# 123 Ever Fresh Bread

 

Ever Fresh Bread

 

Joh 6:47 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. 48 "I am the bread of life. 49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 "This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.

 Jesus keeps hammering away at the theme, “I am the Bread of Life. “He who believes in Me has everlasting life.” The Bread that He speaks of is His Body and it is not like the manna that was eaten in the wilderness. That manna was a physical sustenance only. the manna of Jesus is of spiritual sustenance.

 

The shelf life of manna was one day! Moses told the people when they gathered the manna that they were not to keep any of it until morning. However, some of them paid no attention to Moses and they kept it anyway. What a surprise the next day when the bread box stunk to high heaven and was full of maggots! Ex 16:19 And Moses said, "Let no one leave any of it till morning." 20 Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.

 

Not so with the bread that Jesus gives. His is the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone, by faith, partakes of His bread, he will live forever! The bread that Jesus gives is His very flesh which He gave for the life of the world. It is His literal body which He willingly placed on the cross at Calvary. A body which He knew would not suffer corruption. (Read that maggots!)

 

As the Psalmist foretold in  Ps 16:9,10, Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. 10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

 

No maggots in this bread! No stench from this manna! It is ever fresh, ever living. Though we may die and our flesh turns to dust, those who believe in Christ and have received Him as Lord and Savior will one day rise from the dead.

In accordance with  1Co 15:52,53 one day the buzzer on the oven we call life will go off and, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

 

No worms! No maggots! No stench in those imperishable bodies because they have partaken of the Living Bread! They have believed in, and received the Lord Jesus Christ!

 

# 122 When tears Pray

 

When Tears Pray

 

Ps 42:1 <<To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah.>> As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.

 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

 3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, "Where is your God?"

 

Did you ever consider that your tears are a prayer? The psalmist says here that a tear is a petition to God that asks. “where are You God?”

 

A tear that asks, “Where are you in the midst of this relationship gone sour?” A watery eye wondering “Where are you in my financial calamity?”  Salty drops that question, “Where are you in the midst of this illness? A mournful sob that asks, “Where are you in the midst of my child’s rebellion?” These are all heartfelt prayers flowing from your tear ducts and they are duly noted by your loving heavenly Father.

 

Not one drop is missed as it says in  Ps 56:8, “You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?”

 

The psalmist was in tears in part because he missed going to church and gathering with the saints. (Sound familiar these days?) He says, “ 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

Then in verse 5 a jolting question to bring the sobbing saint back to reality: “Hey, wait a minute! “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.

 

God has noted your tears, now put your hope in Him to take care of the situation in His perfect will and timing. Ride this out! You will yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. (Countenance… the turning of His merciful face toward you and your situation!)

 

Then note the last verse of this Psalm. It is the same as verse 5 with one exception. “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

The exception being, now we are talking about your countenance, the look on your face. He is the help of your countenance and will turn your sorrows into joyful praise.

 

# 121 Fishers of Men

 

# 121 Fishers of Men

 

Joh 6:43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves.  44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. 46 "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.

 

Jesus hears their murmuring and basically says, “Stop trying to figure this out! The only way any of this will make sense to you or anyone else for that matter, is if the Father reveals it to you! As the prophets have said, “and they shall all  be taught by God.”(Is 54:13) Therefore, since the prophets have written this, everyone who has learned from the Father will come to Me.”

 

It’s not that the Father comes down personally and teaches us, that would be impossible. No one would survive such a direct encounter with a holy God! No one has seen the Father except He who is from God, and that would be Jesus! So He came to teach them and us about the Father.

 

Later of course, the Holy Spirit, who also proceeds from the Father, will come and do the same thing, and those who have received Christ, will be taught by the Holy Spirit, receiving instruction from the Father! Joh 16:13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

 

Who then are those who are privileged to be taught by the Father? Those who have been drawn by the Father to Jesus! Not only will they be taught, but they will be raised up on the Last Day!

 

The word “draw” is interesting. We think of it in terms of a magnetic type of pull, but its biblical use is much more connected to fishing! The fisherman lets down his net in the water and draws it to the boat where it is lifted up.

 

In like manner, the net of God is the Word of God, (Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God) (Rom 10:17) The Word is cast out, and as men hear it, they are convicted of their sins and drawn to Jesus. And Jesus, the perfect fisherman, (just look at His track record of filling empty nets) says that He will raise up all that are in the net on the Last Day.

 

Unlike other fishermen who will inevitably lose some fish in the process and throw away the ones they don’t want, Jesus says, the one drawn to Him by the Father, will not be cast out, and not a one will be lost.

 

Remember His original challenge to the disciples? “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men? The challenge remains the same for you and I today. We are to “cast out the Word of God and God will use that Word as His net. Souls will be drawn to Jesus and raised up the Last Day, and we too will be fishers of men!