SLICE of BREAD and a KIND WORD

A Slice of Bread and a Kind Word

I went this past Saturday as I usually do to the Great Harvest Bread Company. Going there has become a ritual that my taste buds look forward to. I love bread and bread loves me and so it seems do the people there.

They love what they do and their enthusiasm for life reaches out to everyone who walks in through the door. They remind me of the old movie of Robin Hood, they are the Merry Men of the Forest. Or, they are the Happy Elves of Santa’s Workshop.

The place is all smiles and everyone has a kind word as they share a slice of bread with you…free of charge…just so you get a taste to enjoy.

These seemingly simple people earn their hourly wage selling bread for a living.
I wonder what kind of existence that possibly can be?

Don’t they know that there is much more to life than selling bread and sharing their enthusiasm and joy with everyone who comes to their table?

You see they are in love with their work providing bread for all who come in.

Do you smell something Biblical here?

You see God has asked each of us to both share a slice of bread…the living bread of life and to share a kind word…the word of life …HIS Word…with all those who come to our table.

If we do, then He has promised us Joy and Smiles as we live our lives in Honor of the One who gave us Life before the foundations of the world were ever made.

Who is this Bread of Life that we are to share with those who are hungry and come to our table?

If you have not succumbed to the disease of political correctness by referring to the coming season as a “Holiday”… If you know the Reason for The Season… If you understand that this holiday is really a celebration of The HOLY ONE who came to us on This HOLY Day, and you are not ashamed to speak His Name. Then you know the Bread of Life is Jesus.

Are you aware that Jesus, the Bread of Life, was born in the city of Bethlehem? Were you aware that the word Beth…Lehem in Hebrew is translated the City of Bread, so that Jesus the Bread of Life was born in the City of Bread.

This is but one of hundreds of prophetic details that come together between the Old and New Testament to reveal the identity and person of the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God…. the Christ of Christmas.

So God asks you to share a slice of life giving bread with those who come to your table during this CHRISTmas HOLYday. The only way you can do this is to speak on behalf of the one who bought you with His own blood on the Cross.

Tell them your story of coming to faith in HIM.

When you do this your very words will speak life to them; for their faith will only come through hearing the life giving words of God through your lips.

God has armed each of us that believe in Him with a slice of bread and a kind word to share with those we love. There is one more point to this little story. The reason has to do with the name of the company that makes the bread that I love.

It’s the word HARVEST. Truly, Truly…the harvest is ripe all around you. The need is everywhere and the workers of the harvest have always been few. But, if you are one of them, He is now One with You. There is nothing you cannot achieve with the Lord of Hosts on your side, when you speak of HIM.

So go to the Great Harvest Bread Company, tell them Ernie sent you. Buy some bread and prepare your kind words. Then call someone over to your house this Christmas and make some coffee, and as you both sit down share the bread and the words of life with them face to face.

God will honor your attempt to speak for HIM and you will feel the joy of His presence in your heart and the touch of HOLY angels wings on your cheek as they put a protective hedge around the two of you; as the Holy Spirit whispers their name.

“ETERNITY stepped into TIME and MANNA (the bread of Heaven) came to earth to be the Bread of Life, as EMANUEL (God With Us), was born in the Flesh in
BETHLEHEM (the City of Bread).”

Ernie
In HIM I found me

This ZOO called EARTH

This ZOO Called EARTH

The last exhibit was in the House of Penguins. I had seen them many years ago. This was going to be a highlight for me. And indeed it turned out to be just that as the first little fellow ran towards us in greeting with his little HAPPY FEET.

The sign said there were 17 distinct Penguin specie represented in their KIND. I stopped to think how many ethnic groups God had made out of Adam and Eve.

The terrain in the Penguin House was rough considering they had no legs …only feet and bodies like bowling pins with tiny appendages for wings. Yet they scaled their man made mountain with craggy peaks by jumping.
Elyse and I watched as some lost their balance and fell. It was hard work for them to get anywhere within their landscaped habitat.

As we rounded the other side of the exhibit, to our surprise there were about 50 Penguins surrounding a man with food in his hands. I watched as some came right up to him; as others seemed indifferent and disinterested in the food. Then there were others who were out further to which the man tossed fish to reach them because they could not draw close to him.

Two things came to mind as I watched the trainer feed the Penguins. The first was that He was not standing up towering among them. He was sitting down among them almost at eye level. He reached into the bucket to get one fish at time. Then he fed one Penguin at a time as they gently came to him unafraid.

Then I was reminded of the story of Jesus as He fed the 5,000 while preaching the words of eternal life to them. Feeding not only their stomachs but their souls.

This was Almighty God who came down from Heaven to become a Holy Human Embryo that became a child, who became a Man to walk about HIS Creation among Creatures that He created; to be among them…at eye level.

He came with an individual word of life for each one of us…to feed us personally. If we but reach out and take His Gift of Life that He extends toward us with His own hand we will never again be hungry or thirsty… forever.

This Zoo was not the way God intended His animals to live. The animals were sad, and Elyse and I were sad too. As the rain continued to fall, it seemed like the tears of God were flowing everywhere over the Zoo as God was saddened by what mankind had done to HIS Creation because of their Sin.

Some of us are like the disinterested Penguins that stand off to the sides not caring about HIM or the food He will provide us. Others further out hunger for the food and so He throws out the SEED of HIS GOSPEL along the Narrow Road to HEAVEN so that the FEW will be drawn all the way in to the foot of HIS Cross and accept HIS personal gift to you; your citizenship papers that will let you into HIS Kingdom of Light to live in Heaven forever with HIM.

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