Tag: Pilgrims

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Blast-off!

Day 30 – Words of Life: A Countdown to Hearing Jesus in the Land of the Bible

Based on John 6:68

major-astro-bw“Are you ready? All systems are go in T minus 5-4-3-2-1 – Blast-off!” Ever since I was a boy watching Major Astro on TV each day after school, I’ve loved countdowns. They’re exciting. They bring you to the moment when something big is about to happen. In 30 days from today something big will happen. I will be leading a team of 17 people on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We will leave for Israel on January 9, 2017 and return on January 18.

In this series called, Words of Life, I’d like to invite each of my readers to join us in spirit to prepare yourself for something big to happen. I will be writing and vlogging from Israel each day we are in the Holy Land. You too can follow our Pilgrimage on our daily updates. We will visit the holy sites where Jesus walked and ministered, where he lived and died, and most importantly where He rose from the grave!

When you visit the land of the Bible you will never read scripture the same way again; it comes alive to you. Each day until we leave, I want to offer a brief devotion to prepare us for what we will experience on our Pilgrimage together. Today, among all the talking heads and political commentary of times, we need to hear more than ever that there is only One who has the words of life. Words that can bring hope and pierce the vail of any darkness. Jesus Christ is that One.

In John 6:68, Simon Peter acknowledged that Jesus is the only One whose words mattered when he said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,” The words of Jesus were difficult to hear that day as He talked of eating His body and drinking His blood. It sounded gruesome to many. Some thought He was crazy and they turned away from following Him after hearing those words. Jesus spoke those words while in the synagogue at Capernaum. We will visit that very place where Jesus spoke those words and I will bring a devotion on the deeper meaning of them that we often miss.

But for now, it’s important that we recognize what Peter did that day. There is no place else to go. Only Jesus has the words of life. It’s what Jesus wants to say to us that matters. I’ve written a book to accompany our journey titled, A Pilgrim’s Path: 31 days to Discovering Life In Christ. The book is a devotional journal to help you process the great challenges of life and how to discover the deep meaning of living IN Jesus Christ. While it’s available at Amazon and many other retailers, if you’d like a signed, personalized copy it’s available on my website for a limited time, with free shipping. (Be sure you give me your name, or the name of who it’s for on the order form).

In the words of Major Astro, “Join me here tomorrow boys and girls. Same time, same channel”. I hope you will “Blast-off” with me for a new adventure in the Words of Life.

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

image credit: http://pocketfulofginch.blogspot.com/2012/09/major-astro-circa-1970.html

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A Cup of Thanksgiving

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you;

Matthew 26:27

Today most of us in America will sit down in a tradition that dates back to the Pilgrims and their dinner of thanksgiving, as they gave thanks to God for bringing them to this new world. We eat turkey and dressing and all the trimmings in remembrance of God’s providence in our lives. The providence that brought us to today. No matter what problems or pains we endure, we’re here. We’re alive and well enough to give thanks.

But for some, today will be a day of mourning, a day of sorrow. People die on and around Thanksgiving just like any other day. What about them? How will they find thankfulness in their hearts for God’s providence? I pray they will. His Providence is always there, but sometimes we have to look through a lot of pain and tears to see it.

It wasn’t easy for those early pilgrims as they braved a new and sometimes hostile world to carve out a life. They built homes and villages, and planted crops and families all to begin again in freedom. They left behind the religious oppression they felt in the old world. And it didn’t matter how hard it would be in the new world, they we’re determined to make a new life…and so they did.

What about you? What about me? Are we determined that no matter what obstacles lay ahead of us that we will make it through in this life? There is only one way to know we can make it through – with faith in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the object of the Pilgrim’s thankfulness, as He should be ours. Nothing we enjoy today comes to us of our own accord, but through His divine providence.

On the last night of His life, Jesus gathered for a traditional meal with his disciples as they celebrated the Passover. But it was not a night like any other. That night, Jesus gathered them not only to remember the deliverance of their ancestors, He gathered them to deliver them. As Jesus celebrated His last Passover with them, He was celebrating His first Eucharist with them – His first Thanksgiving with them.

The Eucharist is known by many names, Holy Communion, The Lord’s Supper, or simply Communion. But Eucharist was the name given by the first Christians, and they gave it that name for a reason. In their common Greek language, “Eucharistia” meant Thanksgiving. That night, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and He took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for them both. He was thanking the Father for His own body about to be broken and His own blood about to be shed.

I wonder if we can do that today? Can we gather together with friends and family and raise a cup of Thanksgiving for what is about to happen? None of us knows what tomorrow may bring. For some it will bring great loneliness having passed the first holiday without a loved one who died. For others it will bring great joy as they move into the season of Advent and Christmas, with hearts full of hope.

Whatever your lot is today, I pray you will not only see Pilgrims and Turkeys, but that you will see a broken lamb giving thanks to God for you and your life. A life He died to save, and not just to save but to save for an everlasting life filled with joy, and the fulfillment of our original creation. So today, let us lift a cup of Thanksgiving to the one thing for which we should be most thankful – eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Pastor Brad