January 14, 2008
One of the things I
love about this ministry is the openness and personal accountability of these
dear ones to hold me accountable to fresh and new revelation. My wife and one of
the team members were concerned and spoke to me about using excerpts from my
books instead of fresh downloads from the Lord for the devotionals last week.
This presses me into a
spot to get with the Lord and to hear daily and clearly for the daily bread of
which only he can give!
It is a
challenge to write a devotional 5 days out of the week, and "Praise
the Lord" for when one of the ministry team steps in with their fresh manna
and helps me.
The Lord has always
been concerned with His people receiving fresh manna...Daily!
As a young boy, I can
still remember my grandmothers cooking and especially the days she made fresh
bread.
To me there is
something about the smell of fresh baked bread that implies comfort and says,
"you’re home." I remember the smell of fresh baked bread in the
house when I would come home from school. I love the smell of a bakery when you
first walk in the door.
Freshly baked bread,
still warm from the oven with butter and molasses or jam on it. Freshly baked
biscuits with soup or chili. A warmed flat bread rolled around on some
fresh vegetables.
I know I’m not alone. Many people have talked about the smell of fresh bread being very appealing.
Where we live in the Philippines is right across from a bakery and every morning I would hear the doors roll at 5 am and the smells brought back wonderful memories, as well as good "pan de sal" for the morning.
Bread is a staple of
life in most of the world. It can be made of a wide variety of grains, with or
without the use of a leavening agent, and come in shapes and sizes that boggle
my imagination.
We ask the Lord to
provide it (and our other daily needs) when we recite the Lord’s Prayer. Satan
tempted Jesus with it in the desert. We use some form of it in communion.
We recognize it as
something fundamental to who we are. It’s no wonder Jesus used it as a
metaphor for himself.
I am the bread of
life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is
the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the
living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will
live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world. John 6:48-51
We have a deep need to
experience the bread of life. Many people try to fill that hunger with the
things of this world: possessions; power; sex; money; substance abuse; and the
list goes on and on. Instead of filling our selves with the Bread of Life, we
try to fill with spiritual junk food.
The junk food may
satisfy for a while, but it never really satiates the hunger. We eat until
we’re stuffed but in a half hour we want more again.
What have you been
feeding your spirit of late?
Until next time, may
the junk food be left untouched and your life filled with the Bread of Life.
Darrel
Mason