Awake O'Sleeper Rise up

By Cal Cook

I came to Christ at the age of 25; I had been witnessed to by a group of men in the weld shop at Davis-Besse for some time. I had shown interest and had read through most of the N.T. when one day one of the men asked me if I wanted to pray and receive Jesus Christ as my Savior…without even thinking about it I blurted out yes. I spent the next couple years digging deeper into my faith and studying the scriptures really without a home church, moving from job to job after having been laid off from DB. Finally I took an offer to move to Illinois and be a supervisor with Com Ed at Dresden Nuclear Power Plant. The next several years I heard the call of folly louder than the call of wisdom, seeking promotions and the monetary gain that comes with them. Years later we moved back to Ohio after a series of events the Lord used to bring me back around and we found a church home. I remember setting in the pew one Sunday seeking to serve more in my heart, but sensing a veil clouding my vision. Eventually the veil was lifted and the Lord called me into full time ministry…I still sense a veil here and there now and again.

Sometimes I still sense lack of understanding for something…a depth that the Lord hasn’t fully revealed to me yet. I know there is something here in John 6:51-58. I’ve read several commentaries on the passage, yet there is still something more. Solomon builds the Temple in 1 Kings 6 & 7 where the details of the building and the instruments are described. The Table for the Bread of the Presence is described. Leviticus 24:5-8

detail for the priests how to make and arrange the bread. Shewbread as some translations put it, set right before the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was and the memorial jar of Manna, the bread which came from Heaven…all foreshadowing Christ who is the True Bread of Heaven.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.” John 6:51

Surely Jesus is describing the sacrifice which he would make; surely He is also referring to the Sacrament of Communion which He established just the night before His Crucifixion…is there yet more? When Jesus told the crowd to believe in the One sent (John 6:29) was He also referring to this understanding? He says: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you.” John 6:53. This belief that we are to have surely is more than just acknowledging that He lived…more than even acknowledging that He is the Christ…but in seeing that His flesh paid the price for our sins, His blood was shed in our place, that His flesh which is the bread of life is ever in the presence of the God Head. When we consume Him, daily by reading His Word, looking to Him for our sustenance and our strength through prayer His Holy Spirit comes and shines the Light of Christ before our eyes. Then may we truly see, may we awake from the dead and hear the call of Wisdom in our ears…that the allure of folly will lose its luster in the presence of the Lord.