Bread

By Odon Bulamba

 

Jesus said, “Father give to us our daily bread”.  Why didn’t he ask for a monthly bread, or weekly or yearly?  Our lives day after day depends on God.  Bread doesn’t only mean what we eat or see but it means the signs of life.  Bread means food but before to become food it is a plant.  The plant is turned into flour.  The flour is mixed with water and sometimes yeast added.  The ingredients then must be baked.  If I take some wheat flour and put it on a plate with a glass of water and put a fire there and ask you to now eat, you will say, “this is not food” because you can’t eat wheat by itself. 

 

Bread is really tasty.  It takes time to make bread.  When I was a child I used to bake a lot and I would steal some wheat and oil from my mother’s kitchen and take it into the bush. I would make my own bread hiding in the bush because my mum wouldn’t let me bake because according to my culture only women can bake.

 

The colour of the outside is different to the colour of the inside of the bread.  There are two different colours.  The outside is in contact with the heat from the fire (or oven) and becomes the colour of that the wheat plant is initially which is a golden colour.  The inside remains white.  The outside gets a little bit burnt but the inside remains intact.  When Jesus broke the bread, He told people, “Take this, this is my body”. 

 

Some versions say, He broke it and then blessed it but other versions say he blessed it and then broke it.  We are the body of Christ, maybe Ange is the leg, Robbie the arm etc.  All together we make up that body and when Jesus rose up His hands and broke it, He wasn’t saying He is breaking Himself.  He was saying, “I am breaking you in Me because whoever sees you will see Me in you”.  This reminds us that God said at the beginning, let us make man in our image.  Once you are broken, God continues to pray for you (HOLY SPIRIT will intercede for you).

 

When you are saved, he breaks you and tells people to eat you.  You are the food for others: your actions and your words will make people to be fed spiritually.  How can I become a bread for others? 

Wheat is a plant and easy to grow.  You are a plant that God uses.  God looks at the life inside the plant.  The plant has a role to collect food and feed the branches.  It will collect from the soil and suck the food and feed the plant.  The roots will bring it to the trunk that will take it to the branches and then flowers and then fruit.  If the roots say no, then the plant will die.  When Jesus says I break you it means for you to become a servant to feed others and if you say no, those people will starve to death, they will die from lack of knowledge.

 

Ex 12: Moses was given a mission to help the Israelites to leave Egypt.  Wouldn’t you be proud to lead all these millions people out of Egypt?  Everyone likes to be a leader.  But to look after millions of people is a big job especially when you can’t look after your own family.  Moses couldn’t look after his own family.  His wife was doing work that Moses was supposed to do.  God said regardless of your weaknesses, you will take my people out of Egypt.

 

God knows your weaknesses but His purpose is for you to lead His people.  Moses came up with a good excuse, “whenever I speak I stutter and people laugh”.  God said, “you have to go”.  Very often I present my excuses to God.  I tell God, “not today, what about tomorrow”.  Excuses can take us far.  God said to Moses go and God chose Aaron to walk with Moses. 

 

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh on nine occasions and each time God was turning Aaron and Moses down.  Pharaoh refused to listen.  Moses would perform miracles and still Pharaoh would not give up.  Sometimes God sends you places and then puts a barrier there to see how you react.  You ask, “God why didn’t it work”.  God tells you, “I’m baking you because you were wheat and water and I’m the fire and this is the cooking process and cooking is a long process and takes time”.

Nine times they went back and finally God said, Aaron and Moses this is now your first month – start to count it from today.  God changed the calendar.  God can change your plan and you were thinking to do something in 2012 and you don’t get it.  You can think about ideas but only God can make it happen. 

 

Moses and Aaron had to go to all the families and ask them to slaughter a lamb and put the blood around the door frame.  Pick up animal blood and put it around the house – what will your neighbour say?  The role of the door is to come in and out.  What leads your body?  Your mouth, nose, ears, eyes, feelings? Someone can become angry and punch the door so the outside will reflect the inside.  That is the door that God said to paint with blood. 

 

The role of the blood to purify and sanctify.  Repentance should be at the frame door of your mouth, ears, eyes or wherever there is a danger for sin to come in.  God is reminding us that if we don’t put blood there, God will come down and any house without blood, He will kill the first born.  The first born is Jesus.  Maori culture respects the first born because they are the representative of the family and they are there to teach the family.

 

When my father died, I was given His clothes because I am the first born.  Jessica (my youngest sister) calls me father because I am the first born.  Every first born child and animal of every family will be killed without the blood on the door frame. To kill the lamb was not enough.  Jesus dying for us was not enough if we don’t apply His blood on our door frames.  My door according to Revelations 20 is the heart.  If you hear the knock, you can open and let Him in.  The door of your heart should be painted with blood of Jesus.

 

Jesus said, “This is my blood, drink it”.  There are around 4000 components in blood.  Four major things: red, white cells, plasma, platelets.  When you cut yourself you can see blood coming out but platelets will be alerted and they run to secure the position in the body of the person to protect them.  Some of our brothers are getting lost.  Blood is supposed to be in the body. The platelets are very quick thinking.  Platelets will run. 

 

If you are hurt in your arm, you will hold firmly there to stop the blood being lost.  Platelets will say, praise the Lord we can act now and they will start to make the blood coagulate.  The blood flow will stop while the platelets are very small.  However, it won’t work if you don’t put a tourniquet around the arm so the platelets can work. 

 

In the event of anything, pray to God, “this is my problem, I am hurt, there is a cut over here, I am holding it”.  How many times do people wound you?  You hear words that shock you and you lose control.  Is your mind painted with blood of Jesus? When you see the power bill, you become angry or you become worried.  Is your mouth painted with the blood of Jesus? You can say yes I’m saved, I have Jesus in my life, He has paid the price for me, but you need to paint the blood on all the entries of your body and your heart.

 

Jesus said, “Take this wine” and they drank like you and I this morning and when we drank the grape juice for communion.  Jesus said, “remember me”.  How often do you remember about the blood circulating in your body? You don’t think about it.  You have no idea but Jesus said to remember that blood that was given to you.  How often do you remember that Jesus died for you?  When I have an accident, I remember but do I remember His blood which means that every step we make we should think about the cleanliness of our heart.  Is my heart clean?  If Jesus comes back now, am I really clean, am I ready to go?  When I see something, is it really important for me to see this? Am I really ready and clean if Jesus comes now?  It’s only when I cross hardship that I remember Jesus. 

When we were taking communion this morning, not many people took the outside part of the bread.  Most took the inside because the inside is soft while the outside is tough and maybe people were worried what had touched the outside (a fly?).  This reminds us that the outside of our bodies is always burnt by the fire but our soul and spirit is not attacked. 

 

A blessing will start with your body.  You feel like stealing, the thought will come first by your eyes and sends the message inside that what you are seeing looks good.  Then your legs move and your hands take it.  Your conscience will tell you, “No I don’t want to think about the blood of Jesus.  Be away from me God.” Then you thank God because no one caught me and now I have what I wanted.  I have heard of armed robbers praying before going to steal.

 

Your body will go through fire and will change the colour of your body.  When your body is burning with the desire, do you stand firm in Jesus? When you have blessings and all that God allows, do you stand firm in Jesus?

 

When I was a child I was sent to buy bread and a list of other items but my mother insisted that I should not forget the bread.  I bought butter milk instead of butter and milk and then I saw yoghurt and bought it for me and I thought I’ll throw away the receipt so my mum won’t know.  When I got home, my mother asked, “Where is the bread?”  That’s when I woke up.  I told my mother, “I can go back’.  But I knew in my heart the money was used.  I went back to shop with intention to steal the bread.  God was so good, when I walked in to the shop and walked over to the bread, I looked left and right and when I put my hand on top of the shelf to pull the bread, the man on other side said, “Hi son”.  I left it. 

 

I came back to try again and then heard a whistle, so I left it again.  Then I tried for a third time.  When I took bread, this little lady asked me, “Who are you buying this for, let’s walk together”.  I thought, “Why is everybody after me?”  This lady knew I was stealing and she told me, never steal anymore.  I came home crying?  I told my mother I was sorry.  To steal was the sin but I forgot about my actions and I thought my plan was good and that I was more clever than God. 

 

When we sin, we think we are clever because no one will see me and it’s fine and I’m enjoying it.  We have to stand firm in our sin.  We are gold and when we go through fire, we will never burn.  So stand firm in the fire.  In a physical fire, our body would get seriously burnt and we would need to go to hospital.  For temptation there is no hospital but we have to persevere.  That is all you can do even if you call 111 for God, He will tell you persevere.  When you go through hardship, people run from you and leave you alone and that is the hardest time in life to find yourself abandoned and when you tell them the people, they believe you are a complainer.

 

I watched this movie called Shrek.  A character on that movie was a donkey, and he could talk.  Shrek became annoyed and told him, “stop it donkey”.  Sometimes your problems will not interest other people, it will sound just like a cymbal in their ears.  When people don’t have time to listen to you, praise God and ask him to help you persevere.

 

Jesus said, “My time is arrived where My body will be given and My blood seen”.  All the disciples ran away.  He was tortured for many hours where He was alone and He had to endure.  Sometimes people tell you persevere but you feel that you can’t take it anymore.  Their encouragement to persevere will become a discouragement.  Jesus told us that sometimes you call God for help and He won’t answer or intervene at that time.  As Jesus said, “Why have You have forsaken me,” He is asking God, where are You? 

 

Your problems will sometimes make you doubt God exists, “where is He, I can’t see Him, He doesn’t answer my problem”.  That is the way God is baking you to make your inside soft and edible.  You go through difficult times (fire) so your body gets the proper heat and then everyone will choose your inside.  People will say, “He is a nice guy” about you.

 

If people described you in two words, you might be shocked.  Some will hammer you while you believe you are a good person because they only see the outside which is not well cooked.  When you are cooking bread and the bread is not ready, if you put your finger on the bread, it will go through the bread because it is not well cooked.  Yet, if the outside accepts to get burnt by the fire then all will be perfect on the inside.  But we don’t want that.  We want the inside to get cooked so the outside can look beautiful.  God allows temptations on the outside. 

 

If you are given money you will be happy and call it a blessing.  But money can sometimes be a curse.  Apreacher was saying he got $140M and IRD asked for tax, the bank needed insurance. You have money but you have to pay for money again.  The more money I have, the more I lose.  The money decreased while he wasn’t even using it.  Money is not a blessing.

 

God gave us a soul to look after.  The only way to be ready on day of resurrection is to accept your body to go through fire.  If you can’t say no to satan or temptation and you can’t persevere, then your soul will perish.  That will be your responsibility. 

 

Many people when they eat bread will use jam.  Some will use honey or margarine.  They will believe bread requires something else.  Sometimes those things will make the bread lose its taste.  You can have your soul and body and when you add on top of it, it will start to lose taste and God who sees the inside will start to worry.  That’s when you hear people say, “In my church we don’t believe the Old Testament is a part of the Word of God.  The Old Testament is only for the old time.” Yet the New Testament says that God is the same God that is there yesterday, today and forever.  Some people will say according to my culture, or God will understand, I’m human but God also understands He created you in His image and you are His son/daughter.

 

Ange, if I were to tell you to give me the life of your daughter or give me a bag of jewellery, what would you answer. You’ll give me the bag of jewellery because you love your child.  God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us. He had a choice between keeping Jesus and saving the world.  Look how big God’s love is to give His only son to die for you.  When you speak to God, you tell Him to shut up you are busy.  Our lives are very short and we are called to look after our bread.  My body is small and easy to manage.  If you decide not to sin, you won’t.  If you decide to read bible, you will read it.  When people are sick in hospital they will make effort to listen to God.  Do you make yourself listen to God or do you tell him you are too tired?