OUR DAILY BREAD

Christianity can be condensed into four words: Admit, Submit, Commit and Transmit. -Samuel Wilberforce

OUR DAILY BREAD

A Feast of Love
I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
John 6:51
READ JOHN 6:47–59
In the Danish film Babette’s Feast, a French refugee appears in a coastal village. Two elderly sisters, leaders of the community’s religious life, take her in, and for fourteen years Babette works as their housekeeper. When Babette comes into a large sum of money, she invites the congregation of twelve to join her for an extravagant French meal of caviar, quail in puff pastry, and more.
As they move from one course to the next, the guests relax; some find forgiveness, some find love rekindled, and some begin recalling miracles they’d witnessed and truths they’d learned in childhood. “Remember what we were taught?” they say. “Little children, love one another.” When the meal ends, Babette reveals to the sisters that she spent all she had on the food. She gave everything—including any chance of returning to her old life as an acclaimed chef in Paris—so that her friends, eating, might feel their hearts open.
Jesus appeared on earth as a stranger and servant, and He gave everything so that our spiritual hunger might be satisfied. In John’s gospel, He reminds His listeners that when their ancestors wandered hungry in the wilderness, God provided quail and bread (Exodus 16). That food satisfied for a time, but Jesus promises that those who accept Him as the “bread of life” will “live forever” (John 6:48, 51). His sacrifice satisfies our spiritual cravings.
By Amy Peterson
REFLECT & PRAY
Jesus, thank You for giving Your body and blood for us.
How has God satisfied your hunger? What might it look like for you to give sacrificially?
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Of all the “signs” (miracles) Jesus performed, John only records seven that point to Jesus as God’s Son (John 20:30-31). The miracle of the multiplication of the fish and loaves in 6:1-14 is one of those. (It also appears in the other gospels—Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17.) The additional miracles John includes are changing water into wine (2:1-11), healing the official’s son (4:46-54), healing the paralyzed man (5:1-15), walking on water (6:16-21), healing the man born blind (9:1-7), and raising Lazarus from the dead (11:1-45). Arthur Jackson

NOT FORGOTTEN-Thank You, Lord, that I am Yours forever!

Christianity can be condensed into four words: Admit, Submit, Commit and Transmit. -Samuel Wilberforce

Not Forgotten

 

Read: Isaiah 49:13-21

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹³ Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.

God Will Remember Zion

¹⁴ But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.”
¹⁵ “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
¹⁷ Your sons[a] shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
¹⁸ Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,” says the Lord,
“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.

¹⁹ “For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰ The children you will have,
After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.’
²¹ Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?’”

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I will not forget you! Isaiah 49:15 

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁵ “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.

At her mother’s 50th birthday celebration with hundreds of people present, firstborn daughter Kukua recounted what her mother had done for her. The times were hard, Kukua remembered, and funds were scarce in the home. But her single mother deprived herself of personal comfort, selling her precious jewelry and other possessions in order to put Kukua through high school. With tears in her eyes, Kukua said that no matter how difficult things were, her mother never abandoned her or her siblings.

God compared His love for His people with a mother’s love for her child. When the people of Israel felt abandoned by God during their exile, they complained: “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me” (Isa. 49:14). But God said, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (v. 15).

Thank You, Lord, that I am Yours forever.

When we are distressed or disillusioned, we may feel abandoned by society, family, and friends, but God does not abandon us. It is a great encouragement that the Lord says, “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (v. 16) to indicate how much He knows and protects us. Even if people forsake us, God will never forsake His own.

Thank You, Lord, that I am Yours forever. I’m thankful that I won’t have to walk through any experience alone.

God never forgets us.

INSIGHT:The love of a mother for her newborn child serves as a powerful symbol of God’s love for us. Life has its inevitable painful surprises and upsets, and we can sometimes be tempted to doubt the goodness, protection, and provision of the God who has redeemed us. But as this wonderful Bible passage shows, our heavenly Father could no more forget about us than a nursing mother can turn her back on her child. The example of faithful parental care can serve as a reminder of God’s never-ending love. 

By Lawrence Darmani https://odb.org/author/lawrencedarmani/

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE ?

Too Good To Be True?

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April 24, 2011 — by David C. McCasland

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Our Daily Bread Radio is hosted by Les Lamborn

Read: Luke 24:1-12

Their words seemed to [the disciples] like idle tales, and they did not believe them. —Luke 24:11

Bible in a year:
2 Samuel 19-20; Luke 18:1-23

In the 1980s, John Knoll and his brother Thomas began experimenting with a computer program to manipulate images. Software companies thought they were crazy, because photographers didn’t use computers at that time. Initially the brothers called their program Display, then Imaginator, and finally they settled on Photoshop®. Today Photoshop® is used by amateurs at home and professionals in business around the world. A San Jose Mercury News article noted its place in popular language. When something looks too good to be true, people say, “It must have been Photoshopped.”

On the first Easter morning, the women who took spices to anoint the body of Jesus found the tomb empty and heard angels say, “He is not here, but is risen!” (Luke 24:6). When the women told this to the disciples, “Their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them” (v.11). Nonsense! Mind-boggling! Too good to be true!

If someone manipulated the evidence, then millions of people around the world gather today to celebrate a myth. But if Jesus conquered death, then all He said about forgiveness, power to change, and eternal life is real.

Because Christ has risen and lives today, this news is too good not to be true!

Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes;
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign. —Lowry

The resurrection is a fact of history
that demands a response of faith.

OUR DAILY BREAD

There’s An “App” For That

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October 2, 2010 — by Dave Branon

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Our Daily Bread Radio is hosted by Les Lamborn

Read: Ephesians 5:1-7

Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge. —Proverbs 23:12

Bible in a year:
Isaiah 14-16; Ephesians 5:1-16

Remember when phones were for making phone calls? With the advent of the smart phone, what was once a way to talk to someone has become a storehouse of data. Add cell-phone applications (computer programs) to that, and you can read sports reports, play games, plan trips, find an apartment—or any of well over 100,000 other tasks available with an “app.”

That’s pretty amazing, but the “apps” for phones are nothing compared with the kind of “apps” Scripture gives us. The “applications” of the Bible are direct notes from God telling us how toapply the truth of His Word to all of life.

Take Philippians 2, for instance: The unity app (2:2), the humility app (2:3), the no-grumbling app (2:14), the shine-as-lights app (2:15). Or look at the apps of Ephesians 5: The imitate-God app (5:1), the walk-in-love app (5:2), the purity app (5:3), the tongue app (5:4). And the book of Proverbs? It’s teeming with applications.

You don’t have to wait for someone to offer these on the Internet. Just open the Bible and see the hundreds of ways to apply Scripture in your life. Got a question about the Christian life? Search the Bible. The answers are there, waiting to be discovered.

Cling to the Bible; this jewel and treasure
Brings life eternal and saves fallen man;
Surely its value no mortal can measure;
Seek for its blessing, O soul, while you can. —Smith

The Bible has treasures of wisdom for you—read it and apply it!

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