HEAVENSREEF

There is one staple in all of our food that people enjoy, some more than others and it is bread.  We love to put all kinds of toppings on it and who doesn’t enjoy that smell of bread in the oven!  Just the smell of bread tends to be a comfort!

If you search the scriptures you will find that bread is mentioned throughout, from the Old Testament to the New.  And the mention of bread means so many different things depending upon where you read about it……..

DEUTERONOMY 8: 3 “……..NOR DID YOUR FATHERS KNOW, THAT HE MIGHT MAKE YOU KNOW THAT MAN DOES NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT MAN LIVES BY EVERY WORD THAT COMES FROM THE MOUTH OF THE LORD.”

LET US BE AWARE OF WHAT THIS TRULY MEANS:  “Give us this day, our Daily Bread, LORD.”

The above request we should be asking of the LORD, every single day.  HE is our provider of just what we need, when we need it. This life sustaining bread is given to us every morning we wake to live another day.

 

In the Gospel of John, JESUS gives us more in depth understanding  using bread as a metaphor.  HE says this…….

JOHN 6: 32 “……..BUT MY FATHER GIVES YOU THE TRUE BREAD FROM HEAVEN.”

Those in the crowd who truly listened to JESUS responded in this way and we should also…….

JOHN 6: 34  “SIR, GIVE US THIS BREAD ALWAYS.”

Oh to have this bread always…….it should be the cry of our hearts!

BREAD not only sustains life, it sustains our very souls.  Bread can fill an empty stomach, but JESUS spoke of the life sustaining bread, the bread from Heaven sent down for us…….

MATTHEW 4: 3-4  “MAN MUST NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT COMES FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.”

OH how GOD’S word is the bread of life!  And JESUS proclaimed HE was that very bread of life.

I think it is interesting how much scripture mentions JESUS with the disciples and the breaking of the bread.  In the breaking of it, JESUS was showing us how and when to remember HIM.  It is such a powerful story about the Emmaus men and how their eyes were opened when JESUS came in to stay with them…….

LUKE 24: 30-31  “……..HE TOOK THE BREAD AND BLESSED AND BROKE IT AND GAVE IT TO THEM.  AND THEIR EYES WERE OPENED, AND THEY RECOGNIZED HIM.”

MAY WE ALWAYS SEE JESUS IN THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD.

And when we remember HIM, let us break bread with one another too.  For some of us, it has been quite a while since we have broken bread with a brother or sister!  This crisis we are in, if anything, has showed us just how much we do need to break bread with one another, face to face!

JESUS satisfies our weary souls with this life sustaining bread and may we say:  Dear Jesus, give us this bread always!

 

The breaking of the bread also allows us to be broken with others as well…….JESUS was broken for all of us while we were still sinners.  Let us be willing to be broken with our neighbors and friends.  Being true and authentic is this broken way.  The world is broken, always has been and always will be…….but let’s never forget why JESUS came and so…….

GIVE US THIS BREAD…….ALWAYS!

1 CORINTHIANS 10: 16-17  “THE BREAD THAT WE BREAK, IS IT NOT A PARTICIPATION IN THE BODY OF CHRIST?  BECAUSE THERE IS ONE BREAD, WE WHO ARE MANY ARE ONE BODY, FOR WE ALL PARTAKE OF THE ONE BREAD.”