Cross

Seven Words

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Seven Words Our Savior Spoke

Seven words our Savior spoke

As He was dying there

Three words of comfort gently said

Three words He cried in prayer

And one He humbly asked “O How I thirst”

When they gave Him vinegar

Then Father forgive they do not know

What they have done to me

And to a broken dying thief He said

“In paradise we’ll be”

As Mary and John drew close to Him

His closest friend and mother

“Remember” He said “From this day on

To care for one another”

“My God – My God O why have You?

Forsaken me this way?”

He cried on that dark hill

Next “It is finished!” They heard Him say

I have done all your will

Then finally “Into your hands”

He prayed for His race was done

“I’m coming now to you My Father

Death defeated the victory won!”

Peter Caligiuri March 2020

P1040081

 

Remembering Him

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In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”                                   1 Corinthians 11:26 -27 ESV

Though the bread given to us may be held by human hands; 2,000 years ago it was given to us first by Him. As we take the bread and cup in our hands, He wants us to remember the marks of the whip, the crown of thorns and the cross. In the same way that Mary worshiped by pouring out the spikenard to prepare Jesus for His burial, we worship Him as we take the bread and cup and remember His cross.

 

I often think of the spear that pierced His side. Jesus hung lifeless after having given His spirit to the Father. But even as His body hung limp and vulnerable, a soldier plunged his lance into the side of Jesus. It was cruel but it was his job to make sure that Jesus was dead and with no possibility of rescue. And then there flowed out water and blood down His side and onto the ground showing the price that He paid for our sins and yet we easily forget. In the middle of the activities and pressures of life we need to come and sit again at His table. We must tell again the story of the bread He broke and the cup He blessed till the day when we eat and drink at His table in Heaven.

Re-Gifting

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They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.”          Matthew 14:17 ESV

At Christmas-time probably more of us than would like to admit practice the art of re-gifting. We feel mildly guilty because the practice is usually associated with someone who is either a cheap-skate or an ingrate. However, in the Bible Jesus often practiced re-gifting. When we look at the story of Jesus multiplying the bread we see that He took the five loaves from the disciples, who in turn got them from a small boy and then gave them to five thousand hungry people.

Imported from phone 796

In our lives we are all “gifted” with time, talent and treasure. None of these things belong to us; they only pass through our hands. God is watching to see how we will re-gift what we have received. Will we feed the hungry; and bring comfort, shelter and friendship to those in need around us? What will we re-gift to someone today? And when we do remember the great re-gifting when Jesus took the life that the Father had given Him and gave it to us on the cross.

Christmas Cross

Prayer: Father, help me not to cling so tightly to the things you have given me. Give me the heart of Jesus Christ who loved me and gave himself for me!