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Understanding the Eucharist How can you tell if you have the right understanding—the biblical interpretation, Jesus’ interpretation—of the Eucharist? I’d suggest five things to look for: your beliefs should be strange,sacrificial,serious,sacramental, and shocking. First, as we’ve already seen, the proper Christian understanding of the Eucharist must be strange, and hard to accept. That’s how it was initially received, and Jesus did nothing to dispel this impression. Why, he was trying to p …

The history of Christianity is one of debate. As the Gospels reveal, Jesus was challenged right from the start. Rival schools like the Pharisees and Sadducees posed pointed questions to him, trying to trap him in his words and even to get him in trouble with the authorities. Some of Jesus’ most famous statements were responses to challenges from his critics: “What God has joined together, let man not put asunder.” “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” &ld …

In 1983, at thirteen years of age, I walked into a United Pentecostal church and had the experience of “speaking in tongues.” I was then taken, along with my mom and sister, to a baptismal tank and baptized “in the name of Jesus.” All of this took place at a “revival” service we attended at the invitation of a lady my mother knew from work.My family attended a Southern Baptist church in those days. Although we were not associated with a church in my earliest …