Friday, May 23, 2014

May 24, 2014

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”  I Corinthians 11:23-26

I am thankful for a good memory and I am very thankful for good memories! The older I get the more I realize how important it is to make as many lifetime memories as you can.

But I also realize there is a reason 6,005,000,000 post-it-notes are sold every year! We are afflicted with the aggravating tendency to forget what we should remember and remembering things we should forget.

After all, that is the reason for the holiday of Memorial Day - to remember those who fought and died in foreign lands in order to defend our freedoms! We NEVER want to forget those brave heroes!

Communion is a spiritual equivalent of Memorial Day, each time you observe Communion it is a reminder of a Spiritual Warrior Who died to deliver you from the Enemy. When you remember it causes you to be sorry over the suffering you caused Him but thankful for the love that inspired His suffering.

Or, in a more practical sense, you could think of Communion as God's "post-it note" to remind you to remember Christ's love and His suffering that saved you from sin.

When we lose touch with God's grace we can become prisoners to our painful memories.

Memories are powerful because they recall not only experiences but emotions.

I spent many days being cared for by my Great Grandmother Snyder. My sister and I loved going over there to stay when our mother went off to her job. We have many pleasant memories of those days spent during our early childhood. In her neighborhood there were some mourning doves and that is where I first remember hearing their soulful cry.

Nearly every time I hear a mourning dove I remember Grandma Snyder and reconnect with the feelings of being with her.

So, memories can be very pleasant or they can be very painful – some are both. Because they are painful and pleasant or both, they become very powerful!

To a great extent your life will be dominated and defined by your most powerful memory. Communion is given to be a frequent reminder of how much God loves us and the price He paid to save us from our sins.

Taking the bread and drinking the cup helps us reconnect with our emotions of when we first experienced His salvation. When we can remember how much we are loved and how blessed we are it puts our own pain and suffering in perspective. His suffering becomes our dominant memory during  the Sacrament of Communion, as it should be!