the real issue of giving us daily bread…

in looking at the phrases of the LORD’s prayer we start with focus on GOD and then JESUS encourages us to pray something like this matthew 6.11 (niv), give us today our daily bread. 

now why would we pray for more daily bread when most of us are trying to stop eating more bread?

here’s why.  because the issue is not really bread.  in fact, in these six words JESUS gives us some life lessons that will help us understand how to achieve inner peace in our lives. 

one thing we learn is to seek GOD as the answer to our needs. 

listen i start to worry every time i look at someone else other than GOD to meet my needs, so the path to inner peace begins by seeking GOD as the answer to my needs. 

picture it like this.  matthew 7.9-11 (nlt), you parents if your children ask for a loaf of bread do you give them a stone instead?  of course not.  or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?  absolutely not.  if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly FATHER give good gifts to those who ask HIM. 

now if you are a father, you understand these verses.  when brett and stef came into this world, they made me a father.  they are now adults and i am no longer responsible to meet their physical needs but i remember what it was like to do everything i could to meet their needs. 

and if that’s true of me an imperfect father with incomplete knowledge and limited resources how much more true is it of our heavenly FATHER who is all powerful?

just a thought from the front porch…

if you seek you will find…

if JESUS is the only way to GOD what about those who live in isolated places?  good question.  GOD hasn’t told us explicitly the answer but HE has given us enough clues that we can figure it out.  here is something we do know.

everyone has enough information from observing creation to know that GOD exists, but people reject GOD anyway.  romans 1:20-21 (niv), for since the creation of the world GOD’s invisible qualities – HIS eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse…  for although they knew GOD, they neither glorified HIM as GOD nor gave thanks to HIM.  

we have enough information from nature, from creation, to know HIS truth, yet we reject HIM.  that’s why we become separated from HIM. 

but, we also know from the bible that every person who sincerely seeks GOD will find HIM. 

jeremiah 29.13 (niv), you will seek ME and you will find ME when you seek ME with all of your heart.  the bible says it is the HOLY SPIRIT who first seeks us, making it possible for us in the first place to seek GOD. 

what does all of this mean?  what it means is that people anywhere in the world who respond to the understanding that they have and who earnestly seek after the one true GOD are going to find an opportunity in some way to receive the eternal life that GOD has graciously provided to JESUS CHRIST in HIM alone.                 

i read of a guy who grew up in india and he was in a hindu area where there were no CHRISTians.  he was mentored by gurus his whole life.  he was from an upper caste in india.  as he got to be a teenager he began to realized, just as ghandi realized, there are so many contradictions within hinduism.  ghandi actually wanted to edit out part of the hindu scriptures because he didn’t like the way they contradict each other.  this is what this kid thought.  he got to be about seventeen and said, “how can i believe that hinduism is true when it tells me things that contradict each other?”  so he began to reach out.  “i want to know YOU.  if YOU are there, i want to know the one true GOD.”  and in an amazing set of circumstances GOD brought into his life some CHRISTians who shared with him the message of JESUS CHRIST.  he received CHRIST as his forgiver and leader and he is now a very strong CHRISTian to this day.  this happens over and over again.

just a thought from the front porch…