Hey Everybody,

This week I’m continuing the Family Life Series. It will be about breaking bread together with the Godhead and the bread of life which is Jesus. You can read the series intro “All in the Family” here and part 1 “Life as a Son” here.

Intro

So far we’ve established that God’s wants everybody to be part of His family and he desires they live their lives as children of God not servants. That doesn’t mean everyone will choose to partake, but that is God’s desire. It also doesn’t mean that fruit won’t come forth in your life, however the focus of your Christian life should be the root, which is your relationship with Him as your Father.

Once you get to this point, where you are persuaded of God’s nature and His thoughts towards you, it gives you the confidence to approach His throne of grace boldly. This is what He wants. It’s not arrogant, it’s actually humbling yourself to say what God says about you, rather than exalting your own opinion. He wants to remove any feelings of guilt on our part so we can enjoy hanging out with Him.  The way I see it, it’s like we are sitting at the dinner table with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoying fellowship with each other the same way a good family would.

There are many places in the Bible where it speaks about the bread of life and the seat God has placed man at. I’ll combine those things together and more in the rest of this post about breaking bread together with the Godhead and enjoying family life with the Father.

The Table You Have a Seat At

When I think of a family sitting at a table eating dinner, I think of the kids telling their parents how their day went, their triumphs, their failures, their questions, concerns, etc. The parents are listening, enjoying watching their kids experience life, telling the kids how proud they are of them and giving guidance where necessary. This gives us a picture of the type of fellowship we’ve been called into with God. The fullness of God speaks of the fellowship that the Father, Son and Spirit have with each other called love. An awesome relationship where they are expressing their love for each other and telling the others how great they are.

But if we don’t understand that we have a seat at this table, we will never experience this fellowship. This is the whole point of the Gospel…to persuade us of our right standing with him and remove any guilt we have so that we come into His presence and get to know Him. Ephesians 2 is a great chapter which talks a lot about how closely connected we are to God and our oneness with Him. Here are a few verses from that chapter:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, Eph. 2:6 NIV

 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Eph. 2:13-20 NIV.

So we see God has defined you by a risen Christ seated at the right hand of God. That is his definition of everybody. The question is can you believe it? If you’re not quite there right now it’s ok, just keep asking God about it. It’s actually not an intellectual decision you make, it happens organically from hearing the Gospel. You can’t believe you have a seat in the Godhead without the Gospel of grace because you will always look at your sins and think you are falling short. Ah, but once you get there you can enjoy some good eatin.

The Bread of Life

What kind of food is served at this table you have a seat at? The bread of life of course, which is Jesus. This is the mind of God concerning who you are and who He is. When you eat of this bread, it symbolizes that you believe it. This is what strengthens us and give us the nutrients we need to live.

It’s understandable if you’re thinking that feeding on Jesus is cannibalistic. This is the same way the people felt when Jesus proclaimed he was the bread of life in John 6. Just know that feeding on Jesus doesn’t speak of physically eating his body, but by believing on everything He did. This is what we do when we partake of communion. It’s something you don’t have to wait to do at church. You can use bread or a cracker and juice and take communion anytime you feel led to. Feeding is an ongoing continuous thing, not a one-time event. The answer to everything trying to subvert our soul is partaking of the bread of life.

I’ve mentioned this before but remember Jesus was born in a manger. These were not little wooden cribs in Jesus’ day, they were big stone structures that had straw in them because animals would eat out of it. God was telling us that this Jesus is what mankind will feed on when he was born in a manger. This Jesus will be the bread of life.

Taste & See

Psalm 34:8 says taste and see that the Lord is good. Tasting is an experience. I heard Arthur Meintjes talk about his experience with the dessert from Outback Steakhouse called the thunder down under. He said many people had told him how great the desert was, but it wasn’t until he tasted it that he understood what they were talking about.

Many have heard that the Lord is good, but they haven’t really tasted it. They haven’t experienced it. Many assume that the life they have now is better than what God wants to give them without ever giving God a chance. Some may feel they have too much to lose. Some may feel that if they let God into their life that He will send them to Africa or have them to do something they really don’t want to do. It really surprises me how many people are so reluctant to give God a chance, especially when you see the state they are in. Even if many appear to have things going “well” by the world’s standards, you can tell their life is full of stress and that they have no peace. This indicates that they either aren’t hearing the right message about God and His goodness or that their hearts have become so harden that they cannot hear the truth when it is presented to them. This is why I’m so passionate about the God Needs New PR concept. I’ve seen many people who are willing to give God a chance, but decided to turn away because of the message they were hearing. Now there will still be those who reject God no matter what message is preached, but I’m not going to let that stop me from preaching the truth. I want to reach as many as possible with the Good News Gospel of grace.

The Manna

Another example of food that God provided in the Bible was when He rained down manna for the Israelites in Exodus 16. When they saw it, they said “what is it?”, which is what manna means in Hebrew. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey (verse 31, NIV). We are told they were provided each day with enough for that day. However, if they tried to gather more than enough and store it up for later, it would become full of maggots and start to smell. The one exception was the sixth day, which they were given twice as much, so that they could rest on the Sabbath day. They ended up doing this for 40 years.

This was during their exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. They were in the desert, yet God found a way to miraculously feed them. The Bible notes that they were grumbling about the manna but God was humbling them and teaching them to rely on Him, not themselves. It’s the same kind of concept with Jesus as the bread of life…God is showing us He is our provider and that we don’t have to go out and try to provide life for ourselves. He’s reinforcing His trustworthiness.

Fasting From The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil

One more thing I want to touch on regarding eating and breaking bread would be fasting. I recently heard Bertie Brits put an interesting twist on the concept of fasting. Typically we think of fasting as going without food for a period of time. I personally think this is a good thing to do occasionally for health reasons and reminding your flesh to rely on God. I would never try to make people think it’s something we have to do though and make people feel guilty if they didn’t. Only something I would recommend if they felt led to. But as Bertie usually does, he blew my mind when he talked about fasting from a spiritual perspective.

Think about what evil is from a spiritual perspective. We tend to think of evil or sin as murder, sexual immorality, etc. Spiritually speaking evil is unbelief in God or trust in your own self to provide life. We see several places this is represented in the Bible, but one in particular that involves food is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The devil tempted Adam and Eve with the fruit from this tree, making them believe they lacked and that they were not already like God. He deceived them into thinking that God was holding out on them…that there was something they were missing out on. Of course we know this is not true but this is the belief system that Satan used to bring sin into the world. This is the belief system that we need to stay away from as Christians. It is detrimental to our life if we believe that we lack, that God is holding out on us and that we need to provide ourselves with life. It is this thinking that we need to “fast” from. #FoodForThought

Conclusion

I hope this blog encourages you to turn to Jesus and/or continue to feed on Him for your life. The law and relying on our own ability for life has repeatedly proven itself to be rotten fruit. The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expect different results. Whether you are a Christian or not, why keep eating from a tree with rotten fruit? What have you got to lose? Taste and see the goodness of God. Come sit at the table He has provided you a seat at and break bread with Him. It’s the place He has designed you to be and it’s the best place you could possibly be. He’s waiting for you. Enjoy.

Additional Scriptures

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” ~ Jesus Rev. 3:20 KJV.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:42-47 NIV