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).

 

to sleepy to post

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I’m sitting here doing my thing where I fall asleep w/ the computer in my lap!

I need to follow up on yesterday’s post. Somebody bought my whole family lunch today. Then, in the evening we had a knock at the door, and it was one of our neighbor friends. Every few nights he rides his bike around our park at breakneck speeds for exercise. Whenever we see him and we have the chance, we run out in the front yard and chant “Go, Steve, Go!” over and over again and he laughs. Tonight he showed up with coupons for free ice cream! Hooray.

The coolest part? When he told the lady at Ritzy’s what he was doing, she gave him the coupons for free!

Please pray for God’s Kingdom to come in many ways whenever you read this. I have had several friends posts need for prayer and help today in various places (facebook and emails). It is enough that I prayed earlier, “God, there is so much intense serious stuff to pray for, can I just moan and groan and you’ll go through the list yourself?!”

Never Hungry or Thirsty

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Jesus said that whoever would come to him would not hunger and that whoever believes in Him will not thirst. It seems so crazy and wild to me that Jesus really does provide for us everything we need. Can that really be?

I’m a little distracted tonight. Someone gave me a Big Green Egg smoker. As in the big time deluxe smoke-a-20-pound-turkey-smoker. I‚Äôm going to keep it out back on my porch that my church built for me. Next to the gas grill that someone gave me. Hopefully pretty soon we‚Äôll have the gazebo up that some people gave us so we can sit under it in the back yard and cook some food. Maybe some of the several pounds of meat that some friends brought by as an out of nowhere present the other night, before they went to play on the brand new playground they just built in our park. You know, the park that helped us realize we didn‚Äôt need YMCA memberships because we could run/jog/play/climb in our park whenever we wanted.

So now I’d better go to bed. We have some friends in from out of town so we let them sleep on our bed, which was a gift, while the Sullies sleep downstairs in the living room, which a bunch of high-school kids painted. I get to sleep on the couch which someone gave to me. I hope I sleep well, because I get to meet the guys for donuts in the morning and I still have some money on my donut bank gift card that I got for my birthday.

I won’t ride my bike tomorrow though. I’m meeting my wife for lunch so I’ll have to take the Camry-which someone gave me.

Thanks Jesus.

The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

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John 6.3-5
 Jesus is sitting w/ His disciples, away from the crowds, but He can see that the crowds are coming. He looks out over them and doesn’t ask “Should we feed these people?” but instead, “Where do we get their bread?”

I love that. Jesus isn’t waiting for the people to come and beg. None of the people are actually expecting anything like this from Him. (later in chapter 6 they will, but so far they don’t)

The Father looks for ways to care for people. Jesus did not make 8,000 pounds of bread for the disciples and then say, “who can we give these leftovers too…I know! Those 5,000 people over there!” He made the bread and the fish for the people first.

When the manna came down from heaven, it was an answer to the people’s grumbling against God and they had to prepare it. This time it isn’t an answer to anything, it is motivated by Jesus and it’s already prepared for them.

I can’t help but see some parallels with this and the Law and Grace. Manna and The Law came from grumbling to help the people to see the Holiness of God. It required work to be received and could spoil. The Grace of God in Jesus came even though we weren’t seeking or expecting Him. All of the work was already done by Jesus on the cross, and the bread of life and salvation was brought to us, prepared and ready to take in. This grace was not something that would spoil or fade, but be in such abundance for us that there would be grace left over to share in other places at a later date.