August 2, 2016

Greetings My Friend, Dawn my cousin is working through the fact that the church she is attending now does not have monthly communion. She called me a while back to discuss this and how much communion means to her. I gave her the way I dealt with this issue when I switched churches in which I came from a monthly communion service to a church that has this service once in a while. For me I prayed through our Lord Jesus' last hours almost daily for a long time. Today I do not but those years of praying that prayer opened my heart to the gift I have been given more so. We talked again this past weekend and she told me how she is handling her need for communion. She bakes a loaf of bread, prepares the wine and while the bread is rising and baking she reads the Scriptures on the last hours of Jesus. When the bread is done baking she then takes the bread and drinks the wine. The physical act of communion and the Bible reading/studying helps her feel close to God and she sees how much she is loved. This morning while reading my Bible I read about the last supper how Jesus broke the bread telling them to "Take and eat." In Sunday school we were studying our lesson and I recalled a time when God intervened in my and Junior's life. The teach responded how God was there and knew years before the situation happened. I found myself in awe and then the teacher reminded me again about how God was providing for me before I even knew I was going to go through that trial. That comment prompted other times that I saw God's hand on me and my mouth was going. Later I realized I needed to keep this last thought to myself, it could have appeared I was bragging and that was not my intent. I asked God to forgive me as soon as I realized what I had done but for some reason I stewed on it. This morning's study showed me that the cross was where my overthinking needed to go. In my mind I began nailing it up on the cross as I read. "now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said , "Take, eat this is my body.' And He took a cup and when He had given thanks He gave it to them saying "Drink of it , for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." At this moment I realized it was time to quit chewing on my mistake and to move on. I understand that I need to work on not saying each thought as it pops into my head, something I am not so good at. I can not do this on my own either, I have a history of not doing so, I do know though that the Holy Spirit will help me. I can look back on my thought life and I recall when thoughts try to crowd my thinking I have learned to rely on the Holy Spirit to help me by taking those thoughts away. I may need to ask "Is this something I need to say out loud?" I will have to ask the Holy Spirit to guide my mouth and with this thought process I have a freedom in my heart. It will take a lot of concentrated effort on my part so I need to be patient as I learn to train my thoughts and my mouth which means when I fail I need to start all over again. The cross is where I can see I have been forgiven and the cross shows me that the cleansing is a process and I am grateful for the process of growing into my faith. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet