Bread
Of Life
The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies
never cease. Great is his faithfulness; His mercies
begin afresh each morning.... Lamentations 3 v 22-23
Reading the Book of Luke my attention was drawn to the
account where Jesus met the widow who had just lost her
son. Luke 7 11-17...“And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her, and said unto her ‘weep not’”…
It was the word compassion that really struck me.
Jesus had compassion on this woman. She was now faced
with yet another great loss; her son. Her grief must
have been more than she could bear. Jesus is always
in places where compassion is needed.
Compassion is described in the dictionary as sympathy,
humanity, kindness, mercy, pity, sorrow tenderness and
understanding.
Here we see Jesus’ humanity displaying compassion.
Here we see the heart of Jesus at work, not just for mere
show, even though he was surrounded by his disciples and
multitudes of people. Jesus had genuine compassion upon the
widow’s great loss not only because she had lost her
husband, because He would have known, but now her only son.
Jesus spoke to her ‘weep not’.
Oh the sweet joy when Jesus speaks to our heartfelt needs
for they are healing in themselves and personal too!
How often do you when you see someone distressed say ‘don’t
cry, please don’t cry’. It is a humane genuine
heartfelt reaction of love. For yes, those with love
in their hearts it is natural as breathing to provide
comforting words and actions. Jesus in all His glory
had compassion. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life and
raised this woman’s son, her only son back to life. The
people were amazed, mainly exclaiming ‘Who is this man that
he can even raise people from the dead?’ Many today
are only interested in the spectacular miracles that Jesus
can perform and yes indeed He can perform them but His
heart is love and Jesus did not separate the two.
They went and should go hand in hand. Yes the
greatest gift of all is Love. God is Love.
But what is also equally important is the way is which
Jesus teaches us about demonstrating compassion. God
is full of compassion and mercy. Compassion also
means humane so here we see the humanity of God in Jesus,
the Son of God.
As I was walking the dog one evening I was drawn to go down
to the beach. I do not do this often in the summer as
it is normally so very busy with holiday makers but for
some unknown reason felt led to go, much to the delight of
my dog. Oh how she likes to run through the waves it
brings joy and laughter and mends my crushed sprit.
It was getting quite dark by now and I happened to bump
into a family who were down on a holiday break for a couple
of weeks. As I got chatting to this lady, (having a
dog is a great ice breaker especially if they love
animals!), it turned out her husband and son had just
been made redundant and they had also just lost their dog.
My heart went out to her. I listened to all that was
going on in their lives, their anxieties and loss of their
dog. It also turned out that her job was that of a
Care Giver. She takes meals around to elderly ladies,
probably widows, who cannot get out. She was saying
as part of their job description they are now not allowed
to stop and chat. I was shocked!
She told me on one particular occasion she broke this rule
so moved with compassion for one particular elderly lady
she visited. She stopped to keep her company, have a
cup of tea and chat. She knew the loneliness of this
lady and cared enough to know that she so needed someone
just to be with her. It turned out she went to church
and a natural opening of conversation was shared between us
of my faith and love in Jesus. The words from the
Holy Spirit came to my mind just at that time and I spoke
them to her about how in the last days the love of most
will become cold.
Yes a basic human natural concern of compassion is being
driven out by the very professions that should provide not
just food but love and care; for this is food in itself.
It brings fresh understanding to Jesus’ words ‘I am
the Bread of Life’. The feeding of our souls. For the
human spirit can endure a sick body but who can bear a
crushed spirit. Jesus is the Bread of Life and we too
are also, if we belong to Him, are to give His Bread out to
whom He sends us to. Jesus warns the church through
the Book of Revelation about the results of becoming
indifferent, tepid and half-hearted.
“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor
cold. I wish that you were one or the other!
But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor
cold, I will spit you out of my mouth”…. Revelation 3 v
15-16
Let us as Christians be the hands and mouthpieces of Jesus
Christ loving our neighbors as ourselves. Yes having
entertained strangers could well have been angels
themselves.
Sometimes it can just be a smile, sometimes a sharing of
our faith, listening for He knows our limits and we all
have different gifts but it is the same Holy Spirit; it
brings joy and healing to our hearts too. One of the
attributes of the Holy Spirit is kindness and goodness; let
us shine like beacons in this dark world. We may be
the only light this person sees that day, or month or even
year. Yes let us carry the Light of Jesus Christ.
Let us not hide our Light for Jesus under a bush or away in
a cupboard where no man can see it. Giving just a cup of
cold is giving the River of Life of Jesus and those that
give it will certainly not lose their reward.
Writer Author Jacqui Julyan
http://www.worthfinding.com/writers-authors/author-writer.aspx?theAID=1132
About the
Writer Author
State: Cornwall
Country: England
Email:JAnnJulyan@gmail.com