The kindness of God comes to us, at times, like a lightning strike directly overhead. This is how the prophets’ words ought to sound to us when we read them. Think of the words spoken by Amos: “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies (Amo 5:21).” Or what God revealed through Joel, “the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it (Joel 2:11)?”
God won’t abide cosplay Christianity. He won’t turn a blind eye to a double-tongued religion: praising Him one minute, and cursing your brother the next. This Supper isn’t quaint. It is potent. It is the Supper of the Lord Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth. The food here is the very body of the only man who never sinned. The wine is the blood of the God who became a man to take sinners’ doom. As the hymn puts it: How sweet and awful is this place?!
This bread is life, eternal life. You must eat it with faith and not fright. You must drink this wine with trust and not trifling. God has graciously given unto us this sign of His covenant mercies, and we must not receive it with the air of deserving entitlement. Rather, come with the boldness of faith. You must come with humility; not a mousy and timid faith. A faith that clings to Christ alone as your Savior and King.
God’s thunder is kindness. It is meant to shock us to a sober faith. It draws us away from our sins of pretentious pride in true repentance. If we live with a true repentance and faith God promises the sweet & gentle rain of His mercy: “Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people (Joe 2:18).”
So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…
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