Month: August 2025

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A Morsel of Bread and a Sip of Wine

For two people in my life, both of whom have passed on from here, I keep a token remembrance. A small screwdriver that once belonged to my father now dangles from my keyring wherever I go. It is tempered steel, much like my childhood image of my dad. It is useful to me as it was to him, and it often brings him to mind. On our bedroom wall hangs a watercolor painting that my mother began but never finished. Its feminine flair captures her elegance, and its simplicity displays her quiet confidence and subtle taste. It reflects her as much as any self-portrait could, or so it seems to me.

Of all the reminders Jesus could have left behind, vast or simple, He specifically chose these: a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. In what would be His “last supper” here on Earth, Jesus gave bread to His disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”1 He then offered them wine, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”2 So what might a morsel of bread and a sip of wine — this body and blood — speak to us as we partake of them together as the people of Christ?

God engages us at great length. He made us in His image, then came to us in ours. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . All things were made through him . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”3

God acts with great purpose. “When the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.”4

God loves us at great cost. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”5

God lives in us forever. “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.”6

God purifies us completely. In Levitucus God declared, “The life of a creature is in the blood . . . it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”7 Not just any blood, but only that of the Creator — “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”8

Yes, Lord. Thank You for the bread and the wine, Your body and blood. We remember; we believe; we partake. For in Christ we live, and in Him we pray. Amen.

1 Luke 22:19 ESV (emphasis added)
2 1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV (emphasis added)
3 John 1:1-3, 14 ESV
4 Galatians 4:4-5 NLT
5 1 John 4:10 NIV
6 1 John 4:15
7 Leviticus 17:11 NIV
8 1 John 1:7 NIV

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Dance with the One Who Brung Ya

“You gotta dance with the one who brung ya” — so goes the American adage, a swig from the little brown jug of hillbilly parlance. It means to remain loyal to the people or principles that supported us in the past and led to our wellbeing in the present. It esteems integrity over indifference, confidence over doubt, and gratitude over exploitation. Yet we repeat this backwoods gem for a reason: the temptation not to heed it.

It was faith in Jesus Christ, as proclaimed by Paul, that brung the Galatian believers to the “dance” of the Spirit. They had welcomed the apostle “as if [he] were an angel of God,”1 and through Paul’s message, “the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to [them] as if {they] had seen a picture of his death on the cross.”2 They believed the good news of the Christ and received in themselves the Spirit of God. But as if in a race — or in this case, a dance — others “cut in”3 on them, an infiltration of those diabolically arguing the need to continue following the ceremonial laws of Moses. The Galatians cowed in fear to the falsehood, and their oppression showed: “What has happened to all your joy?”4 observed Paul. He had brung ‘em to the gospel, but now they danced with the law. So Paul chided them, and for their own good: “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? . . . After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? . . . Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?”5

Legalism would still today “cut in” on our glorious dance with freedom. We no longer feel compelled to follow Old Testament ceremonial laws, certainly, but what about our fleshy demands regarding dress or worship style, for instance? God does not condition His grace on these, so why would we? Yet dancing with legalism is more deeply troubling still, for it grips us hard, steps on our toes, and whispers doubt in our ear. It dupes us into distrusting the enormity of God’s love for us and the sufficiency of His grace toward us. It tempts us to “lead” the dance by our works when we can only “follow” in His grace. This should not be, and it need not be.

So, ask yourself, “What was it that set your feet a-dancin’?” Was it the rigid and relentless demands of the law, or the heel-kickin’ joy of forgiveness and grace? Remember your answer. And dance forever with the One who brung ya.

“God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight.” Romans 3:24 NLT

Father, lead us in Your truth, and remind us of Your grace. Grant that we would rejoice so freely in Your Spirit that others will join us in the dance forever. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Galatians 4:14 NIV
2 Galatians 3:1 NLT
3 Galatians 5:7 NIV
4 Galatians 4:15 NIV
5 Galatians 3:2-6 NIV

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Those Who Are Where You Once Were

Statistics startle sometimes. Case in point: Bible sales. Every year in the U.S., the Bible is the top-selling book. So, the fact that its sales in America soared 22% in 2024 seemed statistically impossible to me. How do we account for such a surge in the perennial bestseller? I think we have an answer: “a groundswell of commitment to Jesus over the last four years.”1 So observed a study from the research organization, the Barna Group. Barna’s recent data shows “66 percent of all U.S. adults say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today. That marks a 12-percentage-point increase since 2021.” Moreover, “Among the biggest drivers of the Jesus resurgence are younger generations—particularly Gen Z and Millennials.”2 What does this tell us but that people still search for meaning and truth? And that some are finding life’s purpose in God and truth in His Word.

Do you recall when “seeker” described you — when you were the one struggling in the search that ultimately led to God through Christ Jesus, His Son? God calls us to remember our plight and, in such remembrance, to extend justice and mercy to those who are where we once were. In giving the Law, God commanded His people, “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.”3 Similarly, God directed His people to the generosity and compassion He had extended to them: “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. . . You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.”4

Today as ever, there are the many who cry out from their own “Egyptian” captivity, those seeking cleansing from guilt and removal of shame, those searching for the purpose of life and the certainty of truth — people who are where we once were. Today may we remember when this was us, and in this remembrance, extend the hope and freedom which, through others, God extended to us.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”5 Yes, Lord, grace us to remember your comfort and to extend your compassion always. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1, 2 “New Research: Belief in Jesus Rises, Fueled by Younger Adults,” Barna, accessed August 5, 2025, https://www.barna.com/research/belief-in-jesus-rises/ (emphases added)
3 Deuteronomy 24:17-18 ESV (emphasis added)
4 Deuteronomy 24: 19-22 ESV (emphasis added)
5 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV