Inspired by the Word of God

What is Christian Love?

 Scripture Reading: Matthew 22:34-40

 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

The most essential, God-honoring thing that we must do as a disciple of Jesus Christ is to love God and love others with complete devotion.  It is more important than morality, more fundamental than doctrine, more valuable than personal sacrifice, more critical than knowledge, even more God-pleasing than faith!  On the surface, you can look like a super disciple, but without love, you are just pretending to be a Christian.   “If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.”  (1 Corinthians 13:2)  Without love, our spiritual activities are merely a checklist that will ultimately leave us empty and disillusioned.  We can do lots of good things without love, but being a disciple of Christ is not one of them.

For those of us who have accepted the call to follow Jesus, and tasted His mercy, love and forgiveness, our love for God is a natural response to His love for us.  We are like the woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears and expensive perfume.  Like her, when we experience the love and forgiveness of Christ, we respond by loving God. (Luke 7:47)  (Do you remember that incredible feeling when you first believed?) But the love we have for God is not only an emotional feeling of gratitude.  It is evidence of our salvation, evidence that something has changed deep inside us.  The bible says if you know God, you will love him, for God is love. (1 John 4:8)

Before Christ, our allegiance was to ourselves.  Oswald Chambers said, “the nature of sin is the self-realization that leads me to say, ‘I am my own god’”.  But, when we finally begin to love God, really love Him, it is the result of knowing and embracing the truth that He is God and we are not!  It is then that we can love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and have the kind of relationship that He desires to have with His children.

To love the Lord God with all your HEART is to get rid of the idols that have captured your heart and find your satisfaction in Him.  To love the Lord God with all your SOUL is to stop striving, and fully embrace that your significance, purpose and meaning comes from Him.  To love the Lord God with all your MIND is to block out the noise that is cluttering your senses, and allow yourself to be amazed by God’s infinitely complex creation and the depths of His Word.  God wants to be the main thing in our life!  He wants our affections, our emotions, and our intellect.  That is why loving God is the first and greatest commandment!

But what about the second commandment - How do you love your neighbor as yourself?

We can’t force ourselves to love anyone, but we can invite God’s love to transform our hearts so that we can show His love to anyone we encounter, whether a complete stranger or someone we see every day.  He empowers us to love others by giving us the Holy Spirit ‘who fills our hearts with His love’. (Romans 5:5).  When Christ makes His home in our hearts we can really begin to love beyond ourselves.  (Ephesians 3:17)  What seemed at first to be an impossible commandment, becomes the genuine desire of our hearts and part of who we are.

To love your neighbor as yourself does not mean to love them instead of yourself. Some people avoid getting involved in other’s lives, because they fear they will have to give too much of themselves, or get too emotionally invested.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, some believe they really are supposed to love their neighbor instead of themselves, and they end up spiritually and emotionally drained, with nothing left to give to anyone, including God.  Neither one is biblical or God-honoring.

Jesus said to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That means to love others with the same focus and energy that we lavish on ourselves.  To love our neighbor as our self means to care enough to notice when they have a need, and care enough to do something about it.  In the course of our normal lives there are opportunities every day to show the love of Christ.  But how many of them do we really see?  Or worse yet, how many do we see, but ignore?  To love our neighbor as our self involves intentionality.  We must actively look for the opportunities that God brings into our life.  If you want to see them, God will show you.

John 13:34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Jesus said that love is the mark of a disciple.  When you see someone in need, do you respond with compassion, or are you bothered by the inconvenience?   If you truly love God, does it show in your love for others?  I’m not just talking about acts of kindness.  We can do good deeds and acts of kindness all day and still not love anyone!  Helping others makes us feel good, and that’s great.  But love takes it to the next level.  In God’s eyes, to love means to deeply care about the person and serve them.

Sometime today, we will have the opportunity to love.  The question is, how will we respond?  Will we ignore it, or will we really love with the love of Christ?

DJS

 © 2011 Inspired by the Word of God. Scriptures from New Living Translation

The Call to Follow Jesus

 Scripture Reading: Luke 5:27-32

Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. Luke 5:27

The call to follow Jesus is much more than an invitation to follow Jesus from a safe distance and casually observe him.  Jesus didn’t say to Levi, “Follow me and you might learn a few things”.  Jesus called Levi to follow him AND be his disciple.  To be his disciple is a radical, life-changing decision.  To be his disciple is to completely open your heart to His desires for your life.  To be his disciple is to walk with Jesus every day, listening, learning, and allowing the Holy Spirit to change you to into His likeness!

Levi knew what it would mean to follow Jesus.  He had been watching Jesus. He knew Jesus was a righteous man, admired by the people, a powerful rabbi who healed the sick and performed miracles.  He knew Jesus reputation and what Jesus stood for.  But how could someone like Jesus have anything to do with him?  Levi was just not Jesus material.  He was a greedy, corrupt government official who got rich by extorting money from his own people!  He was so despised by his fellow Jews that he, and his kind, were not even allowed into the Synagogue (according to history).  There was no chance that Jesus would want someone like him.

But something shocking happened – against all odds Jesus called Levi to be His disciple.  The scripture says, “So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him”.  Wow!  What just happened here?  What happened is that the love of Christ invaded the heart of a broken and spiritually hungry man, and filled his soul in a way that nothing and no one else ever had. 

In our way of thinking, Jesus had it backwards.  Shouldn’t he be looking for a solid, upright, religious type to be his disciple?  But we’re the ones who have it backwards.  The call to follow Jesus is not for those who think they have their act together.  The call to follow Jesus is for those who know they are spiritually bankrupt, and recognize the real thing when they see it.

Spiritual pride will lead us to religion, but not to Jesus Christ.  No one can be a disciple of Jesus without genuine spiritual humility before God and man.  Jesus said, “I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.” Luke 5:32  Jesus came down really hard on the religious leaders, but the truth is, it had nothing to do with their pious zeal.  They simply could not tolerate being called sinners.  There is no greater or more deceptive sin than spiritual pride and this is what Jesus condemned.  It is the sin that caused Satan to fall and the sin that separated us from God.

Discipleship demands that we grow spiritually - it does not allow us to stay in our sin.  Real disciples will grow and become more like Jesus.  Just look at Levi. He became Matthew, one of the twelve and a completely different man.  But I’ll bet that Mathew never forgot who he used to be.  Spiritual maturity produces an increased awareness of our own sinfulness.  To be fully aware of our own sinfulness is to be fully aware of the grace, love and mercy of God that calls us to follow him, and changes us to be more like him!

 © 2011 David Soper. Scriptures from New Living Translation

Corporate Prayer of Confession

Lord, If we say that we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

So we confess our sins!

Almighty God, We confess that we have sinned against you in our thoughts, in our words, and our actions.

We have not loved you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We confess that we have sinned against you as a community and as a nation.

Lord, we have set up idols in our hearts and in the hearts of our families.

Lord, forgive us!

Deepen our sorrow for the wrong we have done, and the good that we have left undone.

God, break our hearts!

Lord, you are full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, there is always forgiveness with you!

So forgive us merciful Father, and free us from our sin. 

We cry out to you!

Lord, we need you, we love you. 

Please restore to us the joy of your salvation;

bind up the things that are broken in our lives and in our land,

strengthen our hearts to follow you and serve you,

and show us your power once again!

In Jesus Name, Amen! 

DJS

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Scripture Reading: John 8:12-20

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."  John 8:12

There are few things more frightening than total darkness.  In high school, my summer job was giving guided tours of an old copper mine.  Near the end of the tour, a half mile or so into the mine tunnel, I would stop and give a demonstration of total darkness.  The moment I turned off the lights you could feel the black darkness surround you.  It is an intense feeling that literally takes your breath away.  All of your senses are immediately on high alert, and even though we were not in any danger, the darkness itself was frightening.  Before people would begin to panic (usually), I would turn the light back on and instantly the mood would change.  Everyone was relieved to be back in the light.

The presence of light, no matter the source, is a comforting thing.  Light reveals our surroundings.  Light reveals beauty, light also reveals pitfalls and dangers.  Light, even a small amount, penetrates the darkness so that we can find our way to safety or feel the comfort of knowing what is around us.  It is no wonder that Jesus said, "I am the light of the world."  Just as light illuminates things in the natural realm, Jesus illuminates things in the spiritual realm.  He is the light that reveals the true nature of our spiritual surroundings.  He reveals things in us that are difficult to see, like the intentions of our heart.  Jesus is a light that cuts through spiritual darkness to expose things that could do us harm.  Jesus is a light that comforts us when we are afraid, and guides us when we are looking for direction.

We understand this, but do we believe it?  Are we really walking in His light?  Just because we know Jesus is the light, it doesn’t mean we have His light in our life. Verse 12 says "if we follow him", we will have the light. All Christians experience the darkness of discouragement at times.  You may be in a place so dark right now it seems there is no way out.  But you don’t need to walk in that darkness (v12).  There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not a train, the light is Jesus Christ.

It seems insane, but sometimes we get comfortable with darkness.  We don’t want the light to expose our deep struggles or failings.  I’ll never forget the day we went to help a friend who was having some serious problems.  All of her windows were covered and she was sitting in darkness, physically and spiritually.  The darkness had become comfortable and familiar to her.  As we opened the curtains the atmosphere instantly changed.  The light flooded into the room and with it came a sense of hope that she had a way out of her situation.

The light of Jesus is a guide for our life, but we have to trust it.  There are times when something He clearly revealed to us starts to get cloudy and we question it.  We begin stumbling around in the dark wondering if God really showed us that.  Never doubt in the dark what God showed you in the light!  The light that leads to life will not lead you down the wrong path.  Trust His light and follow it for life.

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© 2010 David Soper, Inspired by the Word of God. All rights reserved. Scripture from New Living Translation

Going Forward in Forgiveness

Scripture Reading: John 8:1-11

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, "Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?"  11 "No, Lord," she said. And Jesus said, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more." John 8:10-11

With these tender words of divine forgiveness (v11), the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery experienced the incredible grace of God through Jesus Christ.  She was guilty, yet Jesus Christ declared her forgiven.  She was publicly humiliated, yet Jesus spoke to her respectfully.  She was used by men with impure motives, yet Jesus loved her with holy purity.  She didn’t know at the time, but Jesus loved her so much that he would pay the full penalty for her sin so that she wouldn’t have to! (1 John 2:1-2)   Jesus didn’t say to her, "Oh, it’s ok, nobody’s perfect, don’t worry about it".  He didn’t dismiss her actions as being insignificant, instead, he did for her what she couldn’t do for herself, wipe the slate clean and give her an opportunity for a completely new life.

Divine forgiveness is a powerful force in our lives.  Without it, we can’t move forward from sinful habits and destructive behavior.  It does more than absolve us of sin, it empowers us to change. The greatest motivator to turn our life around is not fear of punishment, but the love and acceptance of a God who is for us in every way.  Notice Jesus’ response to the woman.  First he forgave her, then he told her, "Go and sin no more" (v11).  What if Jesus had said, "If you go and sin no more, then I will accept you"?  None of us could do it!  We’d give up before we started.  Jesus first forgives and accepts those who believe in him (as she did).  Then he asks us to respond to that love by living a life that is pleasing to God (Romans 6:16).  Our heart changes first, then our behavior.

Divine forgiveness transforms us into forgiving people.  When we are forgiven by God, we are much quicker to forgive others. (Luke 7:47)  It’s as if the DNA of grace is genetically grafted into every true believer.  The spirit of Christ is not a spirit of judgment and legalism.  Grace does not ignore sin, but deals with it in a Christ-like way – compassionately, directly, and lovingly.  The religious leaders who caught the woman in adultery were not zealous for the things of God, nor did they have any compassion for the woman.  If they had either, they would have also brought forward the man involved in this tryst!  Religion, in and of itself, is not life transforming, but when Jesus speaks grace into our lives, we experience such a deep and radical transformation that we ourselves become a conduit for grace.

The woman was not the only person who changed that day.  The crowd, just there to hear Jesus teach, became immersed in this dramatic lesson on divine forgiveness.  Do you think those people would ever be the same?  Even the accusers, confronted with their own sinful motives, experienced the incredible love of Jesus Christ.  How could they go forward from that moment without seeing things completely different?  Everyone there was touched by God’s forgiveness and love.  Is His love and forgiveness fresh in your heart?  For us who believe, may we never forget the tender and healing words of Jesus, "neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more".

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© 2010 David Soper, Inspired by the Word of God. All rights reserved. Scripture from New Living Translation

So You Think You Know Him?

Scripture Reading: John 7:25-36

"But how could he be? For we know where this man comes from…"  John 7:27

I love to watch professional golf, either in person or on TV.  Just like any golf fan I have my favorite players and I tend to pay more attention to them during the tournaments and in the news.  In a lot of ways you could say that I know them.  I know their game and golf accomplishments, I know about their lives off the course and I could recognize them anywhere.  The truth is that I know quite a bit about them, but I don’t know them personally.  I don’t hang out with them, they don’t call me to talk, I don’t know the deep things in their heart. I guess when you think about it, I really don’t know them at all.

This same scenario happens in our relationship with Jesus Christ.  Just like with me and the pro golfers, the question is, do we really know Jesus or do we just know facts about him?  The people in Jerusalem thought they knew him.  They knew he was a carpenter’s son who was raised in Nazareth and they knew he was an engaging teacher who performed great miracles.  They knew quite a bit about him, but they really didn’t know Jesus.  There is so much more to Jesus than just what we see.  Jesus said, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him" (v28).  It’s almost as if he said, "So you think you know me? You really have no idea."

For those of us who grew up in church or have been a Christian for a long time, it’s easy to get the false sense that we already know Jesus as well as we’re ever going to.  We still want to grow closer to Him, but honestly, we think we already know him.  But do we?  Here is short quiz.  Tell me if you know this man.  He is our Advocate, the Atoning Sacrifice for our Sins, the Author of Life, the Author of Salvation, the Beginning and End, the Bread of Life, the Capstone, the Chief Cornerstone, the Christ, our Creator, our Deliverer, Faithful and True, our God, the Good Shepherd, our Great High Priest, the Head of the Church, the Heir of all things, the Holy One, the Hope of Glory, the Judge of the living and the dead, the King Eternal, the King of Israel, the King of kings, the King of the Ages, the Lamb of God, the Life, the Light of the World, the Eternal Spring of Living Water, the Lord of All, the Lord of Glory, the Lord of lords, our Master, the Mighty God, the Morning Star, the Only Begotten Son of God, Our Great God and Savior, the Resurrection and Life, the Righteous One, our Rock, our Teacher, the True Light, the True Vine, the Truth, the Way, the Word.  So you think you know him?

If you want to get to know the real Jesus, then you must get to know Him personally, not just as someone you admire from a distance, but someone you really connect with and learn to love and trust.  Knowing Jesus is much more than knowing facts about Jesus, it’s having a relationship with Him.  It’s spending time with Him, listening to Him, sharing your heart with him, and getting to know his heart for you and others.  Has your Christian life become dry and lifeless?  Perhaps it’s because you think you already know him as well as you’re ever going to.  But there is so much more to Jesus, and you should really get to know Him!

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© 2010 David Soper, Inspired by the Word of God. All rights reserved. Scripture from New Living Translation

Judging by Appearances

Scripture Reading: John 7:14-24

“Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” John 7:24

No one likes to be judged, but Jesus said that we are supposed to make a judgment about Him.  In fact, the single most important judgment that we will make in our lives is what we decide about Jesus Christ.  However, this judgment is not an easy one.  Judging by appearances, we could easily come to the conclusion that Jesus was an exceptional man, but not the Son of God.  These people in John 7 who were an eye witness to the teaching and ministry of Jesus did not see him as Messiah.  They were amazed that Jesus was such a great teacher (v15), but they got tripped up by his lack of formal rabbinical training.  They loved his insights, but couldn’t believe that His teaching was directly from God.  They were amazed that Jesus miraculously healed a paralytic, but because He did it on the Sabbath they thought his actions dishonored God, not flowed from God Himself.

How can we know if Jesus is really from God?  He gives us the answer in verse 17.  "Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own." Simply stated, put His teachings into practice in your life and it will become obvious.  Spiritual obedience unlocks the door to spiritual insight.  No one can fully satisfy their spiritual hunger through just intellectual inquiries.  A serious spiritual seeker must take action before some things will make sense.  And when you take that step, God reveals himself to you, spiritual truths become clearer, and trust in Jesus begins to grow and take root in your heart.

Jesus challenged the people to judge Him correctly.  They had a wide range of opinions about Him, but He made a bold claim, "My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me" (v16).  In other words, Jesus claimed to have the exclusive truth.  It was not a popular statement then, and it is even less popular now.  No one today dare claim that they have the truth about God.  Anyone who does is labeled intolerant and arrogant.  Sadly, tolerance no longer means to have respect for people who believe or think differently, it’s become a universal paradigm for the notion that there is no absolute truth.  Christians, more than anybody, should be gracious and respectful of others who are different (1 Peter 2:17).  But at the same time, when it comes to Jesus, we either believe or we don’t.

Have you judged Jesus without looking at the evidence?  Fueled by TV documentaries and movies intended to entertain, it’s easy to be swayed by alleged ‘contradictions’, but never look beneath the surface.  In order to really know, we must examine all the evidence, read the scriptures for ourselves and pray that God would help us to know the truth about Jesus.  This is what Jesus expects us to do!  No one should make a decision about Him lightly.  We should be people who are careful to discern, careful to pray, careful to think, and careful to judge. But at the end of the day, we still must make a judgment.  The popular sentiment in modern society says that as long as you believe in something - anything, you’re OK.  But it’s not OK.  The words of Jesus are the words of God himself.  There is a decision to make, and we must look beyond appearances to judge correctly.

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© 2010 David Soper, Inspired by the Word of God. All rights reserved. Scripture from New Living Translation

Now is Not the Right Time

Scripture Reading: John 7:1-13

Jesus replied, "Now is not the right time for me to go.." John 7:6

Timing is everything.  William Shakespeare said, "There is a tide in the affairs of men which when taken at the flood leads on to fortune."  This is certainly true in business.  Bill Gates wouldn’t have become one of the world’s most successful businessmen if he hadn’t picked up a January 1975 issue of Popular Mechanics that featured a new microcomputer, the Altair 8800, and also had the vision and skills to turn a hobbyist’s toy into a valuable machine. His good timing led to the founding of Microsoft and the explosion of the personal computer industry.  Shakespeare’s quote could also be reworded to say, there is a tide in the affairs of men which when caught in the flood leads on to misfortune.  Bad timing is just as potent as good timing and fortunes can rise or fall because of either.

While timing is everything in business, the same is true in the Christian life.  As believers, we pray to discern God’s timing for our lives.  When should we make that move?  Is now the right time to start that ministry?  Etc…  We know the importance of God’s timing and we sincerely want His timing, but how long should we wait on God before we take matters into our own hands?   It’s not easy to wait on God, even though we know that nothing good happens when we try to force something before it’s time.  The brothers of Jesus were trying to persuade him to go to Judea now, but Jesus said, "now is not the right time for me to go".

Jesus was not persuaded by pressure from others to get ahead of God’s timing.  Despite his brother’s questionable motives (v4), their logic made some sense.  Jesus had a lot to offer the world, so why not go right now to where the people are?  However, it was not yet God’s timing and Jesus knew it, because He was listening to the Father’s voice before all the other voices.  How often do we let the voices of others drive us to a hasty decision that is not led by God?  We need other people, especially godly counsel, but ultimately we must decide for ourselves, and we must follow God’s timing even if in the short term not everyone will understand.

When the time was right, Jesus took action (v10).  God’s timing in our lives does not work like some kind of cosmic benevolence, where all we do is sit around and wait for the stars to align and things will happen when they’re supposed to.  Waiting on God is not a passive activity.  Waiting on God means that when the time is right, we will act.  In Christian circles, waiting on God can sometimes become a convenient excuse for laziness or lack of courage.  God’s timing is perfect, but you must be willing to do your part when the time is right.

What is it that you have set your mind to do?  The question is – is it God’s timing?  When we ask God if we should do something there are three possible answers – yes, no, and wait.  It may very well be God’s will for you to do it, but perhaps the time is not yet right.   Discerning God’s timing may seem difficult, but He is a loving Father and He is eager to show you if you are eager to know it.  If God wants you to do something, then there is a right time to do it, and timing is everything!

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© 2010 David Soper, Inspired by the Word of God. All rights reserved. Scripture from New Living Translation

No More Faith

Scripture Reading: John 6:60-71

"At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him." John 6:66

John chapter 6 starts with huge crowds following Jesus wherever he went and ends with many of his disciples deserting him.  Not exactly what we’d call a church growth success story.  These are people who were following Christ - people whose hopes were very high, and now they are suddenly leaving him in droves.  What is going on here?

To the natural mind, to the un-regenerated mind, it is impossible to understand Jesus when he says that whoever eats his flesh has eternal life (John 6:51).  But the person who is a true believer knows that they cannot live without the "bread of life" (John 6:48).  The nominal Christian admires the Jesus who says to "love your neighbor as yourself", but is completely repulsed by the Jesus who says that unless they hate their own family, they cannot be his disciple (Luke 14:26).  The true believer has spiritual eyes, the discernment of the Holy Spirit, and knows that anything can become an idol, even their own family.  The faith of a genuine Christian is not shipwrecked by the seemingly difficult teaching of Jesus, instead we are convicted of our own sin and ultimately are able to love our family more deeply than ever, but now with God’s perspective.

The disciples who deserted Jesus were people who had attached themselves to Christ but had not yet truly believed.  They were disciples in the loosest sense of the word.  It’s easy to sit here and judge them, but it seems they aren’t much different than the large number of people in our churches today who think they are Christians but aren’t born again.  Their faith is intact as long as things are going the way they like and the preacher is saying the things they want to hear.  However, they are not genuine spiritual seekers who are hungry for the truth, they are merely cultural Christians with a socially acceptable religious identity.

I recently returned from a Pastor’s conference in eastern Poland.  I’ve heard many people say how difficult it is to serve God in Poland.  But let me tell you something, as I worshiped God with 120 Polish pastors and church leaders I was moved to tears and overwhelmed by their passion for Jesus and love for the living God.  My eyes were opened and my heart convicted as I heard story after story of their situations.  Ministry is hard wherever you are, but these men and women have their hand to the plow for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Spirit of God is alive and well in their ministries in the midst of difficult circumstances.

Are you spiritually discouraged?  Are you ready to give up on faith?  Is the teaching of Jesus hard to understand?  The question is, where else will you go?  Who else has the words of eternal life?  Jesus asked the twelve, "Are you also going to leave?"(v67).   When discouragement and doubt overtakes us, the answer is not to turn away from God, but to turn towards God!  As Peter said, "To whom would we go?".  "We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."  Jesus alone has the words of life and they are the watchword of our faith.

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© 2010 David Soper, Inspired by the Word of God. All rights reserved. Scripture from New Living Translation

Food for Life

Scripture Reading: John 6:35-59

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever…"  John 6:51

"You are what you eat", we’ve all heard it.  I guess that means I resemble a double crusted apple pie.  Funny, but all of us know that we’re not literally what we eat.  This is just a clever phrase to emphasize the fact that the things we eat play a critical role in our health and our state of mind.  The food we eat determines how we feel, how we look, how we behave, even how we think.  The right foods will not only satisfy our hunger pangs, they will also help our body to function at its best.  Some foods are especially good, such as the bread that sustained the prophet Ezekiel for over a year!  "Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side." (Ezekiel 4:9)

Physically, we are what we eat, but the same is true spiritually.  Jesus said, "I am the bread of life".  In the same way that food provides life and nourishment to our bodies, it is Jesus that gives life and nourishment to our souls.  In the same way that the things we eat affect our health and well being, the life of Christ in us affects our eternal health and spiritual well being.  Just as the food we eat satisfies our hunger and gives us a feeling of contentment, so does Jesus, the bread of life, satisfy our souls and bring contentment to our spirit!  You can’t live for very long without eating, and as a Christian you can’t survive without the bread of life.

The crowd listening to Jesus objected strongly to this teaching.  They had witnessed Jesus perform a miracle and heard him teach before, but up to this point they were following Christ just for the show, not because they had truly believed.  Jesus called them out on it, "you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me".  This really became an issue for the people when Jesus said, "Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh."  To those who are spiritually blind this is very strange, in fact, it’s downright offensive.  It’s not that Jesus was trying to alienate them.  He loved them!  He just wanted to be very clear with the message of life and death, eternal life and eternal death.  Those who believe, who are "taught by God" (v44), understand that Jesus was using this metaphor to make a point.  Jesus is more than a good show, He is life itself!  Perhaps you have struggled with this passage, and it certainly has some shock value the first time you read it, but the gospel is a call to a union with Christ.

I’ve heard it said that whenever we find ourselves too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired (HALT) we need to stop and take care of ourselves or we will become susceptible to making poor decisions and destructive behaviors.  In the same way, if we are spiritually hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, we become vulnerable to attacks of the enemy of our soul.  That is why Jesus offers himself to us as the bread of life.  Anyone who receives Jesus, trusts in Jesus, and is content in Jesus will never be hungry again.  All who feed on the true bread from heaven, who believe in Jesus, have eternal life. Jesus abides in you and His life becomes your life forever.

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© 2010 David Soper, Inspired by the Word of God. All rights reserved. Scripture from New Living Translation