By Doug Redford 

Several years after walking on the moon in 1969, Neil Armstrong recalled what that experience was like. He described himself as an ordinary man who was privileged to do extraordinary things. On the other hand, consider Jesus. Here was someone extraordinary, the Creator God, doing an ordinary thing—entering the world just like you and I entered it: through the womb of a woman. 

Some may be familiar with the TV program, Undercover Boss. In each episode an executive (sometimes the president) of a certain company disguises himself or herself and then goes out among the employees in various settings just to learn what issues or problems they may be encountering as they do their jobs. For some it’s very eye-opening; some of these executives learn some rather uncomfortable truths about their business, things that they had no idea were going on. In the process, they also learn some of the personal hardships and struggles that their employees and in some cases their families are trying to cope with. At the conclusion of each episode, the “boss” offers to help each employee in a very generous, tangible way. Usually many tears flow and hugs are exchanged. 

Think again of how Jesus (Emmanuel, “God with us”) came to our earth as a baby. Talk about your “undercover boss”—especially when he was wrapped in the very ordinary “swaddling clothes” (he really was under cover!). But this boss did not have to learn about the problems and struggles that his people were dealing with. The Scripture says, “He [Jesus] knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person” (John 2:24-25). Jesus already knew our dilemma; that is why he came to our world. The angel’s extraordinary birth announcement to Joseph ended with these words: “He will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). 

At Communion, we use common, ordinary items to remind us of an extraordinary message. Imagine what it would be like to meet your heavenly “boss” and to have the opportunity to express your gratitude for what he did for you: the greatest gift any boss could provide to those under his authority. And remember that someday, at the wedding supper of the Lamb, we will have that extraordinary face-to-face meeting.  

Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities come. 

The post Something Extraordinary appeared first on Christian Standard.

By Edwin White 

After celebrating the Passover together and singing a hymn, Jesus and 11 disciples left the upper room. Judas had departed earlier to meet with the chief priests to complete the betrayal of his Master. The 12 traveled across the Kidron Valley to a grove of olive trees called the Garden of Gethsemane. There, Jesus said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray” (Matthew 26:36) and “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:40*). 

Jesus then took his three closest friends, Peter, James, and John, and went a little farther. Matthew says the Lord began to be sorrowful and deeply disturbed. Jesus said, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). We can translate that as, “My soul is so burdened down that it is killing me.” 

I do not believe it was a dread of the cross that bothered Jesus. It was not fear of the scourging or the mocking or the nails. When he knelt down and prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39), he was praying about the one thing that was most troubling to him, the acceptance of guilt for the sins of the entire human race. The Scriptures say he became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Scriptures also tell us that our iniquities separate us from the Father and our sins turn his face away from us. 

Jesus, the Son of God, had lived for all eternity in perfect harmony with the Father. Nothing had ever come between them, but when Jesus took the horrible stains of our sins on his spotless soul, it ripped apart that perfect relationship. The Father turned his face away from the Son because of my sins and yours. The Scriptures tell us he approached the Father with strong crying and tears. His heart was breaking, but he accepted that bitter cup of our guilt. He did even that for us. How could we not worship him? 

When God could no longer go directly to Jesus, he did the one thing he could still do, he sent his angel to comfort and strengthen his Son. 

We come to this table to remember Jesus’ magnificent sacrifice, to worship him, and to pledge ourselves anew to serving him. Let us bow down our hearts and worship him through the Lord’s Supper. 

*All Scripture verses are from the New King James Version. 

Ed White is a retired Christian minister. He earned degrees from Mid-South Christian College, Alabama Christian School of Religion, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He lives in Milledgeville, Ga. His book of Communion meditations, Come to the Table, is available from Amazon. 

The post The Bitter Cup appeared first on Christian Standard.

By Doug Redford 

During the height of his remarkable career, Walt Disney employed a staff of animators who would work during the day at their drawing tables trying to sketch out new ideas for cartoon or movie characters. (Keep in mind that this was some time before computers and digital technology came along.) 

Disney would never go in during the daytime to see what the animators were doing; he didn’t want them to feel like he was shadowing them. But at night when they had all gone home, Disney would go in and look around the room.  

Occasionally the animators would leave a project they had begun on the drawing table, and Disney would examine it. When the animators went back to work the next day, sometimes they would see that Disney had taken a crumpled-up piece of paper out of the trash can, smoothed it out, and placed it on the drawing table with the handwritten note, “Quit throwing the good stuff away.” 

The night Jesus observed the Passover with his disciples and established the new memorial of Communion, some “good stuff” was in the process of happening, though it didn’t seem so at the time.  

Jesus told the disciples as he passed the bread to them, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” And then he passed the cup and told them, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this . . . in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). Many thought that when Jesus died, the good stuff (his life, his message, his impact) was being thrown away. But no; he knew full well what was happening. His life was not being thrown away; he gave his life (John 10:17-18) to provide all the “good stuff” that came as a result: forgiveness, peace with God, and eternal life to name a few. We remember that good stuff at Communion.  

We should also remember the good stuff that comes to us between Sundays, through all that God in his providence and mercy brings to us to encourage us in our daily journey. Jesus taught us to pray in what we call the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), which perhaps we could reword to say, “Give us the good stuff we need, and help us to keep our eyes and ears and hearts open to it.” 

Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities come. 

The post The Good Stuff appeared first on Christian Standard.

By Doug Redford 

Fans of college basketball look forward every year to the month of March, knowing that “March Madness” awaits: the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. The madness refers to the excitement that the tournament generates every year, often featuring upsets and thrilling, “buzzer-beating” finishes.  

As we consider what we call “Passion Week” for Jesus, the week began with Palm Sunday, the day of Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem. He entered the city with Passover just a few days away, amid a cheering crowd whose shouts of Hosanna must have been deafening. Madness? Yes, the crowds were mad about, wild about Jesus. John’s Gospel says that the Pharisees, Jesus’ staunchest opponents, were saying to one another, “Look how the whole world has gone after him!” (John 12:19). Or so it must have seemed to them.  

As the week progressed, the madness took on another meaning. The religious leaders were mad at Jesus. Their hatred toward him grew as they watched Jesus’ popularity grow. Then came Judas with his offer of betrayal. The leaders gladly gave Judas 30 pieces of silver to carry out his act. 

At this point we move to sadness. After Jesus observed the Passover with his disciples and then established Communion as a new kind of memorial, they went to the Garden of Gethsemane where Judas led those who were to arrest Jesus and in just a few hours crucify him. We can’t imagine what it was like for people such as Jesus’ mother Mary to watch how he was treated. So many thought for certain he was the Messiah, the chosen one, and now this. Sadness beyond words. 

That sadness, however, was only temporary. The women who came to pay their respects to Jesus’ body heard the stunning words: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” (Luke 24:5-6). What appeared to be unbearable sadness was transformed into indescribable gladness . . . the “inexpressible and glorious joy” of which Peter writes (1 Peter 1:8). 

Easter Sunday is the day set aside for celebrating Jesus’ victory over death. But we also do that every Lord’s Day whenever we take these symbols of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus said it: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24). We remember his death, but we also remember that his death was not the period at the end of a sentence; it was just a comma, a pause, before something more—something far better. Let’s celebrate this year’s March Gladness: He is risen! 

Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities come. 

The post March Madness, Sadness, and Gladness appeared first on Christian Standard.

By Edwin White 

“So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, ’Truly this Man was the Son of God!’” (Mark 15:39, New King James Version). 

Roman centurions were either junior- or middle-grade officers in the army. They typically were in command of 80 soldiers. Senior centurions could lead a cohort of 1,000 men. Executions were usually carried out by a group of soldiers, called lictors, under the command of a centurion. 

These men were career officers, hardened military men who carried out their orders without question. They must have wondered about their duty that day. They understood the punishment of two of the men who were being executed. They were thieves who may have been involved in insurrection. The third victim was the curiosity. He had committed no crimes. He was delivered to them because of the envy of the corrupt religious leaders in Jerusalem. 

Knowing Jesus was a righteous man, the centurion and the soldiers with him came to believe he was the Son of God. Two things led them to that conclusion. First, Jesus cried out with a loud voice just before he died. Victims of crucifixion typically lapsed into an unconscious state before they breathed their last, but Jesus was strong enough to cry out loudly. It seemed unnatural. They could only conclude that he was who he claimed to be, the Son of God. Second, they witnessed the earthquake and other supernatural phenomena that occurred immediately following Jesus’ death. When those things occurred, it made them very fearful and led them to believe he was indeed the Son of God. 

Testimony like that from those who carried out Jesus’ execution should lead us to conclude they were right. Jesus was and is the Son of God who laid down his life on the cross to save us from our sins. We have been accepted into the family of God because of our faith in Jesus and our obedience to his word. Let us rejoice in our salvation as we partake of the Lord’s Supper. 

Ed White is a retired Christian minister. He earned degrees from Mid-South Christian College, Alabama Christian School of Religion, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He lives in Milledgeville, Ga. His book of Communion meditations, Come to the Table, is available from Amazon. 

The post The Centurion’s Testimony appeared first on Christian Standard.

By Doug Redford 

In 1955, Walter Lord published a book entitled A Night to Remember, in which he provided an account of the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912. In 1958, Lord’s book was made into a movie with the same title, nearly 40 years before the blockbuster movie Titanic came out. The Titanic was designed to be unsinkable, which proved untrue when it struck an iceberg on that fateful night. 

Ironically, in that same year of 1912, the gospel song “Love Lifted Me” was published. The lyrics are drawn from the account of Peter attempting to walk on water, as Jesus was doing, only to panic when the ferocity of the wind blew away his faith and he began to sink (Matthew 14:30). James Rowe, who wrote the lyrics to “Love Lifted Me,” used the act of Jesus lifting Peter out of the water to picture Jesus’ act of lifting him up when he was, as the first verse says, “sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more.” Just as Jesus heard Peter’s cry for help and came to his rescue, Rowe affirms that “the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry. From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.” 

Every Christian can echo Rowe’s testimony. Jesus has indeed become our Master, delivering us from the bondage of sin and death and bringing us from the “dominion of darkness” into the “kingdom of light” (Colossians 1:12-13). We still, however, must live in a very broken and sinful world, a world that has become increasingly hostile toward Christians and their message. The constant storm of current events, most of them quite disheartening, can resemble the wind that caused Peter to lose his focus on Jesus and begin to sink. 

Communion provides a spiritual remedy for the “motion sickness” that the culture around us often produces. Whenever we get that “sinking feeling,” let us allow this time in our worship to help us refocus our eyes on Jesus, the one who is still “the Master of the sea” and still has the power to lift us above our troubled surroundings and give us “a firm place to stand” (Psalm 40:2). And let each of us remember that “when nothing else could help, love lifted me.” 

Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities come. 

The post That Sinking Feeling appeared first on Christian Standard.

By Doug Redford 

On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech University was the scene of an unspeakable tragedy when 32 students and teachers lost their lives in a shooting rampage. The shooter was a student at the school, who took his own life when police closed in on him. 

Various stories about this student began to circulate after the tragedy. One of them involved a British literature class from the previous year in which the young man was a student. On the first day of the class, the 30 or so students went around and introduced themselves. When it was this student’s turn, he didn’t speak. On the sign-in sheet where everyone else had written their names, the student had written a question mark. “Is your name ‘question mark’?” a classmate recalled the professor asking. The young man offered little in response. 

The student spent much of that class sitting in the back of the room, wearing a hat and seldom participating. In a notably small department of the school, he distinguished himself for being anonymous. Said one student, “He didn’t reach out to anyone. He never talked.” 

“We just really knew him as the question-mark kid.” 

Truth be told, there are a lot of question-mark kids (and adults) in our world—unsure, frustrated, and disillusioned with life and the world. Often they have many questions: Why am I here? What’s life all about? Am I just an accident? Does anybody care about what happens to me? 

The Bible is full of questions. Some are defiant (Cain’s “Am I my brother’s keeper?”), some are skeptical (Nicodemus’s “How can a man be born when he is old?”), some are asked in anguish (Jesus’ “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”), and some are asked in desperation (the Philippian jailer’s “What must I do to be saved?”). God himself asked questions (beginning with his “Where are you?” directed to Adam). And God in the flesh, Jesus, asked many questions, perhaps none more important than, “Who do you say I am?” 

At this time of Communion, we may be wrestling with many troubling or upsetting questions. We come to this table, however, having answered the most crucial question: Who is Jesus? As we take these emblems, we declare that we agree with Peter: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Whatever questions we may face in this broken world, it makes all the difference that we get this one right.  

Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities come. 

The post The Question that Matters appeared first on Christian Standard.

By Edwin White 

“Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory; and in His name Gentiles will trust” (Matthew 12:18-21* [from Isaiah 42:1-4]). 

Isaiah’s picture of the gentle Servant of the Lord presents him as one who does not seek confrontation, whose voice is not like a protester screeching out his complaints in the streets. He is, instead, very gentle. 

There are two metaphors Isaiah uses to illustrate the gentleness of our Lord. The first has to do with agriculture. When young reeds are being transplanted, they are easy to bruise; and when they are bruised, one must take great care to keep from breaking them as they are moved from one location to another. Such gentle, tender handling of plants illustrates the way Jesus handled fragile people. He did not break bruised hearts. Anyone who came to him with a sincere heart found comfort, encouragement, and forgiveness. 

The second metaphor is from a fire-starting process. Dry flax often was used for that purpose. A tiny spark alighting on a piece of flax would begin to smoke. Gentle blowing on it would cause the spark to brighten until a flame would appear. If a person blew too vigorously, it would put out the flame. Gentleness was required for the process. Again, if anyone came to Jesus with a tiny spark of faith in their heart, Jesus would gently fan that spark to make it grow.  

When the father of an epileptic boy came to the disciples, they could not cure him. Then Jesus came and the father said, “If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus answered, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Then the father cried out, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:22-24).  

Notice how gently Jesus led the man to greater faith and how the man asked for and received the strengthening of that faith through the miracle of healing for his son. 

At this table, we come to remember our gentle Savior. Even though Jesus was never violent, the authorities seized him like a criminal, rushed him through a trial with a predetermined verdict, and handed him over for execution. They took his gentle hands and nailed them to a cross. It fulfilled God’s plan to provide a way for each of us to have a home in heaven. Let us bow our hearts before him to honor and adore him as we prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper. 

*All Scripture verses are from the New King James Version. 

Ed White is a retired Christian minister. He earned degrees from Mid-South Christian College, Alabama Christian School of Religion, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He lives in Milledgeville, Ga. His book of Communion meditations, Come to the Table, is available from Amazon. 

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