Where is the most important piece of real estate in the world today? We can't find it on our own. It cannot be found on a map but it is available to all who want to discover it. It is not hidden except to those who cannot see it. You can get directions only if you know who to follow.
When you get there you will know that you have discovered the vestibule of heaven. It is where you will see the bright and morning star. There you will find a seat reserved for you at the table already prepared for you. It is already paid for in full and when you sit down God Himself will be there to welcome you and share all that He has with you.
This real estate is found wherever there is a table set by the Lord. You know He set it because it is where you will find Him. In the natural you find His Body as bread and His blood by wine. When you feast upon His body and blood you also feast upon His presence and when you do He opens your eyes to see Him and you recognize Him in the greater reality of the eternal.
He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.
Where He anoints your head with oil.
We sit down and begin to feast and when we do His presence is like anointing oil. Our eyes close to the temporal and are opened to see the eternal reality of His presence. We encounter the King and His Kingdom. It is His initiative when we receive Communion. He opens our eyes so that we can encounter Him first hand and remember Him.
When we do His real estate may include a beach by the lake, the sea or an ocean. It may be the Last Supper in the Upper Room 2000 years ago or may bring you to a green hillside where you are a sheep and He is your Shepherd. What we see is more real than the chair we are sitting in and the stars in the sky. They are temporary. One day there will be a new heaven and a new earth and a New Jerusalem. For now He is our reality. He is not dead. He is alive. He is alive in the bread and the wine. It is His body and His blood. When we feast on His divinity something happens!
The table, the bread and the wine are real. Jesus said, "It is real food." We hold the bread and cup with our hands. We eat the bread and drink the wine with our mouth. When we do a miracle happens in our heart. Our eyes open to see Him and we know this because we recognize Him. He shows us something. It may be a light or a net or He may just let us know He is there. One day He is King and another day He is the Shepherd. One day meets us on the beach and another day on the hill. The miracle is that He opens our eyes to recognize His reality. He speaks. We hear His voice. He gives us a sense of what He is saying. He whispers in a still small voice. He opens our ears that we might hear Him and know the reality of His word.
Then something else happens. Our cup overflows.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1:17
And as we live in His presence, our love grows more and more complete. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because as He is so are we in this world 1 John 4;17
Isaiah 6:10, Matthew 13:15, John 12:40, Acts 27:28, Romans 11:8 Five times in scriptures we are told how God initiates disclosure of His presence to us. He opens our eyes, our ears and our hearts to bring about transformation by His love. There are two responses.
Those who will not see with their eyes, they wont hear and so they will not understand remain in darkness and blind to His reality.
Those who do see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand in their heart are transformed and healed.
As in Part One of this series, Brennan Manning makes the observation that once we have a true encounter with JESUS it is life changing. It is with us the rest of our lives but then the reality of this world, natural life begins to wear away the impact of that life-changing moment. The question is, "Can we have more than one experience or more than occasional encounters?" The answer is, "Yes!"
JESUS invites us to come back to His Table every day to experience the miracle of encountering Him! He never leaves us or forsakes us. He can't wait to share more of Himself with you. He wants to keep impacting us with His Initiative! The more time we spend at His Table the more His initiative impacts our life. The greater the ongoing impact is, the more intense His glory becomes. Instead of this world distilling our encounters with its trivialities, they are replaced by the reality of His presence.
When we remember He is there in Communion, we are transformed into the images we encounter of Him. You can't change under your own strength because you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God. We can't renew our mind, He does. When He is seen in us and through us it is because we have spend real time with the real Him. If He INITIATES it will be true. If we initiate we will be blue. In us dwells no good thing. Even on our best day our right doing amounts to filthy dirty rags. We are at best, as Father Manning says so well by word and example, Ragamuffins. When we meet at His Table He imputes His royalty! We become partakers of His divine nature!
Let Him lead you to His Table. He will open your eyes to see Him. He will open you ears to hear Him. He will transform your heart by filling it to overflowing with understanding. We see His expressions, how gracious, respectful, loving and kind He is. We get to know who He really is. The more you know Him the greater we see His glory and are embraced by His grace. The more time we spend at His Table the more powerful His presence. His love intensifies more and more! We become more the person He intends us to be. That's why we will have confidence in the day of judgment because we already 'know Him'. We know that we have passed from death into life. Again JESUS tells us, "This bread is my flesh given for your life and this cup of wine is my blood shed for the remission of your sins... It is real!"
He initiates everything and makes that most possible every time we sit at His Table. It is The Table of Communion where we learn how much He wants to share Himself with us!
"We love Him, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19
"He brings you to His banqueting room where He has prepared the wine and the table and His banner over you is love. He anoints your head with oil and your cup runs over... His goodness and love stays with you and you know you are welcomed to be with Him forever!"
Song 2:4, Psalm 23:5-6
When you get there you will know that you have discovered the vestibule of heaven. It is where you will see the bright and morning star. There you will find a seat reserved for you at the table already prepared for you. It is already paid for in full and when you sit down God Himself will be there to welcome you and share all that He has with you.
This real estate is found wherever there is a table set by the Lord. You know He set it because it is where you will find Him. In the natural you find His Body as bread and His blood by wine. When you feast upon His body and blood you also feast upon His presence and when you do He opens your eyes to see Him and you recognize Him in the greater reality of the eternal.
He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.
Where He anoints your head with oil.
We sit down and begin to feast and when we do His presence is like anointing oil. Our eyes close to the temporal and are opened to see the eternal reality of His presence. We encounter the King and His Kingdom. It is His initiative when we receive Communion. He opens our eyes so that we can encounter Him first hand and remember Him.
When we do His real estate may include a beach by the lake, the sea or an ocean. It may be the Last Supper in the Upper Room 2000 years ago or may bring you to a green hillside where you are a sheep and He is your Shepherd. What we see is more real than the chair we are sitting in and the stars in the sky. They are temporary. One day there will be a new heaven and a new earth and a New Jerusalem. For now He is our reality. He is not dead. He is alive. He is alive in the bread and the wine. It is His body and His blood. When we feast on His divinity something happens!
The table, the bread and the wine are real. Jesus said, "It is real food." We hold the bread and cup with our hands. We eat the bread and drink the wine with our mouth. When we do a miracle happens in our heart. Our eyes open to see Him and we know this because we recognize Him. He shows us something. It may be a light or a net or He may just let us know He is there. One day He is King and another day He is the Shepherd. One day meets us on the beach and another day on the hill. The miracle is that He opens our eyes to recognize His reality. He speaks. We hear His voice. He gives us a sense of what He is saying. He whispers in a still small voice. He opens our ears that we might hear Him and know the reality of His word.
Then something else happens. Our cup overflows.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1:17
And as we live in His presence, our love grows more and more complete. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because as He is so are we in this world 1 John 4;17
Isaiah 6:10, Matthew 13:15, John 12:40, Acts 27:28, Romans 11:8 Five times in scriptures we are told how God initiates disclosure of His presence to us. He opens our eyes, our ears and our hearts to bring about transformation by His love. There are two responses.
Those who will not see with their eyes, they wont hear and so they will not understand remain in darkness and blind to His reality.
Those who do see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand in their heart are transformed and healed.
As in Part One of this series, Brennan Manning makes the observation that once we have a true encounter with JESUS it is life changing. It is with us the rest of our lives but then the reality of this world, natural life begins to wear away the impact of that life-changing moment. The question is, "Can we have more than one experience or more than occasional encounters?" The answer is, "Yes!"
JESUS invites us to come back to His Table every day to experience the miracle of encountering Him! He never leaves us or forsakes us. He can't wait to share more of Himself with you. He wants to keep impacting us with His Initiative! The more time we spend at His Table the more His initiative impacts our life. The greater the ongoing impact is, the more intense His glory becomes. Instead of this world distilling our encounters with its trivialities, they are replaced by the reality of His presence.
When we remember He is there in Communion, we are transformed into the images we encounter of Him. You can't change under your own strength because you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God. We can't renew our mind, He does. When He is seen in us and through us it is because we have spend real time with the real Him. If He INITIATES it will be true. If we initiate we will be blue. In us dwells no good thing. Even on our best day our right doing amounts to filthy dirty rags. We are at best, as Father Manning says so well by word and example, Ragamuffins. When we meet at His Table He imputes His royalty! We become partakers of His divine nature!
Let Him lead you to His Table. He will open your eyes to see Him. He will open you ears to hear Him. He will transform your heart by filling it to overflowing with understanding. We see His expressions, how gracious, respectful, loving and kind He is. We get to know who He really is. The more you know Him the greater we see His glory and are embraced by His grace. The more time we spend at His Table the more powerful His presence. His love intensifies more and more! We become more the person He intends us to be. That's why we will have confidence in the day of judgment because we already 'know Him'. We know that we have passed from death into life. Again JESUS tells us, "This bread is my flesh given for your life and this cup of wine is my blood shed for the remission of your sins... It is real!"
He initiates everything and makes that most possible every time we sit at His Table. It is The Table of Communion where we learn how much He wants to share Himself with us!
"We love Him, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19
"He brings you to His banqueting room where He has prepared the wine and the table and His banner over you is love. He anoints your head with oil and your cup runs over... His goodness and love stays with you and you know you are welcomed to be with Him forever!"
Song 2:4, Psalm 23:5-6