When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them,
“Do you have anything here to eat?
Luke 24:40-41 NIV
He shows them the marks of his crucifixion to prove it is truly him, not a vision or spirit.
Yet, the disciples are caught somewhere between disbelief and overwhelming joy. They’re amazed. It feels almost too good to be true.
So Jesus then grounds the moment by eating in their presence, demonstrating that he is not a ghostly apparition but alive in a physical, resurrected body.
A deeply human detail.
He reassures them with something as simple and familiar as a shared meal—reminding them that faith is not only about extraordinary events but also found in ordinary acts of fellowship.
Sharing a meal was communion.
And then they knew it was him.
Today, most of us take communion with a dry wafer and a tiny juice cup.
Next time you take your little mass-produced communion lunchable, ask God to open your eyes to the truth of Jesus’ resurrection and in doing so may your faith be empowered.
[If there’s one thing addicts do well, it’s telling stories. But after 14 years clean, they’re usually not lies anymore. Last night after my Celebrate Recovery at The Crossing Church meeting, I shared the most important part of how I did it as I share with another addict each year on this day. This story works if you let it.]
Someone asked me recently how I did it. How I got off drugs, meth of all things. Undoubtedly tonight at my meeting I’ll be asked once again as is the tradition for anyone getting another annual chip.
I’ve given a lot of thought to the question.
Less to the mechanics of my leap into sobriety, but more about which of my words might just trigger another addict in attendance to turn on that light upstairs, illuminating them to the possibility that they, too, despite their past, deserve a future.
You see, it’s not so much the quitting of drugs that’s important.
Equally necessary is the installation of hope and belief that you are worth far more in this world than the lonely company of any drug or its cohorts.
It’s about having been utterly blinded by the stupor of a drug and its false promise of contentment that blocks out hope or vision there’s really anything more to life.
To that end, we are all addicts. We all have something we’ve allowed to remain which blocks our hope and blurs our vision. Something to which we remain bound.
“Clean and sober.”
It’s almost cliché these days.
The distinction between the two, however, is perhaps the most important thing I learned in my years of recovery so far.
I got clean once, but I get more sober with each passing day.
The truly recovered are not recovered at all.
They are recovering.
And the truly recovering can instinctively tell the difference.
A recovering person hasn’t simply stopped using, they have started living.
It’s evident that a clarity of mind, purpose and a place for God was birthed at some moment, and rarely is that moment a single epiphany, but the commencement of a lifelong string of epiphanies which, together, create the continuity of recovering.
It’s the high I get from my ongoing little epiphanies of life these days.
They continue to escort me down a much more beautiful path.
And when you find yourself in a much prettier place, hope is much easier to find. In fact, it seems to find you.
And isn’t that really the very definition of God?
So for the addicts in all of us, I say to you, we are here in this world for one reason only: Be that hope for someone today.
Be clean. Be sober. And most of all, live like you deserve to.
“But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.”
Luke 23:23-25 NIV
Imagine.
You spend every waking hour of your entire life in service to humanity and humanitarian needs only to be served up on a platter to an excruciating death by the very same people you served.
No other of the world’s gods have ever reached down to meet faithful and faithless in their unreconciled condition.
All others demand their reaching up to experience the holiness they offer.
The bridge from heaven to earth was only walked in one direction by only one who, despite his miracles, messages, and deity, was met with willful carnage and crucifixion.
I think on this daily and still have no deserving human analogy or example.
We all have our private and personal reasons for the formation of our faith in Jesus.
This is mine.
Never bet on people in a crowd to make fair and reasonable choices. That’s God’s domain because he chose to be human with you.
We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 NIV
Sadly, for many it will be an instant too late.
We’re hearing more and more from high profile athletes, celebrities and others about their conversion to a faith in Christ lately.
Their decisions compel them to make public what began as a private search for something true and of eternal consequence.
When you make such discovery, it’s hard not to tell the world about it.
Famous people are finding their professional fame unfulfilling and replacing their own achievements with the lasting achievement of Christ’s death and resurrection and a promise of the same for those who will believe.
The trumpets will sound for all of us.
Be one of the genuinely famous who can and will answer that call.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 1 Corinthians 10:21 NIV
I’m always bothered when someone from church cites their horoscope to explain their circumstances.
For them, a plea of ignorance won’t be an acceptable excuse on judgement day.
Divided allegiances are on display everywhere, oftentimes even in my own life.
The difference lies in having received the Holy Spirit who keeps such things in check within our consciences to foster learning and spiritual growth along our pathway to salvation.
That’s His job.
Earnestly pray for wisdom and discernment, especially in these times when deception is the cultural name of the game to lead us down paths toward destruction.
Everyone who competes in the Olympics goes into strict training.
They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1 Corinthians 9:25 NIV
In Paris, we saw podiums and their medalists and heard of backstories that brought them to that moment in time.
Years of grueling training and many wins and losses along the way were part of the journey that earned them medallions of metal alloys now containing just 2% of what their names promise.
Still, the wins are symbolic of achievements that will all too soon be either forgotten or surpassed by someone else.
The reward for all their efforts is one fleeting moment of triumph.
It doesn’t last forever.
The only win that endures forever is the one resulting from daily commitment to following Christ.
Our reward is an afterlife not of bronze or silver but an eternity on entire streets of 100% pure gold.
Train for the race that wins the prize that holds its value and lasts forever.
When I’m gone, don’t remember me, remember what I’ve left behind.
The most important moments captured in history books are rarely about the person by name but about the changes they made to impact others while they were here and will remain when they are long gone.
Remembering a dead man is uninspiring but remembering residuals of his life work is.
A genuinely meaningful life is never about attribution but all about contribution.
