Posted in Committment, Eucharist, Experience, tagged John 06 on December 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” – John 6:53
In Church during the Eucharist (Communion), watching members move orderly forward, kneel, and partake of the bread and wine, a thought again comes to mind.
Being in Christ is more than listening to a sermon and pondering truth, there comes a time for commitment – a choice to eat and make it mine.
– fritz
Posted in Leadership, tagged John 06, Matthew 19 on August 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »
“Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” – Jesus (Matthew 19:27b-30)
Jesus daily encountered a literalist mindset. When he told the crowd he was the real bread from heaven, that they had to eat his body and drink his blood, they went wild thinking he was implementing a new form of cannibalism. The context of his statement clearly showed otherwise.1
We, in our culture, have swung the other way to the point we don’t take anything he says literally.
Jesus taught there is an actual, touchable, noticeable change coming to this world – what he called “the regeneration”. Those who “spiritualize” this miss the point of why we remain here in this life; why we continue to have struggles and work through our problems.
Jesus is taking real human beings as leadership material and engaging them in an apprenticeship program. We who follow Christ were chosen to have real responsibilities in that coming renewal. All the apostles knew this and believed it literally.
“It is a faithful saying: … If we suffer, we shall also reign with him…” – 2nd Timothy 2:11a, 12b
Don’t spiritualize it to the point of irrelevance; live like it, expect it. Appreciate the privilege!
– fritz
1 – John 6:30-60
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged John 06 on January 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »
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These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? ….And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. – John 6:59-60, 65-66 (KJV)
Many church going Christians have expressed concern about being too open and too bold about their faith saying they don’t want to be responsible for driving people away from Christ.
While we should not be obnoxious, the fear of something we say or do driving people away from Christ is, perhaps, unfounded. Someone taking offence at something we say or do may not mean we did something wrong; perhaps it means we did something exactly right.
We could be left being more concerned than Jesus about who came to him and who didn’t. We shouldn’t hide our light under a bushel (Matthew 5:15) because someone may get angry and refuse to come to it.
Sometimes our stated concern about not wanting to push someone away from Christ is really a concern about them pushing away from us and the possible consequences to ourselves rather than to the cause of Christ.
– Fritz.
Patrikin - Kinship through The Father 