Perfect body, deep blood

Last Sunday CrossPointe celebrated communion. As I took the wafer that represents the body of our Lord and Savior, and the cup of juice that represents His blood my mind went back to the days when as a deacon at FBC I would pass out the wafers and return to the front where I would get one from the plate. As Bill would speak and read the appropriate scriptures I would look at this little wafer and usually notice that the one I had gotten was deformed or broken in some way. And I would take the little cup and I would look at it and note how pale it was and speculate on what kind of juice it was. Now, in all honesty I was contemplating the sins in my life and thanking God for His eternal mercy and grace.

This Sunday though was differant. The ushers at CrossPointe passed out both at the same time. As I looked at the wafer and the juice I observed two things:
1. The wafer (body) was perfect. It was even colored, no chips, cracks or any other imperfections. Even the little seams on the sides were perfect. It had integrity.
2. The juice (blood) was a dark color. So shiny and clean that it made a deep pool in a shallow cup.

As I took the Wafer into my mouth and drank the juice I had an encounter with God that I will not soon forget and I pray that the effects of it will leave me practically changed forever.

I took the perfect body of the Christ into my life and with my will I ground and destroyed it. It left my mouth gummy and bitter. There was no pleasure in the taste or texture. I then took the blood, the deep dark blood and poured it into the very place that had just destroyed the body of the Christ. The blood was sweet and cleansing. It entered every part and removed all bitterness, all gummyness, all evidence of what I had destroyed.

The last 4 years of my life flowed over me. I took the life of the Christ and with my sinful will destroyed and broke it. I ground the perfection from it. God then shared with me reality from His perspective. The blood of that same ONE has cleansed me from all I have done. Their is no bitterness left, no gummed up places. All evidence of my sins have been removed.

My sins were horrible - abuse, neglect, hatred, manipulations, sexual sins. But as God spoke over my life Sunday the blood which cleansed me is sweeter than the sins were horrible.