I am really glad my mother told me the things that she did. Whenever I am lucky enough to get a quiet moment, I fondly think of her and the memories she shared.
Mother came from a large family and she often talked about the amount of bread my grandmother baked to keep that family going strong.
Whenever I think of that I can almost smell the aroma of freshly baked bread.
There is simply no other smell like it. It is perhaps my favorite aroma in the world.
There is a restaurant near my place of business that serves excellent coffee. They also have their own bakery. Many times I have walked in intending to buy just a cup of coffee. More often than not I end up leaving with the coffee... and a loaf of freshly baked bread.
The thought of fresh bread with its wonderful aroma always leads me to think of bread’s role in the Bible and the references Jesus made to it.
In fact, the word bread appears over 300 times in the King James Version.
The first time bread is mentioned in the New Testament is during the temptation of Jesus.
Matthew 4:3 (KJV) - And when the tempter came to him, he said, "If thou be the Son of God, command these stones be made bread."
Jesus, of course, had a response.
Matthew 4:4 (KJV) - But He answered and said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God."
Jesus also understood our physical needs as well. This is made evident when he taught us how to pray what has come to be known as the Lord’s Prayer.
Matthew 6:11 (KJV) - Give us this day our daily bread.
Also in the book of Matthew is the account of the Lord’s Supper in which bread plays a very important role.
Matthew 26:26 (KJV) - And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat. This is my body.
Along with this verse, there is another in which Jesus refers to himself as "the bread of life".
John 6:35 (KJV) - And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
I love that reference.
Just as the smell of bread always make me hungry, the thought of Jesus being the bread of life makes me hunger for both Jesus and the eternal life he offers.
The smell of baking bread doesn't just effect me. It has a similar impact on those around me.
I cannot keep that aroma to myself.
In a similar way, I should share Jesus with every one I meet. That is another thing my grandmother did.
Baking bread to feed her large family was far from the only thing she did well.
She also knew how to share the "bread of life" with everyone even if she just met them.
I adore the way she did it.
She would walk right up to them and ask, "Do you know my Jesus?"
I love those words, "my Jesus".
Those two words let everyone know that she had a deep and personal relationship with her savior and that they could have that kind of relationship with Him as well.
I cannot bake bread like my grandmother did.
But I can share the "bread of life" exactly like she did.
So I ask, "Do you know my Jesus?"
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeet.byethost3.com on Friday, June 10, 2011.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, June 17, 2011.
(Schedule subject to change)
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Step into the Light
One of the hobbies I enjoy is photography.
One of the keys to successful photography is understanding the interplay between light and shadow.
I was thinking about that the other day when my thoughts turned to light itself.
It is because of light or rather the specific wavelengths of light that we are able to differentiate colors.
Light from the sun, or white light, is composed of all the different colors of light.
This is made evident when the sun’s light beams are refracted by raindrops Light of different wavelengths are separated into bands of color called rainbows.
When light from the sun shines on an object like a fire engine, the paint absorbs all the colors except red and what we see is the red light reflected from the paint.
Similarly, when sunlight shines on a yellow taxi, the taxi’s paint absorbs all the colors except for yellow. Again, what we see is the yellow light reflected from its paint.
If we want to be more accurate, what we should say is that the fire engine is non-red and that the taxi is non-yellow because each reflects, or rejects, the color we commonly associate with each.
That is kind of the way it is when we examine ourselves in the light of our own reasoning.
We can refer to ourselves as righteous.
But are we really?
Not according to the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 64:6 (KJV) - But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away.
We can even claim that we never sin.
But are we truly without sin.
Not according to the apostle Paul.
Romans 3:23 (KJV) - For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Just as red reflects from a fire engine or yellow reflects from a taxi, our shortcomings reflect in an obvious way when we subject them to the light of scripture.
Yet, we are not without hope.
There is a light not of our own which we can count on.
John 8:12 (KJV) - Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
That is really good new for us.
The light that is Jesus shines brightly.
That light does not merely hide our sins, it removes them completely.
John 1:29 (KJV) - The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
So how do you overcome sin and unrighteousness.
Simple.
Step into the Light...
... and believe!
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeet.byethost3.com on Friday, May 20, 2011.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, May 27, 2011.
One of the keys to successful photography is understanding the interplay between light and shadow.
I was thinking about that the other day when my thoughts turned to light itself.
It is because of light or rather the specific wavelengths of light that we are able to differentiate colors.
Light from the sun, or white light, is composed of all the different colors of light.
This is made evident when the sun’s light beams are refracted by raindrops Light of different wavelengths are separated into bands of color called rainbows.
When light from the sun shines on an object like a fire engine, the paint absorbs all the colors except red and what we see is the red light reflected from the paint.
Similarly, when sunlight shines on a yellow taxi, the taxi’s paint absorbs all the colors except for yellow. Again, what we see is the yellow light reflected from its paint.
If we want to be more accurate, what we should say is that the fire engine is non-red and that the taxi is non-yellow because each reflects, or rejects, the color we commonly associate with each.
That is kind of the way it is when we examine ourselves in the light of our own reasoning.
We can refer to ourselves as righteous.
But are we really?
Not according to the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 64:6 (KJV) - But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away.
We can even claim that we never sin.
But are we truly without sin.
Not according to the apostle Paul.
Romans 3:23 (KJV) - For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Just as red reflects from a fire engine or yellow reflects from a taxi, our shortcomings reflect in an obvious way when we subject them to the light of scripture.
Yet, we are not without hope.
There is a light not of our own which we can count on.
John 8:12 (KJV) - Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
That is really good new for us.
The light that is Jesus shines brightly.
That light does not merely hide our sins, it removes them completely.
John 1:29 (KJV) - The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
So how do you overcome sin and unrighteousness.
Simple.
Step into the Light...
... and believe!
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
Look for me at http://faithfulfeet.byethost3.com on Friday, May 20, 2011.
Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!
I’ll be back here on Friday, May 27, 2011.
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