BibleScribbler

Coffee, a Bible, and a Napkin to Scribble On

Jesus Is [like] the Bread and Water of Life

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I just read in the Catholic Encyclopedia that only wheat bread is allowed for communion. It specifically says NOT barley bread. Heh. How about that, with what we read that the feeding of the 5,000 was most likely barley bread?!

On that same vein, it makes another comment about Jesus miraculously turning the wine into His blood before they drank it. If this were the case, they would have all drank blood at the Last Supper which would have been the first time anything like that had ever happened in Judaism, but a common practice in paganism. When Jesus said, “I won’t drink the fruit of the vine again until the kingdom comes,” then what was He talking about?

They made the same mistake w/ Eucharisto that Nicodemas made w/ being born again.

John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

See the parable:

Whoever comes to Jesus will have their needs met IN HIM, and whoever believes in Him will never lack the most necessary thing to all life. You can go well over a month without food, but you can only go about 3 days without water. In Jesus even our most basic needs for REAL life are met (and a lot of our needs for the life we see are met too).

 

Leftovers and the Tithe

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I was just reading Rick’s notes on John 6.1-13 and the recurring theme of God giving in abundance and there being leftovers comes up over and over again. When Jesus handed out the bread, there were leftovers, when He turned the water into wine, I HOPE there were leftovers!, when they caught all of the fish, there were so many the nets began to break…So I’m left thinking…where are my leftovers? It’s sad to say but that was my first reaction. Then my neck was a little sore and I looked around (heh, my stiff neck, Ex. 32.9) and I see all of the stuff we have at our house. My sons have robots! I have 2 nice cameras (still and motion) There are appliances, furnishings, conveniences, lavishings!

I think I’ve spent all of my leftovers on myself. If you add in credit cards, I’ve even spent FUTURE leftovers on myself!

Which makes me want to start giving even more.

Any of the Christian budgeting theories and books and manuals and videos will tell you in your budget to factor in your income, then take 10% off of that for your tithe, and then make your monthly budget. They get the 10% from the present-day teaching that Jews used to give 10% of their income to God. (often thought of as a donation to the temple, but it really wasn’t) Check out this link http://www.acts17-11.com/dialogs_tithe.html I just came across looking for the OT reference.

So instead of arguing the case for giving vs. titheing, I’m just going to post the above link and move on.

When I lived in Asia, I didn’t really have an income. I had a balance of money, and every month I would ask for whatever I wanted that month and I would get it. I also was really convicted by this teaching of Jesus in Luke 6.30 & 34. I wasn’t 100% at it, but I did loan out a lot of things that I would have never considered loaning before. Now if I kept track of what I gave away or loaned out to make sure I stayed at 10%, where would my joy be? And how many times did I meet beggar kids and signal them to hide from the grocery store security guards while I bought them bags of groceries, and keep track of how much I spent on them? Honestly, I did that as much as I kept track of all of the people that would write us a kind note via email and then drop $100 into our account.

A lot of the churches in my neighborhood preach the message that ‚Äúyou can’t out-give God‚Äù and I would say that is correct. He is continually out-giving us, and just as He keeps no account of His mercy or our sin, I think He would appreciate us freely giving out what we freely have received. I think they are going to have some regrets when they have to give an account for taking money “given to God” and buying Cadillacs and gold rings, which is why I’m going to spend today looking to see how I can give away my leftovers…but not starting with my sons’ robots.

I turned on the radio…

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I turned on the radio long enough to hear an advertisement for a tape series on how to live a Biblically based world view, and I thought wow! Is that the goal now? And, turned off my radio.

Isn’t that what the Pharisees that crucified Jesus were working on?!

Disturbing Church

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During the most important part of the church service, the background music played is an anthem to their country. Pictures of their military are shown, some even with guns in hand, while the congregation meditates on the Eucharist-the body and blood of Jesus who said “blessed are the peacemakers.” At the end, the men’s choir who is usually brought in to sing the most stirring and powerful songs about the saving power of the Gospel puts words to the same song played earlier, singing about God’s favor for the country and the men that fought in bloody wars to keep it ‘free’. The final moments of the song were punctuated with video of huge guns being shot off and cheers from the congregation.

This is not a tale from some state-controlled church in a third world military dictatorship. This is from my church in Indiana, and to all of my non-american friends I say I am so sorry.