The Finding Home Podcast

Hey everyone, Caleb Henshaw of the Finding Home podcast. This is the second podcast I'm filming tonight. I wanted to do something a little bit different, a little bit special, because it is Good Friday. I have no idea when this will be posted. This may even be the first one. We have many podcasts that we've already filmed, um, so there's not a requirement to release them in order. So this may be released first. But, um, so I wanted to do a special Good Friday episode because I had a really cool moment with my kids yesterday, um, taking communion. And I, I have to be open, and I'm going to be criticized for this, which I should. I used to hate it when we did communion. Oh, it sounds so bad. Like, growing up in church and getting the crackers, and sometimes, like, if you were— it was real fancy, you'd have, like, actual, like, pita bread, and you do it that way. And then, like, as a kid, you'd try to go smuggle some more and eat it. For some reason you thought it was the best thing in the world during communion. But there was a moment where we were doing communion a lot. It was like a part of the services, um, and I was getting annoyed with it, man. It sounds so bad. Um, I'm like, man, we're doing communion again, doing communion again, same thing. Repeat after me: this is my body, it was broken for you. Um, through the process that we've been in as a family over the past couple years, you know, following Yahweh in a lot of different areas, the importance of communion has really been redefined for me and for my family. We took communion last night, and hypocritically I said we need to do this every week. We need to do it every, you know, Thursday, whatever it looks like. And it wasn't in a religious manner. It was— there's something about partaking in this that's powerful. So I wanted to share kind of what we talked about, um, around our table. This will be short. Um, so at first I read, you know, Luke, where, where Jesus is meeting with, um, his disciples. And it's been really neat watching my kids kind of figure out who Yeshua is through, you know, discipleship and through The Chosen, watching The Chosen. I love how they've kind of brought a personality and got to see how it could have, could have been. And they love, they love the show. But they love to hear stories about Yeshua. Um, it gave room for us to talk about, you know, this is the last time that he's meeting with the closest people in his life before he goes to the cross. He's already been anointed, um, with the alabaster box. As they would anoint the lamb's feet for sacrifice. His feet was anointed, preparing for his, for his burial. So this is such a powerful moment where he, he says, take this bread and break it, for this is my body. Do this in remembrance of me. Remember all that we have walked through. Remember Everything that I've instilled in you, because the point is for us to be like him. How in the world can we be like him? Well, it's because his body was broken and his blood was spilled for us, because in him and through him and by him all things that were made was made. As he was on the cross, it was the Father through Jesus reconciling the world unto himself. So we're around the table and we're talking about, you know, what it means. And then I jump over to Paul's teaching, and Paul is talking about how to do this in a manner that's unworthy. And there were, there were times as a kid they would give you that warning before you took communion. Now, if you have any sin in your life, brother, you know, if you've been looking on bad websites, or if you've been lying, or if you've been doing that, don't take communion. It's— and there's, there's a little bit of truth to that in context. What I, what I've learned through scripture is don't partake in remembering who he is if you refuse to deal with the sin in your life. If it's something that you just overlook, you know, I'm not— I don't tell the truth, so I'm going to continue to not tell the truth, and I'm not going to bring that to the feet of the cross. That's partaking in communion in an unholy manner because the very act of the cross is a welcoming invitation to be like him. And because we are like him, we are therefore truth tellers. We tell our kids all the time, you're a truth teller. I've heard William Paul Young say that all the time in how he would treat his grandchildren or his kids. Even though you're, you're not telling the truth right now, I know who you really are. You are a truth teller. If one of my kids many times have been, you know, mistreating their brother or their sisters, have been mean, what do we say? You, you are kind. You are graceful. This is who you are. How do we know this? How do we know that's who you are? Because that's who Jesus is. And we are called and we are welcomed and we are invited by the cross to be like him. So I'm saying that to my kids, and you know, I have some that are, you know, younger and it's hard for them to understand. So they're always like looking at me like this, like, what's going on here? And they're trying to play with their grape juice and wanting to drink it and all that stuff. Then I have some older ones that are really looking at me um, that are really pondering some things. And this is why I felt, you know, compelled— like, this could be a weekly thing, because before we take communion, we take a moment where we, we pray the Prayer of David, you know, search my heart, Yahweh, is there anything that, that I'm just being neglectful? And it's not a religious thing, it's not It's not, you know, a legalistic thing. This is, this is a fun thing. This is an enjoyment thing. I enjoy dealing with stuff even though it's hard, even though it's painful. I want to become more like Jesus because that's who I am. That's who I am right now. I'm becoming more aware of that. So we take time and This particular day, my wife tells me that they were really mean to each other that day. They were very unkind and they were very disobedient to her in a lot of ways. So it's a good time to, to really make them feel guilty, right? Um, no, but I could tell that they— that it clicked. And I'll continue to remind them who they are. They may tell a lot more lies. I'm not afraid of that, and I'm not scared of that, because I know that they're a truth teller. I know they speak truth because he is the truth. So we did that. We took a moment to pray, you know, and I, I prayed. I said, 'Yahweh, help me walk in confidence. Help me not hide away from what you've called me to do. Help me become a better leader and a father to my children.' These were some insecurities that I've dealt with for years, but I know I'm a good father because he's a good father. So after that, we take, we take communion. We take the bread. We take— we pass the, the bread around. Sourdough bread, wasn't legit pita bread or anything like that. We broke it apart. It says, this is my body that was broken for you. Jesus was broken so that we could be whole. Jesus was whipped so that we could be healed. Jesus died so that we could live. He became sin that we may be called the righteousness of God. This is the invitation, and what an invitation that it is, that we can become the body of Christ. I, I kind of ashamed that I took that for granted. To do that in a corporate manner, to do that with brothers and sisters. For me, it was with my family that we could honor that invitation to be in him, to be in union I love the in-him dimension where I am in him, he is in me. And then we get to the cup, which is the blood, which is the covenant, the new covenant that he's made with us. And that we talked about, you know, even in the times of Moses where the Spirit of God was coming in through the house to take the, the firstborns, and the blood of the lamb was over the doorsteps, actually on the inside of the house. And we say, you know, whatever trials that we're in, whatever lie that comes against us, we can say the blood of Jesus speaks a better word. The blood of Jesus says that I'm in covenant, I am relation— I'm in union, that we can even speak that over us in our infirmities. If there's sickness in our bodies We know that it's going to end well because we are in covenant. The blood of Jesus is our sign of, of, of New Covenant. So we took that, we drank it together, and it just— this— I just felt the Spirit of God in that, in that room. And I looked at my oldest, who had tears kind of in her eyes. She was connecting the dots. Um, and then you have the younger ones that's trying to stuff all the bread in their mouth at one time and starts laughing. You just got— how do I handle this? Handle it with grace. They're kids. They haven't grown up and become realistic yet, which is a blessing. But I, I encourage you as you approach communion in, in this You know, death, burial, and resurrection season. Wow, what a time. What a time to receive the invitation to be a part of the body of Christ. This may be a, a, a confrontational statement I'm about to make, but Through my study and through what I've worked through and walked through with Yahweh, I firmly believe that it was not the intent of the Father to put His Son on the cross. I think that was us. I think it was humanity. I think it was our thirst for blood. I think it was our self-righteousness. This man that came in and challenged all of our systems, all of our religion. It was the church people that killed him. But even so, he takes that betrayal, he takes our thirst for blood, and he makes that The mercy seat. I hear it whisper such beautiful names. The foundation of the new covenant that we have. It says, "I will see you at your worst, and I will take that, and I will show you a new gift called grace and forgiveness." Wow. So you may not believe that, and that's okay, but what I do know is that the Father and the Son were one on that cross, and that the Father was reconciling the world into himself. That's where he was. And there's an invitation for those that maybe you don't believe, maybe you feel away. There's an invitation for you. His body was broken so that you can be whole. His blood was shed so that you can be in relationship and embark on a wonderful journey full of wonder and adventure and good days and days where you have to endure and learn a little bit and prevent your 2-year-old from choking on a communion wafer. Yeah, so every week we're going to come to the table. Now I hear Jesus saying, "Remember, do this in remembrance of who I am, of my nature, of who you can become like, of all." And as we become more aware of that, then there's the promises of the things that he did, we would even do greater things because we know who we are. And our lives are an expression of Jesus, of Yeshua. So I encourage you this Easter weekend, it's almost Resurrection Sunday, so this may be the first one we release, who knows. Whenever this is posted, I want to encourage you, take communion with your family, take communion with your church, take communion with your group of friends. And really think about the invitation that we've received. Till next time. [MUSIC]