What Color Is Your Blood?

"For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread;" 1 Cor. 11:23 NKJV

Since I have been ministering the Communion part of our worship service on Sundays, I have noticed that the night discussed is always referred as, “the night He (Jesus) was betrayed”. Not the night of the Lord’s Supper or Communion Night. This speaks to me. Many times before that night the Lord warned His disciples and they did not heed.

Matt. 17:22 & Luke 9:44, Matt. 20:18 & Mark 10:33, Matt. 26:2

In Luke 9:44 He told them, “to let these words sink down into your ears”, and they did not hear.

You may ask, ”What does this mean to us?”. To me it means that not only did Jesus know far ahead of His betrayal, In Luke 21:16 He told us to expect it also.

Now, what I shared in Church is this: How we react when we have been betrayed is a good measurement of our spirituality. It shows us and others just how much we are like Christ. Or not.

Years ago in high school, BC, I carried a large knife in my back pocket. One day in class a good friend of mine pulled the knife out of my back pocket and cut me in the back (about one inch). It bleed as if he had stabbed me. Being my friend and knowing he did not mean to harm me, I made up a good lie to tell the teacher that patched me up. He either has naive and believed me or just did not want to deal with it.

Anyway, it was easy to forgive a friend. It is hard to forgive a person you thought was a friend but stabs you in the back. I bleed red. My scar healed a long time ago. When we are betrayed, what is in us comes out. We show our true colors.

Do we bleed spiritually like Jesus bleeds. With forgiveness.

In Luke 17:4 it reads,” And if he trespasses against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turns again to you, saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. “

That’s a lot of stab wounds. But we have a Lord that heals. If we bleed like Him.

Just Read: Torches of Joy by John Dekker

If you loved the books "Eternity In Their Hearts" and "Peace Child" by Don Richardson, you will read without putting down, "Torches of Joy" by John Dekker. Although the story took place in the 1960's and the book was written in the 1980's it is still up-to-date.
I just found, read, and devoured the book.
It tells the story of missionaries John and Helen Dekker’s ministry to the stone-age tribe of the Danis in the jungles of Irian Jaya. It chronicles the start and growth of the Church in Irian Jaya. It could be viewed as a volume of the book of Acts continued.
The troubling aspect of the book for me is that if a stone-age tribe that does not even have a written language can grow in Christ in such a short time, what is wrong with us? By the end of the third year, there more than 100 Danis had been baptized, Churches were being established, with elders, and the first Pastor ordained. By the fifth year the first Danis had responded to help evangelize another tribe. By the eighth year, the Church sent out missionaries that were graduates of its own three year Bible School. And the growth moves on.
This is an inspiring true story that every Christian should read and learn by.
The ministry of John and Helen Dekker was the results of different mission organizations that must be mentioned. The Prairie Bible College in Alberta, Canada, the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Wycliffe Bible Translator’s Summer Institute of Linguistics, and Missionary Aviation Fellowship.