Not by Bread Alone

Deuteronomy8: 1-10

Although bread is not a mainstay for Western culture, it was a life line for Eastern cultures at the time of Jesus’ ministry. Grain was the life-sustaining food staple. Without bread there was no life.

Daily bread-life (manna) was God’s provision, sustaining the Israelites forty years in the Sinai Desert. Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the Father, “give us this day our daily bread.” 

Jesus knew our spirits needed to be  nourished as well as our bodies.  He knew we would fail without His offering to become our bread of life, broken in sacrificial death on the cross. 

His Spirit within us, the living Word is our spiritual nourishment.  We store His Word in our hearts as we would store food in times of famine. Psalm 119:11

As disciples of Jesus proclaiming the Gospel, we share His bread-life and the cost of brokenness that becomes seed for the eternal harvest.

"God has made me bread for His elect, and if it be needful that the bread must be ground in the teeth of the lion to feed His children, blessed be the name of the Lord."  Ignatius of Antioch - (martyred 117 AD)

Back of the loaf is the snowy flour;

Back of the flour, the mill,

Back of the mill is the wheat and the sower,

And the sun,

And the Father's will.