“Do This in Remembrance of Me”: One-Year Communion Devotional

By Paul L. Staack

"Do This in Remembrance of Me" is a fifty two week devotional written to transform Communion from a “religious ritual” into a powerful experience with God. The truths in this book are designed to accompany you to the “Lord’s Table” with the potential to liberate you from guilt, shame, sickness, and disease. The Lord’s Supper will become a meal for your hungry soul. The weekly lessons will feed your faith and deposit the knowledge of the blood covenant within you. You will grow in the knowledge of your God-given inheritance and you will stand in awe of Jesus Who laid down His life for you. You will give Jesus His rightful place of preeminence at the head of the Communion table.

Do This in Remembrance of Me takes you on a journey through the wonders of salvation. It is a diamond that reflects the different angles of the great salvation that Jesus made available for you through the shedding of His blood and His sacrifice on Calvary as your substitute. It is written to bless you and to cultivate a heart and attitude of thanksgiving. You will experience joy in your life—a byproduct of a greater understanding of the words of Jesus.

“This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
(1 Corinthians 11:25 NKJV)

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973678793

Paul L. Staack

Paul L. Staack started his adventure with God on his waterbed. He kneeled on that bed before Almighty God and gave his empty life to Christ. He came out of that bedroom with new thoughts and desires. He followed those thoughts and desires into a life of service. Paul has served in the Ministry of Helps at Speak the Word Church International since May of 1980. He has been in full time ministry as an assistant pastor since May of 1994. During a time of worship, Paul heard the call to write books with a passion and a vision to help the body of Christ to come into maturity. This book is a mirror reflecting Paul’s life of loyalty as a believer.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-7878-6 (sc)

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WestBow Press rev. date: 11/11/2019

Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used with permission.

The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and the The Living Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.

Scripture taken from the Weymouth Version of the Bible.

International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 2015 by Tommy Nelson, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.

Scripture is taken from GOD’S WORD®, © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.

Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

New Testament, 1923. Edgar J. Goodspeed, The New Testament: An American Translation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923.

Scripture quotations marked TPT are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

CONTENTS

Preface

Paul’s Devotionals

Introduction

Week 1

Do This in Remembrance of Me

Week 2

Communion: Koinonia

Week 3

When I See the Blood

Week 4

Passover: Ready for Movement (Hasty Flight)

Week 5

Four Cups in One

Week 6

Communion—Covenant

Week 7

Reasons for Cutting the Covenant—Access to Solutions and Strengths

Week 8

Communion—The King’s Table

Week 9

The Tree That Made the Bitter Waters Sweet

Week 10

Salvation—All of the Above

Week 11

The Serpent on a Pole—Numbers 21:4–9

Week 12

Forget Not His Benefits

Week 13

God’s Prescription

Week 14

Four Areas of Peace That Elude Us without Jesus

Week 15

Fig Leaves, Coats of Skins, the Robe of Righteousness

Week 16

She Heard about Jesus

Week 17

In Whom We Have Redemption

Week 18

In the Circle of God’s Love and Purpose

Week 19

Three Re’s in God’s Plan

Week 20

Deletion

Week 21

Building a Heap

Week 22

Jesus Began to Do and to Teach

Week 23

The Lord Is My Shepherd—Psalm 23

Week 24

Freed Forever by the Blood of His Sacrifice—Hebrews 9:11–12

Week 25

The Streets of Freedom

Week 26

God’s Mind Is Full

Week 27

On the Same Night He Was Betrayed—1 Corinthians 11:23–26

Week 28

For This Purpose

Week 29

Communion—The Meal of Overcomers

Week 30

Why Do You Want to Be Healed?

Week 31

Release the Prisoners

Week 32

Made Holy with His Own Blood

Week 33

The Blood of Sprinkling—Hebrews 12:24

Week 34

It Is Finished—John 19:30

Week 35

Purchased with His Precious Blood: Value—1 Peter 1:17–20

Week 36

Delivered from Bondage

Week 37

Stand Fast in the Liberty

Week 38

The Blood-Bought Church—Acts 20:28

Week 39

Jesus: The Scapegoat

Week 40

What Prevents Us from Experiencing God’s Covenant Blessings?

Week 41

Neutralize the Voice of the Rabshakeh with a Word from God

Week 42

The Lord Died for You

Week 43

It Is Well with My Soul

Week 44

The Scarlet Thread

Week 45

Cross-Examination

Week 46

We Are in Him

Week 47

Healing Thoughts

Week 48

Follow His Instructions

Week 49

Communion and Our Personal Testimony

Week 50

Delivered from a Three-by-Six Life

Week 51

Jesus: The Preeminent One

Week 52

Jesus: The Name above Every Name

To my wife, Donna. She is an amazing woman. She is the kindest person I know. We have walked with God together for thirty-nine years. In May 1980, she insisted that I go with her to hear a man preach. She didn’t want me to miss out on the life of the ages. Two days later, I gave my life to Jesus. She is a woman of prayer and a model of the longsuffering and goodness of God. So I dedicate this work to her—my love, my friend, and my lifelong companion.

PREFACE

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Paul’s Devotionals

T HIS IS ONE in a series of devotionals that I trust will be an ongoing source of blessing for you. These devotionals are designed to cater to your zeal for life and godliness. I have a specific vision for this series of books.

Paul’s Devotionals are appetizers served on the tray of the written page that will stimulate your hunger for the Word of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Each devotional is a healthy diet for your thought life and your attitude in life.

A person who possesses devotion is ardently dedicated and loyal. Your dedication to these devotionals will aid you in your quest for a spiritual mind. This is required to live life by God’s design and to experience His peace.

These devotionals will also focus your attention and affections on the right target. They will help you to look up and live up in a down world. This is possible only when you see things from God’s point of view.

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective. (Colossians 3:1–2 MSG)

Paul’s Devotionals will reflect my commitment to making a straight cut of the Word of God. Each entry will reflect the hours of study and prayer that I believe are required to rightly divide the word of truth. Therefore, each entry will be a road sign that directs you to an accurate walk with God.

Finally, we need to continue to be filled with the Spirit. These devotionals will provide fuel for your journey and thoughts for your mind on a weekly basis. How important is it for you to think the right thoughts?

Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life. (Proverbs 4:23 NCV)

INTRODUCTION

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A T SPEAK THE Word Church International, we partake of Communion as a congregation on the first Sunday of every month. To my surprise, my pastor assigned me to facilitate the Communion service as an assistant pastor in the church. I continue to be dumbfounded by this assignment, and I prepare extensively each month to teach from the Bible. God’s thoughts about the Lord’s Supper are forged into an anchor that prevents us from drifting out to the dead sea of religious ritual.

When we partake of Communion, there are two elements that we must supply. We must approach this table with reverence, and we must mix this action with faith. In the absence of these elements, participating in Communion is merely a dead work rather than a powerful expression flowing out of our personal relationship with God.

After many months of Communion services, I had a desire to transform these lessons into a devotional to benefit the masses—to take these words outside of the walls of our church and make them available for hungry souls around the world. It was my conviction that multitudes could experience the power of the Lord’s Supper in their private devotions.

Recently, my pastor encouraged me to commit these Communion lessons to the written page. This was the confirmation that fanned my flame to assemble this devotional for the edification of the body of Christ.

This work is designed to accompany you to the Communion table. It is comprised of fifty-two weekly lessons that place Jesus at the head of the table and you in the circle of blessings represented by the emblems of the Lord’s Supper. I trust that these devotions will make your experience with Communion more meaningful. As you meditate on these words, I believe that you will be transported from the pace of life to an intimate place with God. Communion will be a centerpiece in your spiritual life rather than another empty religious exercise.

I recommend that you partake of Communion once a week, using the lessons in this book to ignite your faith based on your knowledge of God, your inheritance, and the benefits wrapped up in the New Covenant.

God’s Word will engage your heart and mind as you pull up to the Lord’s Table—a table that is built on the solid legs of the words of Jesus.

Do this in remembrance of Me.

WEEK 1

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Do This in Remembrance of Me

E VERY TIME WE partake of Communion, our minds must be engaged with accuracy. We are not thinking about the clutter in life’s kitchen. As often as we sit down at this table, we do so in remembrance of Jesus. The word remembrance could not be accurately translated in memory of. It is a reference to the affectionate calling of the person Himself to mind—the person of Jesus Christ.

The word remembrance is a reference to recollection. This means that before we eat the bread and drink the cup, we are re-collecting. We have marveled at Jesus and the wonders of salvation. We have searched the scriptures to collect and apply the thoughts of God. We have embraced the promises of God and claimed them as our own. We have cried tears of joy in the presence of Jesus, who loved us and gave Himself for us. We have breathed in the air of His mercy and breathed out our thanksgiving to Jesus, who came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

However, through the months and miles, we have dropped these important things on the stage of experience. We have left them along the roadside on our way to the next town on the map of life.

Today, as we partake of Communion, let us re-collect the wonders of salvation and return to our first love. Our minds and our affections today are on Jesus, who died for us while we were yet sinners.

As we partake of Communion today, let us make a commitment to Jesus and to ourselves that we will never remove Him from His rightful place of preeminence in our lives. These emblems represent His sacrifice on our behalf. The cup represents His blood that was shed for the remission of our sins. The bread represents His body that was broken for our healing. If He died for us, shouldn’t we really live for Him?

Soak in our scriptures for the week, supply the elements of reverence and faith, and partake of Communion with holy awe.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NKJV)

WEEK 2

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Communion: Koinonia

C OMMUNION IS A word that I was exposed to early in my walk with God. It is the word koinonia. It means participation, partnership, and sharing. This word is also translated as fellowship, which is a reference to that which is held in common.

Communion has a twofold application in light of the word koinonia.

1. We identify with the One represented by the cup and the bread.

Identification is realized in the arena of our perspective. A perspective is a mental view. When we identify with someone, we see ourselves as being one with that someone. Paul captured this perspective and transferred it to the church by using the words with Him and with Christ. Galatians 2:20 epitomizes our Communion with Christ through identification.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 NKJV)

As we partake of Communion, we are reminded again that we identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What is the result of this perspective? We see ourselves as being united with Christ in spirit and in our outlook. We are no longer dead in sin, but we are alive to God. Our old sinful selves were buried with Him. We are no longer slaves to sin.

As we drink the cup and eat the bread, we are also reminded of another realm of unity.

2. In our scripture for today, koinonia speaks of the Lord’s Supper in light of our unity as believers.

As we partake of Communion, our minds are turned to the body of Christ with Jesus as the Head. We are one with Christ and one with one another. We all stand on the same ground at the foot of the cross where God extended His mercy to us. We were all in the same sinking boat of sin and death. But God didn’t leave us on that boat to drift out to the sea of sin oblivion.

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6 NKJV)

Today, as we partake of Communion, we walk in the reality of our fellowship with God and our fellowship with one another. With this in mind, I encourage you to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly and remember that Communion is koinonia. We are partners with God—one with Him—and we share a love of life and a life of love with our fellow believers. We are one body.

When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ? And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body. (1 Corinthians 10:16–17 NLT)

WEEK 3

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When I See the Blood

T HE BOOK OF Exodus is a chronicle of the mass departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt. Exodus could be defined as the road out.

The Israelites were slaves under the heavy hand of the taskmasters of Egypt. They were brutalized for years simply because the Egyptians considered them to be a threat to their dominance.

God heard the cries and groaning of His people and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God moved into action to deliver His covenant people out of bondage and injustice.

He sent Moses as His representative to confront Pharaoh because He is a covenant-keeping God. In Exodus 12, God instructs Moses to slaughter an innocent lamb. They were about to experience an inaugural feast. He gave specific instructions about the blood of the lamb. They were to take of the blood and apply it to the two side posts and the upper doorpost of their houses. This act of obedience sealed their deliverance from bondage. God was about to execute judgment on their oppressors. However, the blood on the doors exempted them from judgment and hastened their mass departure from slavery. God assured them that He would pass over their houses. Those who stayed in their houses were stayed from judgment and sent on the road out based on God’s response to the