’ll never come to be too sophisticated to set aside this ritual.
Well, the ODB devotional today and my own example harkens back to a much more important ritual in Christendom … that of the Eucharist or Communion Table. Jesus, of course, instituted this ordinance for His Disciples in the Upper Room, hours before He went to the cross. And down through the centuries of the Church, … coming to our Lord to partake of the Lord’s Supper is probably the most important “ritual” in the Christian Church.
Yes, there are some important differences in the interpretation of what happens when Christians come together to celebrate Christ’s Table of remembrance. Roman Catholics and Easter Orthodox believe that the elements, the bread and the wine (or juice) mysteriously are transformed into Christ’s body and blood. Protestants generally believe that the elements are powerful remembrances of Christ’s sacrifice. But all Christians recognize the importance of this New Covenant ritual in the life of the church, especially to do as Christ charged … to remember Him in worship. The Apostle Paul, in today’s highlight passages, even felt the need to instruct the early church (and for us now) of the importance of carrying out this one Christian ritual with reverence and remembrance [see the 1st Cor. 11 passage linked above].
I’ll not go on with wordiness here. I think any reader can recognize the message for believers. As the Hillsong devotional group, singing the song linked above, we need to come regularly and often to Christ’s Table with the due reverence this Christian ritual deserves, … having been cleansed by confession of sin (see 1st John 1: 9) and remembering the sacrifices our Lord made in brokenness of body and the shedding of His blood for the remission of our sins.
And so, today, remembering my Lord’s sacrifice … I come to worship Him by this offering of written words and added prayer. And Sunday I will do so at His table.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, … may my life be a living testimony of remembrance to Your sacrifice … FOR ME. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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