Daily Reading
Daily Thought
The church in Corinth was a mess and the Lord’s Supper put this on display. The people gathered on Sundays, each bringing their own food, and consuming commenced on arrival. No one waited for anyone else, no shared communion. Some got drunk, the wealthy overate, and the poor went hungry. Paul’s dismay was wrapped in a single word, “What!” (1Corinthians 11:22). It was time to clean up this mess and return the Corinthians to the night when Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples and instituted the Lord’s Supper, “the night when he was betrayed,” (1Corinthians 11:23) is how Paul describes it.
Jesus instituted communion as a reoccurring reminder of our daily devotion. In eating the bread and drinking the cup, we remember the cross of Christ and commit and recommit to follow, and it began “on the night when he was betrayed,” because it is a choice we must make, shall I follow Jesus or go the way of Judas, and there is no in-between.
Daily Prayer
Father God, the abundant life You promise begins with a choice to follow You, to love You with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. That’s what I choose to do, to follow You, and everything else in my life follows after that.
I promise, Jesus, to keep Your cross in front of me, to live my life as a sacrifice to You just as You gave Your life as a sacrifice for me. And the amazing thing is, I lose nothing of value and gain everything that’s worth anything. The good life is the godly life.
Amen
Daily Question
What is involved in the decision as to whether or not you follow Jesus? Why follow? Why not?