LFB Ladies SS #4

October 2^nd, 2011

Chapter 2: A Word to Live…and Die By, pgs. 33-41

Pg. 34 “…:Eucharisteo!

It really might be the mystery to the fullest life…I lie on relief. I might have found the holy grail…and lost it, moved on. And yet, really-hadn’t God set the holy grail in the center of Christianity? Eucharisteo, it’s the central symbol of Christianity. Thanksgiving. “

We search for how to find joy, we question God and we fill our own cups with the stuff of life and yet, God has given us one “religious” act to do together that will lead us to this fullest life. Taking communion, giving thanks. Like Ann says, it is in the center of Christianity, laid out for us every month, and we do our small moment of thanks and move on to search for how to live our fullest life. It’s time to pause longer, and more often.

Pg 34 “Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup” (NIV)—whenever. Like everyday. Whenever you eat. Eucharisteo—whenever: now. Joy—wherever: here.

Pg. 35 “ ‘The only real fall of man is his noneucharistic life in a noneucharistic world.’ That was the fall! Non-eucharisteo, ingratitude, was the fall—humanity’s discontent with all that God freely gives. That is what has scraped me raw: ungratefulness. “

What I have is never enough; my ingratitude overtakes all that is positive in my life. I continually ask God why things are this way when I think that is best for me. I frantically run through life trying to find what will make me happy and I turn up empty. I question God instead of thanking Him. How can I/we practically change my/our thoughts from ingratitude to thanksgiving?

Pg. 39, “Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives. Thanksgiving is the manifestation of our YES! To His grace.”

He knows best, His Grace is Sufficient for Me. If I truly trust those words, I can be thankful, on some level, for whatever life has. My burdens are released to Him, I can get rid of all the “junk” that I carry and make room for whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. (phil. 4:8) I can live a life of Eucharisteo and accept this grace, which I don’t understand, the “manna”, that I will choose to consume daily.

Pg. 40, “ I would never experience the fullness of my salvation until I expressed the fullness of my thanks every day, and eucharisteo is elemental to living the saved life.”

“Eucharisteo, the Greek word with the hard meaning and the harder meaning to live—this is the only way from empty to full.”

Assignment #4 Breaking Bread

I want to challenge you to have a breaking of bread and drinking of the cup each day from now until next Saturday. Have a literal moment where you sit with the bread and wine and focus on the literal translation of the Eucharist. In that same moment, to thank God (Eucharisteo) for all the things that will take place in the coming 24 hours until you take communion again.

“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.” (pg35)

If God’s grace is sufficient for us, then we can trust that whatever you walk into in your day, God has already walked there. You can thank him for how He will carry you through it. Trust in His grace for you.

It may change the way we face our day, how we respond to life’s difficulties, and manage or even halt our ingratitude.