What Kind of Bread?

"In John 6, Jesus says, 'I am the bread of life.' Ask yourself this question: Which bread do I hunger for? What kind of bread do I really want to feed on? I'm not saying that physical things are of no consequence or that we should not seek to improve our lives (marriages, jobs, churches, families, etc.), but I think that we can miss the point. We too can see the miracles and miss the sign. We can rejoice over jobs given, friendships restored, homes supplied, and bills paid and fail to hunger for the spiritual blessings that physical provisions represent. We can be like the people who pursued Jesus only to keep their stomachs full. They didn't really want him as their King. They wanted him to be their Great Waiter, dedicated to keeping them physically satisfied.

"Many of us come to Jesus today because we are holding onto our dream and we want Jesus to somehow help us get it. If we are honest, we would have to admit that this is all we really want from him. And if we don't get it, we are miserably disappointed.

"If we are living for earthly bread and see it as our source of life, we are going to be in big trouble when we don't have it. But if we are living for spiritual bread, for a deeper communion with Jesus Christ, then our lives (with all of their problems) become wonderful places to know and grow in fellowship with the One who is life. We will live out this pursuit of the true Bread in the bedrooms, kitchens, job sites, neighborhoods, and hallways of life. And this will have implications for our communication.

"When you have a community of people (family, friends, body of Christ) who are committed to Christ, long to know him better, and want their lives to express praise, worship, and glory to him, their talk will be affected. Their words will encourage and strengthen, and they will experience unity and an intimacy of fellowship that the world doesn't know. When we let go of our personal dreams and expectations, we can experience the unity of the Spirit we have been given as the children of God."

War of Words, pps. 95-96