A couple weeks ago I went downstairs to our dining room early in the morning. Normally Sharon and I take Communion each morning shortly after we get up and have morning devotion/prayer time. While she is visiting her ailing father in the USA I am left alone to follow this time of worship.
Getting out the grape juice and cracker I realized that I had carried my laundry and set it on one of the dining room chairs next to me. At first, I was very concerned that I had dirty laundry setting at the "Lord's Table" when receiving Communion. Then I felt the Lord assured me that all His children usually carry "dirty laundry" to His Table. The bread and juice had a much deeper meaning to me that day.
1 Cor 11:24-26 instructs us that we are to remember Christ's death and sacrifice on our behalf whenever or "as oft as" we obey Him in this activity and we are showing His death until He returns for us. I love to pause, reflect, and thank Him for the complete work that was done on Calvary. It helps me to remember it daily. It is up to each believer when, how often, or where they follow Jesus in taking Communion.
As I rose from our dining room table I went to the front door and realized I had left a garbage bag there the night before planning to take it out in the morning. Right! I had garbage at the doorway to my home, on the inside. I think there may be some spiritual significance to that situation. Dutifully, I opened the door and went outside to carry the garbage bag down to the corner neighborhood trash bin. Guess what! As I turned to walk on the sidewalk inside our yard my attention was drawn to the walkway under our Maple Tree. That is the tree where birds gather to chat each morning. Ok, they have to use the bathroom while they sit there and do so on my previously clean sidewalk.
What a day! First, I sit at the Lord's Table with dirty laundry (my personal sin), then I find garbage at the entrance to my house (collected rubbish from daily life and generational infirmities passed down), and then my daily walk is littered from the waste from other people that I encounter. Talk about a spiritual lesson. Here goes my interpretation....
The Lord invites us to His Table with our dirty laundry because Communion reminds us of what Jesus did to "wash away" the sin in our lives. As I previously wrote I believe we need to consciously take generational curses, strongholds and infirmities to the Cross of Jesus daily for those to be put to death (crucified) in our lives and families, and finally we cannot control who or what passes our way in daily life. I can avoid stepping in (joining with or taking part in the sins of others) but I can help out and use what I have available to clean up my path, the part I am responsible.
I did get the garbage bag out to the community garbage bin and went back and washed off my sidewalk. I welcome the birds now and think of the cleaning as good exercise. I know this blog may not be very deep spiritually, but that is what blogs are about, someone's daily life and the lessons they may have learned. It was a good day! A very good day in the Lord. I felt accepted and a lot of the hard things in life made a little more sense to me. I sure did feel good about the fact that God is in control of all the "big and little" things in our lives.
Don't hesitate to visit the Lord's Table often. He has given you a standing invitation. RSVP.
Oh it is a "come as you are" occasion!
God bless you richly!
Dan Corbett
"Reaching One Among Millions"
1 comment:
I certainly share your love of the Lord's Table. I know that He is certainly present there with me. I do not get to celebrate communion every day but the church where I have been attending certainly celebrates every Sunday. I was recently talking to one of my friends about how communion had become sooo very important to me and her response was that it was "food for the journey." I like that! I know that I certainly cannot live without it. God bless you!
Post a Comment