This is a continuation of the Two Cups of God Study.

I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the LORD. (Psalms 116:13 NKJV)

            When I first read this verse I had just become a Christian and I had been an alcoholic.  This verse presented a picture of a group of people offering a toast of celebration and friendship to one another.

            I do not believe that I am being irreverent or unholy when I say that I think that is what is implied.  The evil one likes to copy and distort the things of God and what was meant to be a celebratory toast to God has devolved into a celebration of us. 

            Communion is God’s people joined together to celebrate all that God has done for us and all that God is doing in us!  It is a celebration of God’s great love that has brought us life and taught us how to love others.

            I lift up God’s Cup of Salvation and honor the God who gave Himself that I might have that salvation!  I SALUTE THE GOD WHO LOVES ME AND WHOM I LOVE!

Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  "For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.  "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. (John 6:53-56 NKJV)

            HOLY COMMUNION IS NOT OPTIONAL!  We must drink from one cup or the other!  If we do not drink from the Cup of God’s Grace we will drink from the Cup of God’s Wrath.  Holy Communion is not just communion with one another; it is our Communion with God!

            If we do not receive the blood of life we will die in our sins and apart from God.  There will be no life in us.  Those who have died in Christ are more alive than many people walking around today.  It makes me think of that movie where the boy says, “I see dead people!”  WE DO!  We see people dead to God, dead to grace and therefore dead to life walking around every day! 

            To drink from the Cup of God’s Grace is to receive Jesus Himself and to have Jesus abide with us in this life until we can abide with Jesus in the next life!

I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say.  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?  For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:15-17 NKJV)

            As a pastor I hold up the Communion Cup and I bless it with a prayer.  Paul reminds us that this simple Cup holds the blood of Jesus Christ and that it holds the blessing.  I can no more bless what is in the Cup than I can the Cup itself.  The blood of Christ is what makes us one in Jesus and makes us part of His family.

            We are of one blood, the Blood of Jesus Christ.  That is why Paul could say we are no longer male or female, slave or free.  We are new creations of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  We are no longer limited by who our parents are, by where we are from, by what color we are, or by our gender!

            We are the children of the Highest God and in that simple loaf and Cup we are made that way.

            Now it is time we acted like it!  Paul says we are.  Not that we will become.  It is time we lived like the Children of God and acted with the love and grace God has shown us!