The Purpose Of Communion

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The Purpose Of Communion

What purpose did I wake up for? What am I doing today and every day?

I’m ushering people into deeper communion with God through Christ by deepening my own communion with Him: lifting Christ up through taking up my cross, the fellowship of His suffering, by enjoying God and feasting on Christ that others may enjoy the Kingdom of God and feed on Christ through me. 🍞 👑

The measure of success is not increasing the number of those who claim Christianity and talk churchy but growing the family of God who exhibit the Kingdom of God in the way they live out communion together.

This work is also counterintuitive. Because my flesh is at play, I never feel like doing it. It seldom feels enjoyable, at least initially. But, I have to exercise myself unto godliness to (1 Timothy 4:7).

I have to prayerfully resist the flesh and yield to the Holy Spirit. I have to go when I don’t want to. I have to engage, call, visit and break bread with people when I’d rather not. I have to share when it seems better to keep it. I have to show up, and keep showing up when it feels safer to maintain my distance.

These things never seem to be the remedy to a downcast spirit but they always are, when I do it for the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58). “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34) The table He’s prepared often appears in the process of obedience (Psalm 23:4-5).

#communionneverends

Communion Never Ends

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Communion Never Ends

Oh! How beautiful!

“For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.”
—1 Corinthians 10:17

We are one bread.

Communion is more than eating bread and drinking wine.

When we participate in communion, we partake of the Bread of Life which is Christ (John 6:48) and we drink of the wine of His blood (John 6:55), then we BECOME communion—we become what we eat—Christ.

Our Catholic brothers and sisters are on the right track with transubstantiation, except what becomes the body of the Lord isn’t the bread or the wine, it’s us.

Hallelujah.

We are called to communion as a celebration and revelation of the oneness we have through Christ—through the consumption of His person: His body and His blood where we become one with Him so that we too are bread and wine that others can consume to be brought into communion.

What this practically looks like is us breaking bread as believers in remembrance of Him, with the expectation of union with Him and through Him.

Then we take it out, breaking bread with others: over breakfast, over lunch, over dinner, with the expectation of sharing Christ so that they may taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), with the hope to draw them into Holy Communion.

Let’s walk this out together. Let’s break bread with one another with the full expectation to share the Lord bodily.

And, let’s do as our Lord commands, let’s not fail to discern the Lord’s body by showing partiality—only inviting those from who we stand to benefit, but also invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and be blessed (Luke 14:12-14).

Communion never ends.

#communionneverends

*Art Copyright Mike Moyers. “Lenten Labyrinth”, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.

See the full sermon, “Communion Never Ends” here: https://youtu.be/btUcr_DHL3E

I Don’t Have To Be Happy About It

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - I Don't Have To Be Happy About It

Sometimes I feel bad for being beat to hell, for being sad, and not being happy about it.

It feels like if I were just better—if I were more holy, if I were more thankful, if I were less selfish—the pain shouldn’t affect me, that I should be happy and able to carry on as though I’m not in pain.

But, I am so thankful for the moments of humanity in the Bible, especially that of Jesus,

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

Father, glorify your name.”
— John 12:27-28

“My soul is troubled…” This is so deeply helpful to me. It, and passages like it, show me that I can register the full range of human emotions and still honor God.

The key, Jesus demonstrates, is loving God, desiring His Kingdom and concentrating on God’s glory—not allowing the feeling to make me put down my cross or cause me to deviate from the path of Calvary—dying and living again for the reconciliation of everything in my sphere.

I don’t have to be happy, but I can be honest and honor. I can carry on doing the things that are profitable for the purpose I am sent.

In that, there’s help, there’s rest, and there’s always joy.

“Father, glorify Your name.”

#sometimesithurts #buttheresalwaysjoy

Sometimes It Hurts

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Sometimes It Hurts

Sometimes it hurts.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
— John 16:33

Christianity is not some magic protection against misfortune, being mistreated or things going wrong. And, I can’t do enough good things to prevent bad things from happening to me.

Jesus called John the Baptist “the greatest one born of woman” (Matthew 11:11).

Not a good one, the greatest.

He’s walking in his calling. He’s innocent, having done nothing wrong.

Yet he’s sitting in prison, about to be murdered by having his head cut off.

In this account in Matthew 11, John the Baptist sends two of his disciples to Jesus.

Does Jesus respond to John the Baptist’s wrongful imprisonment by some heavenly miracle to release him?

No.

Not in this case, at least. (Acts 12:5-16, 16:25-34)

How does Jesus respond?

“Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.'”
– Matthew 11:4-5

What is Jesus doing?

He assures him.

In other words, Jesus tells John, “Your hope in Me is not in vain.”

Jesus is fortifying John’s soul.

A vicious lie, a half-truth at best, often peddled by the industrial church and Cultural Christianity is “Everything will be alright,” as to say, “Things will eventually work out the way I want them to in this life.”

We’ve been deceived to believe that our heavenly conversion exempts us from the earthly consequences of sin being in the world. (John 16:33)

But, disaster, hardship, violence, injustice and suffering can and does befall believers as it does people throughout the whole world. (Romans 8:22)

At this very moment there are believers who are:

losing their jobs,
not able to keep the lights on,
losing their homes,
terminally ill,
disabled,
suffering abuse,
persecuted,
hungry,
in prison,
grieving,
dying

And, it may not be resolved on this side of heaven.

Suggesting otherwise is a complete denial of people’s suffering or implies that they are somehow doing Christianity wrong!

But Christianity is not about denying pain, escaping reality, or pretending everything is fine.

It’s not a coping mechanism or an exercise in cognitive dissonance. It’s real power. (2 Timothy 1:7, 3:5)

Sometimes there’s simply seasons of suffering.

God is completely able to change any circumstance.

But, He may choose not to. (Daniel 3:16-18)

What we can always be assured of is His purposes will be achieved.

And, His purposes are good. (Romans 8:28)

And, you, your suffering and everything concerning you are accounted for in His good purposes. (Matthew 10:30)

Regarding seasons of suffering, a part of God’s good purposes is making your soul able to weather them all. (Matthew 7:24-26)

A part of His good purpose is to make you like His Son-steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. (Philippians 1:6, 1 Corinthians 15:58)

That’s all well and good, but back to John, what good is a steadfast spirit or assurances when I’m about to get my head chopped off?!

If there’s not anything beyond the here and now, it means nothing.

But, if what we believe of Jesus is true, it means everything.

And, it is on this point where the sheep and goats are divided. (John 10:26-27)

Goats may follow up to a point as long as they’re getting what they want.

But, sheep follow to the end. (Revelation 2:10)

Here is where true faith is revealed, or the lack thereof which is not for condemnation but is an opportunity for reevaluation and repentance. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

In the darkness of the eleventh hour is where we’re confronted with what we truly believe and who we will ultimately serve. (Luke 22:61, John 21:15-19)

Here is what Jesus says in His eleventh hour,

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’?
But for this purpose I came to this hour.
Father, glorify Your name.
Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.'”
– John 12:27-28

Suffering is not only allowed sometimes to test and to steel us, but it is in the darkness of the eleventh hour where we can shine the brightest, giving glory to God.

When we are asked for “a reason for the hope that is in you,” (1 Peter 3:15), it is usually in dark, difficult places.

If you can bear it, John is being glorified. Just as we are being glorified when we choose, as disciples of Christ, to commit our lives, including our suffering to God’s purposes. (John 17:22)

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
– Romans 8:16-17

When we commit it to Him, God achieves His glory through us. (Romans, 12:1, 2 Corinthians 4:7-11)

This is how our glory mainly appears in this life. (Matthew 5:16, 2 Corinthians 4:17, Revelation 3:8-11)

So, horrible things can happen to me, and sometimes I can and should seek deliverance from them, but whether I am delivered or not, I have to decide whether I will commit it to Him, whether I will follow Jesus to the end.

And this is the end: the whole world delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God where we will enjoy Him together without hindrance forever in complete safety because Jesus is King. (Isaiah 11, Romans 8:21, Revelation 22:3-5)

My hope is to see a glimpse of the Kingdom now, but my ultimate hope is not here. My ultimate hope is to be a part of its full consummation with you in the world to come. (Psalm 27:13, 1 Corinthians 15:24-28, Hebrews 11:16, Revelation 21)

When we confront hardships, including death, Jesus assures us as He did John the Baptist.

“Though you may not see it, the Word is true. I’m liberating the world.”

“Your work in My name is reconciling people from darkness to light.”

“Your hope in Me is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Therefore, I must strive to follow Jesus to the end, and embrace the path even when it is marked by hardship and suffering.

#sometimesithurts

Obedience Makes It Real

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Obedience Makes It Real

Church service after church service.
Bible study after Bible study.
Book after book.

We read.
We read.
We read.

We hear.
We hear.
We hear.

How many times have we heard a Word from God and said, “Ooh that’s good!”, only to revert five minutes later back to the way we were before?

So, how do we make it stick?

How do we lodge what we’ve read or heard of God’s Word in our souls, so our hearts stay lifted and the heaven it brings remains on earth?

We eat.

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
— John 6:53

And what does it look like to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ?

Jesus gives us an example:

My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
— John 4:34

Jesus is soul-food.

“For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”
— John 6:55-57

To “eat” is to make what you’ve consumed a part of you by walking it out—application is mastication.

Because, faith without works is dead.

The problem is we don’t eat it, we lick it.

We get a quick taste, say, “Ooh, that’s good!”, and immediately abandon it for the next thing that commands our attention.

“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”
— Mark 4:18-19

We don’t drink the Word deep by dedicating time and space to it, sitting with it, exploring it and attempting to live it out. As a result, it never becomes real to us and nothing comes of it.

It’s just an idea that someone has to get us excited about over and over again.

“These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.”
— Mark 4:16-17

But, those who received the Seed and bear good fruit, the ones in whom the Word took root, they operate after their own kind, Jesus—the true vine.

What does that look like?

It looks like people taking up their cross and following, Jesus.

It looks like people concerning themselves with what Jesus concerned Himself with, preaching the gospel, seeking above all the Kingdom of God and its righteousness.

It looks like the ministry of reconciliation, making straight the path for the lost to be reconciled to communion with God through Jesus Christ.

Listen!

Luke 9:49 gives an account of the disciples who came across a man who heard Jesus and immediately got to the business of waging war against demonic occupation, and confronting them in the name of Jesus.

The problem was, he didn’t go to seminary, he wasn’t ordained, he wasn’t known among the establishment and the disciples forbade him.

But how did Jesus respond?

“But Jesus said to him, ‘Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.’”
— Luke 9:50

Why?

Because he was showing us how to make the Word stick.

He took up his cross and followed Jesus.

He got after the Father’s business.

He walked it out.

He ate.

We should do likewise.