Give Us This Day...

Good morning!

I suddenly remembered last night that I had signed up to bring a "baked good" for the youths' bake sale at church today.  Fortunately I had the ingredients on hand to make a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread, in the bread machine.  It takes that appliance about 3 hours to make the loaf, however.  So, I was up late.

Then, the alarm was about to go off this morning at the usual time, and out of consideration for the Hubster, I turned it off about 3 minutes before.  You guessed it - - - 45 minutes later...

So, I am not given the luxury of time this morning to go on a "digging deep" mission into the Scriptures.  When I did wake up, though, I had the phrase from The Lord's Prayer running through my head:  "Give us this day our daily bread".  Wonder why!

That loaf of cinnamon bread smells so good, and it is beautiful.  I am so excited about contributing to my community of faith in this small way.  It is a wondrous and beautiful thing when I (frequently) observe the senior adults and the youth, working together.

The other day, I saw some pictures of our senior men constructing a carpet-covered game thingie for the youth to use in outreach.  It is used to play some kind of lawn game, I think.  The point is that the men generously gave of their time and expertise to help the younger believers.  What a joy!

These are things that grow and nurture the Body of Christ, the fellowship of believers.

"Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it."

2 Cor. 12:27

Jesus Himself is our daily bread.  This is why I routinely eat from His Word and break bread with you in this blog.  His words are Spirit and they are Life!  In Matthew 4:4, Jesus said,

"Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

Do we feed our bodies and not our Spirits?  Or, rather, do we feed our Spirits "junk food"?

I've got to stop now and get ready to go to church.  What a privilege to be among my brothers and sisters, the people of God!  In Sunday School and worship service, I know that I will be "fed".  My pastor and SS teacher are men of God who diligently study and then "feed the flock".  The members, likewise, feed each other.  The bread I'll carry today is testimony to that, both physically and spiritually.  I am excited to lead in worship today, to help those there to worship Jesus do just that!

I hope that, if you do not have a place to receive your spiritual bread and give it, you will look around and find such a place, where the Word of God is preached and taught with accuracy and power.

Good morning, Lord!  You know it is another one of those crazy, hectic Sunday mornings, getting ready for church.  I thank you for my Daily Bread, my Savior, whose Name is above every Name.  I am eager to worship at Your feet today, with my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I pray for the services this morning, the first of which has just begun.  May every person ministering to others this morning, whether they be teachers, singers, players, preacher, greeters, parking crew, nursery workers, maintenance staff - - - please bless each of these with a huge infilling of Your Holy Spirit to do the tasks we are privileged to do.  In all things, I pray that my Lord Jesus will have the preeminence, the glory, the PRAISE!  In His glorious name, amen.