Bread of Heaven

During the Christmas holidays while decorating and preparing for family to arrive, I was singing to myself the carol, "Breath of Heaven". Instead of singing "breath" I found myself singing "bread". The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, "Jesus is the Bread of Heaven". I know that the Bible speaks of Him being the Bread of Heaven, but I want to understand better what that means. In John 6:51, Jesus said, "I am this living bread that came down from heaven". In John 6:48 He said, "I am the Bread of life...this is the Bread that came down from heaven...". In Jn. 6:22-35 Jesus addressed the fact that the people were wanting Him to perform a miracle. He said that God provided the miracle manna (or bread from heaven for daily food) in the wilderness for the Israelites, but now He is the daily provision. Because of His claim, the Jews were finding fault with Him. (Jn 6:53-60) Even His disciples were complaining about this concept. In vs 64, Jesus rebuked them. He told them to trust in Him, have faith, and to dwell continually with Him. If we do, He promises that we will have eternal life (6:54-58). He is our Portion (Heb.-allotment; inheritance; part). He is all we need. He should be our all in all. If we have Him, we have everything! In John 6:57 Jesus sums up the true meaning of this claim, "Just as the Living Father sent Me and I live by (through and because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me (whoever takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me) shall live through and because of Me". What a great privilege! What hope, joy, and peace! Nothing else in this world compares!

The Season of Hope

Everything about the Christmas story involves hope. Hope is a joyful and expectant outcome. It is heartening, being optomistic about the future, and encouraging. In Christ we have hope for our eternal home in heaven. We hope for God's promises. Yesterday I was meditating on hope, what it means Biblically, and this definition came to my mind. Hope is believing that your efforts and or someone elses' will make a difference for a favorable outcome in an unfavorable situation. God is faithful. What He says will happen, will! So many times I become disillusioned and disappointed when I am trusting God for a favorable outcome. Things begin to look like I'm not going to experience God's goodness. Many times I've found that I have had a preconcieved idea of what the outcome should be and I haven't trusted in His faithfulness to work it all out (Romans 8:28). I have jumped to erroneous conclusions. I then begin to fear, become angry, and frustrated. Why??? God has never failed me yet! Why do I, after 30 years of seeing His faithfulness over and over, still doubt that He'll come through for me somehow? Thank God for His mercy!! But for the input of His Word and the precious Holy Spirit in my life, there go I as the Israelites in the wilderness. They jumped to wrong conclusions about God even after they saw the great miracles He did. Many were destroyed because of it (1 Corinthians 10:1-13). As I watched a video about Mary re: the angelic visitation, facing Joseph, her friends, relatives and being single and pregnant, the journey to Bethlehem and all of the hardships she faced, I began to sob. Even though she was carrying the Son of God, she had to go through all of these things? She did and yet she was faithful. God knew that she would be and that is why He chose her (Luke 1:28;30). It's pretty awesome what God did when He sent His only Son into the world. The ways in which He chooses to do things don't make sense to our natural mind (Rom. 8:5-9), but God in His wisdom remains victorious! Let us have our hope restored this Christmas. I want to trust God like never before regardless of how I think He should do things. I know that I will see His goodness after all! (Psalms 27:13-14) "What would have become of me had I not believed that I would see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living. Wait and hope for and expect the be brave and of good courage, and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait and hope for and expect the Lord."

Far as the curse is found...

Looking at the world around me lately and experiencing some stress and troubles of my own, I have had to acknowledge quite often the fact that the Lord Jesus purchased my freedom from the curse in this world (Galatians 3:13). Jesus came into this world, lived a sinless life, and died a cruel death on the cross so that we Christians could live a blessed life (Gal. 5:14). That life in Christ includes sonship, healing, provision, and the list goes on and on (Psalms 103:2; Gal. 3:26). Thank You Jesus!! But, only as we believe and accept what He did for us, will the blessing be invoked. Doubt and ignorance inhibits the blessing. We must be aware of the blessing and accept it by faith (Greek trans.-trusting in;adhering to; being loyal). That includes communing with Him and obedience because good works won't help matters. The anwer is living by faith in Christ daily(Gal.5:11;18). We must remember His promise. The promise is for the seed of Christ, and for Christians who accept His promise by faith (Gal.3:16). God gave the Law which allowed for some degree of blessing as long as it was kept (Gal.3:19-26). Under the New Covenant, when we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29). This Christmas season, let's remember what Jesus did for us. Let's remember that our Father in Heaven sent His only Son for us! I am reminded of that wonderful Christmas carol, "Joy to the World". The line says, "He has come to make His blessings known, far as the curse is found...". His Christmas gift to us was so costly and precious! This Christmas, let our gift to Him be our gratitude and all of our love. Let this Christmas gift to Him be His everyday, all year long and throughout eternity.

BELIEVE

I see this word "Believe" in the stores on the beautiful Christmas decorations. What does it mean? Believe in God? Believe in Santa? We should believe, but we must believe in God. Read the account of the angelic visitation Mary experienced in Luke 1. Mary, the mother of Jesus asked the question, "How can this be?", when told that she would have a son. Because she was a virgin she asked the angel Gabriel to explain. Gabriel graciously proceeded to try and explain that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, overshadow her, she would have a child, and to name Him Jesus. He went on to say that the "holy Thing which will be born will be the Son of God". Sounds like a fiction movie! This was real however. Well, imagine what this kind of super-natural salutation might have been like. Although the angel greeted her with kind and favorable words, he had to encourage her to not be afraid. The Bible says that she was disturbed and confused. She managed to calm herself enough to ask him the question, "How can this be?" Did the angel give an understandable explanation? Not really. She accepted his response and believed that God's will would be done... somehow. In the face of insurmountable odds, when God presents to us His promises and His will for our life, we must believe that He will accomplish it, somehow. We must be like Mary in that she believed God's word for her life. She was trusted and obeyed. We must follow her example to trust and obey regardless of the circumstances we see. God has a good plan. May we BELIEVE GOD this season and see the fulfillment of His amazing plans He has for us! As the angels proclaimed to the shepherds in the fields, "Fear not...Glory to God in the Highest, peace on earth, and good will toward men!"

Grace and peace be to you!

Fear is all around us! Granted, the instability in the financial world, the politcal changes and challenges we are experiencing tend to shake up any hope for the future one might have! Stress and anxiety regarding the times we live in are taking a toll on us. How do we overcome and not be taken captive to fear and dread? In Isaiah 8 we find hidden nuggets of truth that will give us the way of escape from the paralyzing fear in the world today. In Isaiah 8:10-22;9;1-7, God reveals the fact that the enemy has fearful plans for God's people, but the plans won't come to pass if God (Emmanuel) is with us (vs.10). God warns that we do not become obsessed with conspiracy theories and fear what these people are fearing (vs.11-12). Don't consult others or look to the earth (vs. 19-22). ONLY let the Lord be your fear and dread. Regard Him as your hope (vs.13). God instructs us to let Him be our sanctuary (refuge) (vs14). Look for and hope in the Lord (vs. 17). Why? Because we and our children the Lord has given us are for signs and wonders from the Lord of Hosts WHO dwells in Mt. Zion (vs. 18). When we are at peace and delivered, others will be amazed at God's presence in our lives. Mt. Zion is a symbol of God's presence signifying safety and protection. The Lord of Hosts is a divine title associated with the sanctuary of Shiloh signifying might and power commonly found in military and apocalyptic contexts> (from the Illustrated Dictionary and Concordance of the Bible). He is our Messiah, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this (9:6-7). Grace and peace be to you! (Phillippians 1:2)

MOST blessed is this person...

Why are some people more blessed than others? The answers are in the Bible, bottom line. Although we must not judge others with regard to the conditions set forth, we need to evaluate our life and be humble to align ourselves to the conditions as necessary, for the glory of God. Where ever we are in life, God can bless us in the midst of our circumstances and bring us out of the pit of hopelessness, IF we let Him. God paid a huge price to receive us into His family with all of the benefits! Let's partake and enjoy! Sometimes we Christians go through tests and trials. Sometimes the devil throws a punch below the belt when we are not looking. We are all at different places in our journey. But over all our lives should attest to the abundant provision and goodness God has for us, His children>(John 10:10). We should always be able to attest to the faithfulness and goodness of God. This passage in Jeremiah 17:7-8, explains that a person who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence is in Him, is MOST BLESSED! He will be like a tree planted by the river. Will not fear or even see when drought comes (or difficult times that could destroy the tree if it depended on the external conditions). The tree will look and be alive! It will not cease bearing fruit. How? It's nourishment comes from within-not from the outward circumstances. Our inward life with the Holy Spirit is where we will receive the nourishment we need for living the abundant life Christ came to give us. I'm on that blessed journey! How about you? God has already blessed me so very much! During this season of thanksgiving, let's keep in mind how blessed we truly are, and let it be a fresh committment for the rest of our lives!

God wants to harden us to difficulties!

(Isaiah 41:1-11 Ref.) When I first read this passage in the Amplified Bible, I saw in a new light how God is on my side. We need to draw near to Him in difficult times. Regretfully, instead of crying out to God, the difficulties tend to embitter us and we turn from Him, from His love, and His plan for us. We need to see that our adversary is the devil, not God! He says that He will deliver us as we trust in Him. In vs. 1 God asks His people to come together to renew their strength in His presence and to discuss with Him the strategy needed to defeat our enemy! We need to seek Him and get His counsel regarding our challenge. We need to know what the commander in chief wants us to do! (vs 2)> God roused up Cyrus ( a type of Christ-minded, faith filled Christian) whom He called to serve Him in righteousness and who met victory at every step. (Vs 3)> we see that Cyrus subdued ungodly nations and pursued the enemy swiftly, unhindered, and safely. The Lord has done this and is calling forth and guiding the destinies of nations. (Vs 5-10)> the whole earth will see it and will fear. The ungodly will try to encourage one another in their vain and futile attempts to trust in their gods. BUT, God has chosen us, His servants, the offspring of Abraham (father of faith) whom He has taken from the ends of the earth. He has not cast us off! He is instructing us to not fear or be in terror or be dismayed. HE IS OUR GOD! He promises to strengthen us, and harden us against difficulties. We can't quit! He WILL hold us up with His victorious right hand of rightness and justice. Vs 11>BEHOLD, all who fight against us and hate us will be put to shame and be confounded. They will be as NOTHING and SHALL PERISH! Wow! What blessed assurance! Believe it! I do! We have the VICTORY!