One Small Seed Newsletter – Edition #239, February 2021
Greetings and blessings in Jesus’ name:
My one small seed for this month is taken from the Biblical book of St. John, chapter six and verse thirty-five: “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” KJV. In the gospel writings Jesus never told anyone how to do their natural job, nor did he deprive or dictate to them how to use their natural mind, but he was always telling, in speech and example, all things about God’s work through him. He said: This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he (God) has sent. This is critical for appreciating and enjoying the benefits of his presence. When He said that, He was speaking about the true essence of His Incarnate Word, His written word and the spoken word. Here in is: The Way, The Truth, and The Life, which works through every aspect of man’s existence. When Jesus said that he was the bread of life, he wasn’t referring to his natural body, but he was referring to His essence and the structure of that essence that emanates from His Being. So, instead of saying he raised people from the dead or he healed people of their illnesses, we could say he restored life.
The process of restoring life happens every day in the human body as we take in nutrients to refurbish our strength and the mending process. Our body is a war machine that combats every evil or poisonous germ, bacteria, virus, or disease that comes against it. And, lest we forget, there are many enemies that we fight in our spirit, mind, and soul which can be much worse than those of the body. The main reason for this is, where the body was created to have a propensity to heal itself (even when we are asleep) our mind, spirit, and soul must do this work while we are awake.
While it is very understandable how science works in our body, it is sometimes difficult to understand how science works with the spirit, soul, and mind when it has problems like depression, ignorance, propaganda (false teaching), anxiety and phobias of every sort. We can also add to this list negative affections, negative responses to these affections, lack of proper teaching of positive morality, negative interaction with immoral conduct, negative responses of our temperaments, a negative character and attitude and etc. Then in our spirit there is the war between good and evil, right and wrong and God and the world.
John 3:16 says that God so loved the world, which means that He went far beyond what he said in Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good”. This statement is made before Adam transgressed the will of God and was cast out of the pleasure of God. Of course, when the body and spirit went out of God’s pleasure, the soul had to leave also. Then John said, “For God so loved the world, that is the spirit and soul, that he sent His beloved offspring as a Way to Holy Life, if anyone should choose.
John the baptizer said in John 1:32 & 34 “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God”.
Then in John 6:33 Jesus said “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst”.
The essence of life and living lies within the bosom of God’s eternal truth. The essence of truth is what feeds our spirit, soul, and spiritual mind. This essence is called theology in our natural mind and it is this essence that gives us our new name “Christian”. This essence is what gives us a different temperament, personality, language, and hope. This essence is what makes us a new creature in Christ and what allows the old creature to die daily. By grace are we saved through faith; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.
Christianity is not a religion; it is the result of partaking of the essence of eternal life.
May God bless you my friend,
Rodney Roberts