“And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” – Luke 22:19

When Jesus established what we call the Lord’s Supper, He made clear what He was about to give up for our benefit: everything. Through His miracles, wisdom, and sin-free life, Jesus made clear that He was the eternal Son of God. Then He prepared to surrender His body to abuse, torture, and excruciating death, for our sake. His body, given for us.

His body would be broken and His innocent blood spilled for our benefit. By this sacrifice Jesus would establish an entirely new covenant between sinful man and our holy God. This would not be a covenant of laws, rules, do-this, don’t-do-that, self-discipline, good works, or animal sacrifice. This new covenant, long prophesied and anticipated, was a covenant of grace – of God’s unmerited, undeserved, unearned favor, blessing, love, and forgiveness for His sinful people through faith in Jesus Christ His Son.

Forgiveness, cleanness, and eternal life were given to us through a holy body broken for our sake. Thus Jesus commanded us to remember His sacrifice. By doing so, we remember that we’re saved not by our own goodness but by His. We’re reminded that we’re saved not because of what do, but because of what He did once for all of us. We give humble thanks for the willing sacrifice of our glorious Savior!

“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,
but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.”
– Proverbs 10:11

We live in an age of outrage that substitutes volume and venom for wit and wisdom. Research indicates that being negative gives the appearance of being smarter and many today have embraced that “intelligence”. Then we lament why everything is so messed up (actually we don’t, we just blame someone else)!

Proverbs 10 has a great deal to say about what we say, the words that come out of our mouths. If Christians read Proverbs 10 and took it to heart, the world would begin to be a better place! For those who are truly in Christ, our words should and will be life-giving, nurturing, and nourishing to the hurting and wounded that surround us. We always should be sharing words of hope, comfort, welcome, encouragement, and loving correction. Always. Solomon says that for those who are wicked, words are lies and weapons, tools of deception and destruction. Sadly this has become the norm today. Thus we stand at a point where our culture is more about scoring points and firing up our friends and allies than coming together to actually deal with hard problems.

Jesus is quite clear in Matthew 15:17-20 – the words that come out of your mouth reflects the actual content of your heart. This should challenge each person who calls themself a follower of Christ. What words flow out of your mouth in public, in private, and online and what do they say about your heart?

“For he sees that even the wise die;
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.”
– Psalm 49:10

The material abundance that some in this country have enjoyed in recent decades has fooled many, including Christians and churches, into finding their strength in financial resources. This was always an illusion, as the job losses and market upheavals of recent weeks has revealed. Money has its uses but as a source of strength and foundation for life, it’s fool’s gold. People and churches too often carry large bank balances to the grave while utterly missing the point of existence. Even those untouched by financial disaster will one day leave their money behind and discover that in the scheme of eternity it was unimportant.

We must find our identity, strength, and courage in Christ, who is the solid and unchanging Rock, and the work of His Kingdom. Not in dollars, numbers, or apparent success as the world measures it. All that is fleeting – it will inevitably distract or disappoint. Our foundation must be the living God who owns all the wealth of the world regardless of whether He chooses to give us a large or small portion of that. Likewise, our goal with money should not be to pile it higher, but to put it to use for God’s Kingdom and purposes. Only then does it serve its true purpose and only then do we find ourselves in right relationship with it to enjoy being faithful stewards of whatever God gives us for this season before we enjoy His presence forever.

“So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’ And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’” – Luke 19:6-8

This is what it looks like to put your faith in Jesus:

• You joyfully and urgently receive Jesus into every aspect of your life
• Your past, ugly as it might be, becomes irrelevant, because you are a new creation in Christ
• Your profession, reputation, and people’s opinion about you become irrelevant, because Christ is in you
• You are deeply aware of all that you’ve done wrong and profoundly sorry for it, asking God’s forgiveness
• You actively seek to make amends for what you’ve done wrong in the past, because you know you’re already forgiven by God
• The things you used to be passionate about (i.e. money in Zaccheus’s case) no longer hold so much power over you
• You are instead excited about Jesus Christ in your life and what He has done, is doing, and will do for and in you

If you identify as a Christian, but have never experienced these things, Scripture says to examine yourself and your faith to make sure you have truly believed in Jesus as your Lord and Savior by His sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection on your behalf. If you discover you have not, then take that step of faith today and commit your life to Jesus. If you have but your passion has waned, resolve to pursue your relationship with Christ more intentionally every day, because the life of every follower of Christ should bear these signs of conversion like Zaccheus.

“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” – Luke 18:1

The Bible tells us much about prayer. As followers of Jesus we can enter boldly into God’s presence with our prayers and know that God will give us mercy and grace. We’re invited to lay our concerns and anxieties before the Lord in prayer and exchange them for peace and comfort. We’re assured that God hears our prayers and looks upon them with favor. We’re confident that God knows our needs before we even give voice to prayer. But we’re also told to pray persistently, to pray without ceasing, and to be asking, seeking, and knocking in prayer on an ongoing basis.

Prayer isn’t like sending an email that we fire off and forget about. Prayer isn’t like telling Santa what we want for Christmas or like visiting the ATM to quickly get what we need. There is a greater purpose to prayer than merely passing along a list of needs from time to time. Prayer is an invitation to cultivate a meaningful relationship with the Creator of the universe.

We’re able to be in relationship with God by the reconciling work of Christ on the cross. We enter into relationship with God through faith in Christ. However, like any relationship, we must work to deepen it. That comes, in part, through our regular conversations with God in prayer. The pursuit of God is the greater lifelong purpose of prayer, not simply the fulfillment of specific requests. Hence why Jesus taught His disciples, and us, to pray persistently and not give up when we don’t quickly receive the answer we want.

God uses our consistent and persistent prayer to strengthen our relationship with Him. He also uses our prayer to reshape our heart and mind to be more like His. Over a lifetime of prayer, we come to realize prayer is less about getting what we want and more about aligning our desires and will to God’s. God uses our prayer time to listen to us, to speak us, and to transform us. Through persistent prayer we learn to be at peace when His answer is “No” because we believe He has better plans. We learn to be at peace with “Not now” because we come to understand how much better His timing is than ours. Thus, as we are faithful to meet the Lord often in prayer, we remain encouraged, no matter the situation and no matter God’s answer to our requests.