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How Healthy Are You? I have been taught from the Bible all of my life, which is more years than I care to admit. I was very fortunate to grow up with Christian parents. But as you know, studying the Bible is a life long job. I’m constantly finding new passages to understand or making connections between verses that I never saw before. This isn’t surprising since it is the word of God and His thoughts are higher that our thoughts (Is. 55:9). I found one such connection on a Sunday while taking communion. If you are like me, you probably have a few passages that you like to read during communion to help keep your mind focused properly. On this particular Sunday I had chosen to read the last portion of the eleventh chapter of First Corinthians where Paul gives instructions regarding this very thing. I had read this passage many times before but suddenly, this day, it seemed familiar in a different way, as if I had read the same words elsewhere. The exact verse which caught my eye was verse 30 where Paul says “For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.” I had to ponder for a moment, and then it came to me. I had recently been studying the life of Christ and remembered that He had said something akin to this. I later was able to find the passage in John 6:53-58 as part of His “bread of life” sermon. Look specifically at verse 53 where He says “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” These two thoughts mesh together beautifully. Jesus warned that if one does not eat His flesh and drink His blood, they will die (spiritually). Paul says that because they had not taken of the bread and the cup properly, some were weak, sick and asleep (dead). They had not fed their souls because they had not understood or remembered that they were eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus. Just as the physical body cannot survive without nourishment, neither can the soul survive without spiritual food. Just as the physical body will weaken and eventually die, some of them had become weak and some had already died. I was thrilled to make this new connection. It gives me a deeper understanding of the process I should go through as I take communion. It is more than a beautiful memorial of the great sacrifice made for me. It is truly a supper for the soul. If I ever find myself unappreciative of this great opportunity, I better take my spiritual pulse because I may be getting sick. So how healthy are you? Cherri Armstrong
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