Saturday, October 23, 2010

Jesus came into the world not to Give bread, but to BE bread...

Recently I got the opportunity to listen to message with the title being the same as this blog title. This message struck me in many ways. If you think about the title, "Jesus came not to give bread(mainly), but to BE bread", what are some of this first impressions that you get? For me when I "stumbled" upon this message, it was during a time of some struggling in my heart. In our church we want to be very intentional with reaching out to the poor and needy. As we continue to pray for strategy and ways to do this, we have only had a "few" opportunities to really go and do some outreach. Because of this, in my heart, I have been saying ,"this isn't enough". Even though on Sundays people are hearing the Word of God preached, and joining in worship, I still had this frustration in my heart that we weren't doing enough. When I looked at the title of this message something broke inside of me. I had been placing more emphasis on the giving of physical bread, than on the teaching of Jesus BEING the ONLY bread we need. As I listened to this message God began to convict my heart in different ways. I began to see that ev I was looking to other things to satisfy my "hunger" than Jesus. Was He my bread? In a consumeristic culture that wants to use everything to fit "our needs" Jesus calls us not to use Him to just fit our "needs", BUT to BE EVERYTHING we need. HE didn't come to just "give bread", help us, give us a better life, BUT to BE our bread, to BE our Life, to be everything. Jesus says this is John 6, a few chapters before in John 4 Jesus say's He's the water. Again He shows us that in Him, is all that we need, and ever will need. If we are "thirsty" the problem isn't with the water, but it's in our hearts. Let Jesus be our bread, and water. Jesus tells us not to labor for food that perishes but for food that endures for eternity. Jesus goes on to say that how we "work" for that eternal food, is just to believe in Him. That's it. So we have two choices: we can labor for food that perishes, OR we can believe and receive eternal lasting food. God began to remind me again, that's it's when our bellies are full that we forget Him, not when we are hungry. In the OT God says it was when the Israelites were full and blessed that they began to forget God and take pride in their own strength. My prayer is that God would keep us NEEDY! Again that Jesus would be our only bread, and that we wouldn't get distracted by all the other things that are crying out for our attention and affection. I would encourage all of us to begin this week, to ask God to be our Bread. Begin to look at your life and ask, what things, events, ministries, etc am I using to satisfy my need for Jesus? Are we looking at the gifts more than the Giver? God gives us gifts so we can focus our worship on the Giver, not on the gifts. These are just a few questions that can lead our hearts to begin to treasure Jesus as our Bread, and our water.

Here's the message if you want to listen to it: