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.

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls

"Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him, And He turn away His wrath from him".
Proverbs 24:17-18

I have worked with many people and have been mistreated many times by those over me. It seems that it is real easy to hope that the person gets demoted, fired or the business goes bad because I am not there. Or even go out of business. But the Lord tells us to "pray for our enemies and bless those that abuse you".(Paraphrase Matt. 5:44) I wonder how many companies that have treated their employees bad and still do well because the people of God secretly prayed to see them "get theirs" and fall. Therefore, God turned His wrath from them.
Next time you see a person fall that had treated you wrong, let the Lord guide you in ways to bless him. Who knows maybe the Lord will defeat an enemy by making him a friend. And above all if we are bought by Christ and therefore not our own, we have no right to be offended by others. We must turn it over to our Master Jesus and trust Him to take care of it His way. We then have no worry or stress over it.