I Am the Bread of Life
Pastor Bart at Flatland Church started a new sermon series this Sunday called “Truth.” It is going to be following 6 passages of John where Jesus says “I am the ….” If you want to hear his sermon (and several older series) you can go to the church’s web site www.flatlandchurch.com or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
This Sunday’s sermon was based on John 6 where Jesus says “I am the bread of life.” The main points of the sermon were:
- Come and Believe – We must believe Jesus is the “I AM” (see Exodus 3.14)
- Listen and Learn – We must also listen to God and learn from Him, through Bible study, Prayer, Fasting, through life coaches
- Eat and Drink – We must have a relationship w/ Him Totally. He must be Number One. To quote the church’s motto, “Our One Passion is a relationship with God that dramatically transforms every area of our lives.”
My Response
I have been challenged in several ways by the Holy Spirit. I think it can be summed up by saying I desire to live our church’s motto with a twist. I desire to have my One Passion dramatically transformed in my relationship with God.
I suppose sometimes I am a very intellectual Christian. My belief in God, His Son and in the Holy Spirit (see Apostles’ Creed) is unwavering but my life doesn’t always proclaim it. The first thing I need to do is to sit at Jesus’ feet, listen and learn.
I need to spend more time in scripture. I have a scripture reading program that was given to me by a wise elder pastor when I was a young pup. One reads the Old Testament one time a year, the New Testament twice a year and the Psalms twice a year. I may try to post the plan up on this site at some time. Many find reading the Bible hard and to read it through in one year very hard. I have no excuses. I can sit down and read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in a week and there are certainly more pages in those two books as there are in the Bible. Some people really have a hard time reading, and for them, an audio Bible may be the right answer. I had the Psalms on tape where not only was the Psalm read but appropriate music was played in the background and response music played occasionally after a Psalm. It was a magnificent experience listening while driving.
Now, when one reads the Bible, it should go slower than a novel since one needs to allow the Holy Spirit speak to you through the Scripture and then respond. It is a reason that reading only a few chapters a day is good many times – to allow us to consume what it says and respond. On the other hand, and this is always a challenge to us all, there are many books that were written as a whole and was intended to read in one sitting – for example, Paul’s letters to the churches. I challenge myself to not only dutifully read scripture but to allow it to speak to me, to always set aside enough time to not only read but to listen.
I need to spend more time in prayer. Pastor gave us an acronym for PRAY that I had not heard before and one I really like. P – praise, R – repent, A – ask, Y – yield. As he said, sometimes we act as if pray is spelled p-r-a for we don’t always yield to God. I desire to spend more time in prayer and maybe even more importantly, to “Pray without ceasing” – 1 Thes 5.17 & Eph 6.18
Finally, I am challenged to set aside a time to fast. Now, my wife knows I can accidently forget to eat a meal or two. I eat begrudgingly when I am hungry although I love to cook. But eating itself is a waste of time. As such, a food fast may not be the best type of fast for me unless it is over an extended period of time. I do believe that a food fast is symbolically very good. It symbolizes our trust in God, that He will sustain us even when we don’t have food. As such, I will do a food fast but I think maybe what I also need to do is a “technology” fast. Take all the time I spend on the computer playing games and dedicate it to God. I think an extended period of time like a week or two would be needed since I can easily … well, I think easily walk away from my computers for a couple days.