John 6: 26-69
After Jesus fed the five thousand and went back to Capernaum on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, the people He had fed followed Him, and Jesus said that they were looking for Him not to see the miracles that validated His identity, but they only came for the food.
So Jesus talks about food, the Bread of Life.
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.
So they asked what they should do, and He said to believe in Him. So they asked, "Why You?" and then quoted Scripture about Moses, that, "He gave them bread out of Heaven to eat" (Psalm 78:24).
So Jesus tells them,
Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the Bread of Heaven, but it is My Father Who gives you the true Bread of Heaven; it's He who has come down out of Heaven to give Life to the World.
Then they said to Him, Lord, always give us this bread.
Jesus said, I am the Bread of Life. ...
(Read my blog entries of January 25 & 26, 2013 about, "Real Food And Real Drink," and "Nourishing My Real Life," for the basics on this.)
So those people grumbled about Jesus; they knew His parents and family, and who did He think He was, anyway!
When Jesus explained that the Bread of Life was His own body and blood, many of His disciples considered this too hard to understand, so they left Him.
So He asked The Twelve, "Are you going to leave, too?" And here's where we get Peter's wonderful confession, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the Words of Life eternal life. We have believed You, and we have learned that You are the Holy One of God.
Peter's statement shows the proper order: #1-believe; then, #2-see, come to know and understand.
We must first decide to believe whatever He would say to us, even if it doesn't make sense. Then, and only then, will we be able to come to understand the reasoning and logic of it all, how it all fits together sensibly.
All life is spiritual; when the spiritual part leaves a living thing, it is dead, whether it is a plant, an animal, or a person. The spirit of life in the Earth is what gives life to everything that lives. Ecclesiastes says that the spirit of life of the beast returns to the Earth, and the spirit of Man returns to God who gave it (3:21; 12:7).
God put a spirit of living into this Earth that produces all the living matter upon it (Genesis 1:11-12, 20, 24). But then God made Man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). So Mankind has more than the natural spirit of living, he also has a supernatural soul!
Only Mankind has a soul. So this soul is what gives us our intelligence, our will, and our ability to create ideas and communicate them to one another with language. We are creative, because we are made in the image and likeness of the Creator.
And only Mankind has a future beyond this Earth, because of his supernatural soul. Only Man will spend eternity with God or without Him. Living with God is eternal Life; living forever without Him is an eternal death.
To have the Life that will let us live forever, we need more than the food and drink this Earth provides--we need the food and drink that is spiritual. We need to nourish our bodies; we also need to nourish our spirits and souls.
Jesus explained this to His desciples. His words that He spoke, and that His prophets and evangelists wrote, is the spiritual nourishment we need for our spiritual life.
That is why I take such personal delight in studying Scripture--it is His Word, whether they are in red letters or black, they're all His love-letter to me.
O my Father, thank You so much for loving me so much! You know me, and yet You love me anyway! You have given me Your love-letter, and You have granted to me the intelligence and education to be able to understand so much of what You're telling us.
Thank You, Father, for allowing me to be able to share the wonderful things I am learning with others who are seeking You, also. May this missive help them to understand how wonderful and gracious You are, Father, and come to love You as I love you!
The more I learn of You and what You have done, and what You have planned for me; the more I am drawn to You. And the more I want others to know You, also.
Father, I look so eagerly to the culmination of this great Story of Scripture! I can hardly wait for all Your children to come to You and my Bridegroom/King returns to assume His Throne!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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