Wednesday: Holy Week 2

"Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover."

Happy Holy Week, and Happy Salvation Wednesday, as Wednesday is the day we pray for those who are unsaved. Please pray that God will use us to help lead in the lost. Also today please pray for safety in travel for Tom and Pat Collins. Pray for healing for Sharon and Oliver and please also keep me on your prayer list. I think I might have passed that last of those stones and pieces of stone as the pain has finally turned around the other way. Please also keep praying for Pastor Charles Idler and for Pat Parvin as they heal from a stroke.

Holy Week 2: As we keep walking with the Lord, we are going today to the upper room and have the "Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover. We get to sit around the table and eat, pray, and just chat with our Lord Jesus. As you recall, I asked if you would bring juice and bread with you today, and even share communion with a friend or friends at work. So please get your juice and bread and lets now pray over them and also give our sins over to Jesus.

Dear Father in Heaven, as we come to you today we humbly ask that You clean us of our sins. We do confess that we are sinners and we are indeed in need of being cleaned. Lord, we also ask that You would use us this day and every day to help bring in the lost so that they also might be blessed by You and that they would invite You into their hearts and become born again believers. Lord use us, use us daily. I ask healing for Oliver and Sharon, who have bad colds, colds that are lingering and need Your healing hand. Lord, how we love You. Please also lift Pastor Charles up out of the wheelchair and let him preach and teach Your word again. Your healing hand would also be appreciated on Pat and we also ask for you to let her walk again. And yes, oh Lord, I still need that touch to bring me back to serve You better. Now Lord, I ask your blessing on the emblems we will be using for communion this day. Bless them to their intended use..... in the name of Jesus I pray Amen

Holy Week 2: Luke 22: 8 - Jesus sent Peter and John saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover." 9 Where do you want us to prepare for it? they asked. 10 He Replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' 12 He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there." (NIV)

One of the things that we note in these scriptures is where the term "Upper Room" comes from. So we walk with Jesus and the rest of the disciples (we are disciples, remember) and we come now to the house, and we are taken to that upper room where the tables are set for us. Now we today always see the table set with Jesus in the middle and all the disciples on one side of the table with one on each end. As I put it in my mind this morning we are all around the tables, so that we are facing each other. The paintings, prints, etc., we see are beautiful and are done that way so as not to see the backs of the heads. As we gather around the table and we chat with Jesus, a vision comes into my mind that on some sweet day we who truly believe will sit around the table with Jesus and others who were born again when their time on earth was ended. We will join with our Jesus for that great, really great communion. What a great day that will be. It is referred in the Bible in Revelation 19:9, Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' And he added, "These are the true words of God." (NIV)

Again as we look back and the hour came, Jesus reclined at the table with us. And He said this to us. Luke 22: 15 - "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." 17 After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." (NIV)

So folks, as we take communion here on earth, when we from time to time have communion at church or online, and in some churches communion happens at most all services. Brothers and sisters, I think it is very, very important to go to God clean as we communion with Him. Remember the words of Jesus when He tells us all He will not eat or drink this meal again until He does it with us in Heaven. Do you see the importance of this? Yes, while we sit and have communion, we look forward to that sweet day we all get together with Jesus for the greatest supper of all. So let's now roll back in time and join with Jesus and His disciples for supper, or what we now call communion.

From Luke 22: 19 - And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them (us) saying, "This is my body given for you: do this in remembrance of me." (NIV) Please take now your bread, and share it and eat it ... It is the body of our Lord Jesus and it is broken for us.

From Luke 22: 20 - In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." (NIV) Take now your cup and drink of it ... for this is the blood of Jesus is flowing for us today...

Now let me go on with this message just a tad farther ...

From Luke 22: 21 - "But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays Him." (NIV)

Now as we know Judas was the one with the dirty hands. Now I ask this very important question. How many of us who are sitting around the table today, or how many of the people worldwide who will be taking communion over this Easter Season, this Holy Season, will have dirty hands? How many people sit in a church pew and are really not Christians? How many will put Jesus down, or just not stand up for Him. If someone were to arrest you today and charge you with being a Christian, would they be able to get enough evidence to convict you? Do you put Jesus down? Maybe it is just on some things. Think of it, how many people who say there are Christians are jumping for joy with the new laws in a few states that say men can marry men and women can marry women?

Trust me on this one folks, if you are indeed a sinner who REFUSES TO REPENT, then you are also one who is putting down Jesus. It is not the size of the sin, it is the fact that you refuse to repent from your sins. So please, my dear brothers and sisters, take this Holy Season, this Holy Week, this Holy Communion, to really address yourself. I am going to do that. I am not just preaching to you folks, I am as always looking at myself.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Mount of Olives to pray with Jesus. As Jesus prays, do you know what part of the prayer stands out most to me? See you tomorrow when I let you know ...

Now go forth sharing your blessings, sharing your love, and sharing Jesus with others ... love ya, dan.