10/19/2026
Do you spread the love of God? Do you give cups of living water to the thirsty each day, or perhaps you worry about their dirty hands touching your polished chalice? It is so easy to turn a blind eye to the ragged, and to detest the smell of the unclean, but these are the very souls that our Lord came to feed, clothe, make clean, and to let drink from His cup. Where were we when we first lifted it to our own mouths? Did we think of ourselves as being clean and our hands without blame? Did we smell of incense and righteousness?
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV
Before I met Jesus, I mean really met Jesus, I looked in the mirror each day and liked what I saw. Against the backdrop of the world I looked pretty good, and yet I was smeared with sin, and smelled of my unrighteousness. Oh, I went to church, I covered myself with the cologne of the righteous, but it laid oily on the surface of my skin, and never changed what was underneath. Are you wearing this same perfumed scent of righteousness today?
“"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:1 ESV
Then I met Jesus, and let Him come into me; truly into me. I felt the warmth of His breath as He breathed, and the Holy Spirit came in to join Him... suddenly I became something much more than the reflection of the righteous souls I had been looking at, and the cologne was washed away. I thought about the blood that dripped as sweat from Jesus as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and wondered how often that He had done that before. It was then that I realized that this was his grace... this was God’s Love being manifest.
“And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Luke 22:43-44 ESV
I look at the sinners around me now, and I see myself back then... I look at the oily fingerprints on the once shining cup of grace, and realize those prints aren’t filth, but the Anointing oil of Christ. I place my lips to the rim of the cup and drink unabashedly from where the lepers in life have quenched their thirst. Now I know exactly where that cup has been, and then extend it freely to the lost and downtrodden who stand before me. How is it that so many can hold this cup to their breast and not extend it? How is it that we too can stand behind the Lord’s Table and judge those who come there to eat and drink?
“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."”
John 12:31-32 ESV
The faith we have received is for all... yet over and over again we hear the voice of God as He cries out in reminder, “ALL”, as we draw back the cup of Christ from the lost. We judge them when it is not our place to do so, no, we are told to hold the cup out so that ALL can drink from it, and yet we feel we must say that this one is worthy of drinking and this one is not. This one can take the body of Christ, and this one may not.
“And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Matthew 26:27-28 ESV
“And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Mark 16:15-16 ESV
Let’s look in the mirror again today and look past the piety... who do we see? Then when we drink again, and take the body of Christ into our mouths once more, let’s extend His grace to the world... to ALL who would come to His table. Let’s extend our hands filled with wine, bread, and living water to the lost, the unclean who need lifting up, and to those of us who wear their righteousness like cologne on their skin. Can we all take a drink from Christ’s cup knowing full well the unclean lips that have graced it before us? Wil we recognize our own greasy fingerprints on it that were left there long ago at the moment we first believed?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and the cup from which He drank. Thank you Lord for extending this Cup of His blood and grace to me in remembrance of Him, and for breaking the bread of a His body that I might eat of it. Help me Father to see my unworthiness, and to withhold my selfish judgement from those around me. Judgement is yours Merciful Father, and how is it that I, a sinner myself, feel that I can judge others? Never let me lose sight of who I am, and that your son came to save me... not because I was righteous, or holy, but because I was sick with sin, and yet you loved me. Help me Father of all Grace to take this cup in my filthy hands and know that you have extended it to me that I might be cleansed. Help me, to extend it to those souls who are yet to drink, and not to withhold it from them. I pray that your Holy Spirit will place me in the path of the needy and give me living water to quench their thirst. Help me to listen to you as I hold out the chalice, and drink along with the rest from its anointed rim. Praised be your name Father, for you have loved me at my worst, and saved me from it. I worship you who points to the lepers of this world and says, “There but for my grace are you! Go! Give them drink!” Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God, and the God of grace and forgiveness to ALL sinners who will come to your table and dine.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17 ESV
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:14 ESV
Amen, Amen, Amen!
Rich Forbes