Devotional Guide
For the week of March 19, 2006
DONıT LEAVE CHRIST BEHIND
The Blood of the Covenant
To read the Bible in one year, today Read: Habakkuk 1-3
To Know:
³And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out
for many.ı² (Mk. 14:24)
One meal we still remember was on a Saturday in June of 1976. Most meals are
not especially memorable. At the age of sixty-six I have sat down to more
than 20,000 offerings, but I remember very few. What made that dinner in
Edinburgh unforgettable was that we shared it with James Stewart and his
wife. The Scots have produced some of the worldıs greatest preachers and
Stewart was the greatest Scottish preacher of the 20th century. At dinner my
wife and I asked the Stewarts every question we could conceive regarding
preaching and the pastoral ministry.
For as long as they lived, the disciples of Jesus remembered their last meal
with Christ. The last supper was the Passover feast. At his last meal, Jesus
reinterpreted the third cup, which symbolized redemption in blood. The
twelve gave their lives to preach salvation by the blood of Christ.
To Do:
Many debates have swirled through the church concerning the meaning of
Jesusı death. Was he only our example? Was he a victim? Was he a sacrificial
lamb? When Jesus took the cup of redemption during Passover and said, ³This
is my blood,² he closed the debate. It is the Lord himself who focuses our
faith on his death. The self-sacrificial death of God in the person of his
son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the only hope for eternal life and it is only
for those who will believe in his name.
To read the Bible in one year, read
Saturday: Zephaniah 1-3
Sunday: Haggai 1,2
03246$-03246
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