Hi Friends!,

Good Afternoon. I was thinking about what to say about God and His word with you all and I started to think about bread. Huh? Yup, good ole’ yummy bread. Even though I am not particularly hungry at the moment, I can still appreciate the wonderful world of bread. Can’t you?

Perhaps you ate a toasted and buttered English muffin for breakfast… Mmm, those nooks and crannies. (Is that phrase copyrighted?) Maybe you toasted some sliced bread and put jelly on it. Or better yet, maybe you ate an Everything bagel slathered with cream cheese. Biscuit anyone? With honey? With sausage gravy? Please don’t get me started, because if you didn’t have some sort of bread for breakfast I’ll start asking if you had bread pudding last night for desert. Ha!

At our house we have a bread maker. If you have one, then perhaps you know as I do that fresh bread out of the hopper, gingerly sliced so as to not burn your fingers (because you can’t wait), with a slab of butter spread out and melted is about as good as it gets. Those puffy rolls at the Golden Corral or those bread sticks at the Olive Garden restaurant come mighty close too.

To remain a resident in our house, loving bread is required. My son was a little slow catching hold of the bread bandwagon. At first, I had to roll up his sandwich bread into bread balls before he would eat it. Then later he preferred to eat his hot dog without a bun (gasp). But we kept the faith and tenderly admonished him to love bread as we do… and thankfully he saw the error of his ways and now crams it like the rest of us. 😉

Now, lest you think I am tempting you to gluttony, I must speak of another type of bread. This particular bread tasted like wafers made with honey, had the appearance of white coriander seed, melted in the sun’s heat and spoiled overnight! This bread was the bread from heaven, AKA: Manna. The Good Lord provided this manna for 40 years to His people, the Israelites, while they wandered in the wilderness over 3000 years ago…

Exodus 16:4
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.”

 How amazing is that?! Bread raining from heaven. The account goes on to say that in the morning, after the dew evaporated, left behind were small round [thingies], fine as frost on the ground. Wow! There the Israelites were, in the middle of an inhospitable wilderness, on the receiving end of divine hospitality. Notice as well, they were tested.

Jesus Himself was also in the wilderness early in His earthly ministry, led by the Holy Spirit to be tested (via temptations by the devil). After 40 days of not eating, satan tried to entice Jesus to turn some stones into bread to satisfy His hunger. Oh, but Jesus is God in human form, so observe that wonderful scriptural consistency here…

 Matthew 4:4
But He (Jesus) answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

 Jesus passed the test, He would (and frankly could only) walk in God’s laws. He also received divine hospitality from angels sent to minister to Him.

Now, can someone tell me what the words are that proceeded from the mouth of God? Ding ding ding, yes! The words contained in scripture; the Bible! Can you see this?

God’s word is so much more important than earthly bread. The Owner’s manual teaches us how to be right with Him. Trust me, you want to be right God. Jesus shows us the power of God’s word not only in His dealings with the devil, but even to the masses of people that followed Him around…

John 6:48-51b
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever…

Have you eaten this kind of bread? This bread is true soul food. Ha!

Look to your life. If you’re a true believer, you’ve had your own wilderness experience too. You found yourself stranded and hopeless in the desert, your distended spirit desperately searching for relief from the bondage of your sins. And crying out for mercy and forgiveness God rained down His grace upon you. Oh what a blessed oasis of peace can be found in Christ Jesus!

If you hunger for this bread, know that the Lord can never run out of it. The storehouse of His grace is eternal! The table is still prepared, the feast is ready, and the invitation bids you to RSVP ASAP! Don’t delay any longer!

1^st Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

 

**Comments/ questions/ affirmations/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim