06/19/2022
We are like the grain that becomes the bread, the body of Christ. We haven’t always been bread. We start as a seed, then a sprout, a seedling, a flowering stalk, a waving head, then the mature grain that is harvested, threshed, gathered, and finally ground by a mill into flour. Our life in the field might seem calm and glorious, but unless we are cut, threshed, and ground, we aren’t suitable for God’s purposes… to become the bread of life. Then, and only then, are we baked, and finally broken to be shared with the many… asking only that they remember all that has led us to this moment. Are we ready to be sowed in the field? How about ground by the mill?
“For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.””
1 Corinthians 11:23-24 NLT
Yes, Jesus is the living bread from heaven, and we are meant to offer ourselves in much the same way to the lost, and dying, souls of the world today. He was naturally born of woman, grew as every child grows, raised up to be an immature head, and once He was mature, he was harvested, threshed, and crushed into flour… then made to be the living bread of eternity, and broken into pieces for all to consume.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.””
John 6:51 NLT
It is only natural that we would not desire to endure the suffering that comes from the harvest, the threshing, and the milling, that is necessary so that we might become bread, but this suffering lasts only a minute as compared to the eternity we are destined to spend in God’s presence. Although we are threshed we are not pulverized, and once we are made into flour, the Lord stops the mill, and we are are at last mixed with water, kneaded by His strong hands, and formed into a loaf.
“Grain for bread is easily crushed, so he doesn’t keep on pounding it. He threshes it under the wheels of a cart, but he doesn’t pulverize it.”
Isaiah 28:28 NLT
Despite the prior suffering, oh how glorious is the golden loaf that saves souls. To be sent out into the world to tell the nations of Jesus, to offer Him in remembrance as our first loaf that was broken for all of us to eat… then, almost as if by a miracle, we come to find that we too have become golden loaves that were likewise raised, prepared, and are now being used by God for His many purposes.
“Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””
Matthew 28:20 NLT
Are we consuming the body of Jesus, and remembering Him as we should? Do we long for the broken bread that holds within its smallest crumb, the enormity of eternity… life everlasting? Have we, by our obedience, sought to become bread, and deliver the good news of Christ’s redeeming blood, and the living nature of His body?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for inviting us to your table, and for the bread of life that is served there. Thank you for planting us as seeds, and raising us up to become spiritual nourishment for others… loaves of golden brown; ready to be broken, and offered abroad. Help us Lord, send us angels to strengthen us, as we suffer the scythe, the winnowing fork, and the mill stone. Mix and knead us into perfect loaves Father, then offer us up as remembrances of Jesus as we feed His gospel to the lost. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God, and the master baker of living bread. Praised be your name for every tiny crumb that falls from your table and gives life to those waiting for it there. Merciful are you to reward every seeker, even the least of us, as we search out our salvation in fear and trembling. Some of us are like a school of hungry fish as we dart in desperation at your gunnel to consume every tiny shrimp that slips back into the sea, and some of us are like the sick, and dying that are too weak to compete for scraps, and which you mercifully feed by hand until we are strong, and robust enough, in our faith to eat on our own. Wash us all, great and small, with the blood of Jesus, and cleanse us of our sin. Retrieve each of us from the threshing room floor, and find us worthy of the mill, and to be baked into a loaf for your table. Make us into living bread… eternity in every crumb, and broken by your grace for all to partake of.
Rich Forbes