A Word from THE WORD
Good Morning Happy Church,
Today is Thursday, March 24th 2016. Today is the 84th Day of 2016.
TODAY IS KAREN BUTTERICK’S BIRTHDAY
TODAY IS JANA WALKER’S BIRTHDAY
TODAY IS “MAUNDY” THURSDAY…
There are only 282 days left in this year; and, there are only 17 Days Left until Our Spring Revival Meetings Begin!
We will begin the Revival Meetings on Saturday, April 9th with a Banquet and Sermon at 6pm.
Sunday, April 10th, we will hear Bro Bobby at 10am and again at 6pm.
Monday and Tuesday, April 11th and 12, we will hear Bro Bobby at 7pm each night!
Please clear your schedule to attend as many of these meetings as possible.
As I often say, “The two things you have to invest to be blessed are your Attendance and your Attention!”
Please be in prayer for Dr. Bobby and Sandra Boyles as they travel here and back.
Pray that God will pour out HIS SPIRIT on us as never before!
Pray for the salvation of the lost; repentance and renewal in the life of God’s people; new people to become part of our Church Family; the calling out of ministers and missionaries; a spiritual awakening in our area; and, for Jesus Christ to be glorified in all that we do!
Since today is “Maundy Thursday” I will focus this devotional on this Happy Day in the life of a Christian…
John 13:21-35
21 “After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.
23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side,
24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking.
25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him.
29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.
30 So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.
33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13 records the events of the meal that Jesus ate with HIS disciples on the night before HE was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.
This meal was both “The Last Passover” and “The First LORD’s Supper.”
I will share more about this aspect of the meal at our Maundy Thursday Service at 7pm this evening.
John 14, 15, 16, and 17 records the events following the meal as Jesus prepared for HIS betrayal and arrest.
At the meal itself, Jesus, gives them what HE calls, “a new commandment…” to love one another.
A few hundred years after the closing of the New Testament Latin became the primary language of the Roman Empire so the Western (Roman) Church adopted it as the formal language of the Church.
The Scriptures were translated into Latin by a scholar named Jerome around 400 AD. As you know, Latin remained the language used for Scripture and commentary writings until well after the Reformation (1517) when the Bible began to be translated into the common languages of the peoples of Europe.
In Latin, verse 34 reads, “Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos.“
We get the name “Maundy Thursday” from the word in verse 34 that is translated “commandment.” In Latin, it is the word, “mandatum” – in English we get the word “mandate” from this word.
So, the “new commandment” is a “new mandate.”
Of course, this event took place on the beginning of Passover just prior to the crucifixion of Christ.
PLEASE NOTE that we will celebrate the LORD’s Supper together this evening. Since this is only three days before our Easter Service, we will not celebrate it on Sunday even though this Sunday is the last Sunday of the month of March.
If you desire to take the LORD’s Supper together with your Church this month, you will need to be at this Service tonight at 7pm.
I dearly look forward to seeing you there.
REMEMBER: Our Revival Meetings begin in only seventeen days!
Get ready now… set aside the time now… Start praying now!
Revival CAN happen, it really CAN happen!
Will we really have revival?
Will you?
Carpe Diem!
LANNYFAULKNER.COM 