Today we give thanks to You Lord Jesus Christ for You are our Savior, our Redeemer and our Friend.  Breathe life back into the dry desert of our hearts for You are the great I Am. You live in this moment and so should we.  Stop us from holding on to what happened or what might happen.  Instead focus our thoughts on the here and now so that we can truly be Your hands and feet in this world.  We are all children of God living in His household.  To keep all of God’s gifts for ourselves and to ignore the other members of God’s family does not bless the world it curses it.  So Lord, reveal Your truth to us today in Your Word for our lives so that we can fully participate in the glory of Your resurrection rather than just observing it.  Break our hearts for what breaks Yours because as long as there are still people being unjustly persecuted, who are hungry, or who are sick then the ministry that Christ started is not over.  And even though we think that it would be so much easier to ignore the problems of others we must remember that the others could be our grandparents, parents, children, us or even be Jesus.  Let us remember that in the darkest times of our lives “it is not the shouts of our enemies that hurt us the most but it is the silence of our friends” (Martin Luther King Jr). How will the next generation know how to follow Jesus?  It’s simple: By watching us.  By learning from the example that we leave for them in this life.  Did we hate or did we love?  Did we stand up for the forgotten or did we look the other way?  “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear.” (Verna Dozier, The Dream of God, 1991)  And You, Lord, have told us “Do not fear, for unto us, in the city of David, a Savior was born” (Luke 2:11) who changed the world and changed our hearts.  So as we receive Christ today at this altar let us remember that He also goes with us into the world that He loves.  And remember that there are those who are so hungry that they can only receive God in the form of bread.  So let us give to the One and to the many.